Beauty & the Beholder

Thus film is fairly on point with narcissism. It speaks volumes to about how society is so focused on perception and not what's inside. I will admit I was a bit thrown off when I saw straight snorting coke scenes but other than that it was a decent movie.

This indie micro budget film, is probably one of the most creative stories I've seen this year! Beauty and the Beholder, follows the story of a Plastic surgeon who chooses artificial enhancement over natural beauty. Brilliant film! Although the film does suffer from some budget deficiencies, it makes up for it with a gritty cinematography and interesting characters. I would recommend this film.

Dr. Joseph Nieman the central figure of the story and its narrator is a plastic surgeon of great acclaim but has toxic beliefs about beauty that he sometimes (most of the time) carelessly unloads onto his patients. As the movie proceeds he realizes his insecurities caused by his childhood and proceeds to work on them when he meets a woman who refuses his sales pitch of plastic surgery and stars to like her for showing him a mirror and making him reflect about what he is doing wrong. He works on his insecurities and hopes that with her by his side he can battle them with ease ,but all too soon realizes that life is never that easy.

One of the main themes of this movie is beauty and how toxic it has become in the view of society feeding on the insecurities of individuals and how this has become a profitable opportunity for a few. I personally come from an environment where natural beauty is very valued but people around me are of various cultures and beliefs so everyone around me holds a very different perception of beauty from each other. The only reason I find any one around me is unsatisfied with their looks is because they get easily influenced by social media etc. And are unable to realize that no one other than themselves in real life really cares about how they look, the movie made me realize how deep a persons simple insecurity can run if they are not made aware of this fact like Stella.

The movies end is quite ambiguous and as I didn't quite understand it iIinterpret the movie in a light I want to see it in which is, optimistic.

Okay. This movie.. It actually really does have a great message. If you are going to watch it, I recommend you ignore pretty much all of the first act. I spent the entire time watching the first 20 minutes or so, rolling my eyes and "ugh"ing. BUT, the second half left me pretty invested in the main characters growth and the love story developing. I wish we had a lot more of this in the movie. The movie is very very VERY low budget. But I think it was done okay.

Critiques: I don't think the movie needed the vulgar or soft p**n scenes, it added nothing to the story. I skipped them actually. I didn't care for the twist at the end. I would have rather the story just went on as it was going.

Other than that, I felt that the main character went from very hated in my mind to rooting for his growth and change. And that's a very good thing. I just wish he would have been better to the people around him. Especially Alana. And that we had more closure than what was given (his addiction, why did he receive the glass, what now for Lana and him?, what are the details of his life now?)

The story was different and good. The acting was solid enough to carry the story. I love the direction. It started out as a comedy with a dr who didn't care about anything besides making money and shaping women the way he thought they should be but it all changed when he found the woman who wasn't buying his BS. The twist at the end was great. Don't want to give to much away lol