July 2, 2021
Angel Cabagin (Ella Cruz) has been chosen to be the candidate of the College of Tourism in the Miss Fairtown University Pageant 2021. She was an unexpected choice because she is an indigenous Aeta girl with dark skin, curly hair, flat nose, and 4'4" height. Ever since she was a child, Angel knew she was not pretty in the typical sense, but she has embraced to love her own color, and was excited and confident to join the pageant.
Angel lived with her uncle Tsong Goliath (Juliana Parizcova Segovia), who worked as a janitor at Fairtown to raise her. He who had always been living in insecurity, not only because he was an Aeta, but also because he was a closet homosexual. He knew the risks Angel faced if she pushes through with joining the contest, and was afraid to let her join, fall flat on her face and receive flak for her boldness and skin color.
Of course, there are people working against Angel's pageant dreams, led by Lovely Perfecto, the candidate from the College of Business Arts, and her two bitchy friends, Desire (Jobelyn Manuel) and Alexandrei (Michael Catindig). They even connived with Angel's crush Bambino (Marco Gallo), planning to prank Angel big time on pageant day. Will Ella cave under their cruel bullying, or will she continue Tourism's 7-year winning streak?
This production had received a lot of negative reactions even before its showing, following the announcement that it was going to be Ella Cruz who will play the lead role of the spirited Aeta girl, Angel. In the film industry all over the word, there is now a call for authenticity in casting roles of minorities, real minority actors should play them. In the 2016 film 'Paglipay" (MY REVIEW), a true-blue Aeta farmer Gary Cabalic was boldly cast in the lead role, and he wound up winning the Best Actor award in that festival.
Controversial choice or not, Ella Cruz gave an effective and winsome performance as Angel, even if she had to have that darkening make-up all over her body or wear that wig of messy curls on her head. Cruz was able to convey her strength of character borne out of years of bullying, and the doubts she faced now that her pageant dreams were coming true. Casting a real Aeta girl as Angel is ideal, but being the lead character in a Vincentiments comedy of brazen language and over-the-top delivery, an inexperienced actor may not cut it.
The film opened with a particularly harsh scene where a religion teacher (Cristina Gonzalez) berated young Angel that a dark-skinned girl like her cannot play an angel in the Christmas program. Yes, there were brutal name-calling against Angel, but these are wicked words we hear in real life spoken to refer to dark-skinned people. In all of his prior projects, including the four before this one this year alone, writer-director Darryl Yap's style is to shock his audiences to make a point, and I believe he did quite well here in that regard. 6/10.
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