Born Beautiful is Cignal Entertainment's first offering for the year and if there's no saying yet that 'If you can't start you year right, at least start it beautiful' then there should be one and you can start your year beautifully with this movie.
The sequel to the wildly successful 'Die Beautiful' was originally to be a 12-part TV series to be aired on Cignal's platform but instead was made into a full-length film which follows Trisha's sidekick Barbs (filled in nicely by Martin Del Rosario) as she tries to make sense of her life after going through the deaths of two of her friends and whether the life she's living is the right one for her. Joining her in her journey are Lou Veloso as the effervescent Mama Flora, Kiko Matos and Akihiro Blanco as Barbs' lovers and Chai Fonacier as the "wildcard."
Born Beautiful tackles the controversies of undergoing conversion therapy (a law was passed just hours ago banning them in NY) and polyamorous relationships (it's not for everyone but it works for others), which is brilliant considering gays, most notably transgenders have been told over the years that they are unlovable and the only way they can be loved is if money is involved. This movie is telling us that that's not the only way and they don't have to settle. At this time when it's easy to spread hate (fake news, bullying, etc.,) why not love as many as you can (in varying forms and degrees) for how can you go wrong with love?
As with the first installment, this one also elicited reactions from people who were obviously uncomfortable with some of the scenes, most notably the kissing between two male actors. This in turn made me feel uncomfortable which reinforces the stigma that LGBT shouldn't publicly display their affection, that only straight people are allowed to do that. That we should censor ourselves so as not to offend others in order to be accepted by society at large. That way, the old one, reinforces the need to be "acceptable" at our expense. What this movie does is it pushes us back out into the light, telling us not to hide anymore. If the first movie's theme was asking for acceptance, this time around we're taking it, that we're here, we're queer and we will not live in fear because not everyone will die beautiful, but everyone was born beautiful and deserves to live beautiful.
