This indie is so...NAKAKALOKA! Catch it and all your worries will wither away!
Tired of losing all the beauty competitions in their hometown Davao, six dysfunctional gay beauty pageant veterans travel north to Cagayan De Oro with a single mission: to conquer the grandest competition of beauty and brains in the whole province. They figure the small town gays will never stand a chance against big city boys like them.
As they travel through the breathtaking landscape and cultural vignettes of rural Mindanao, each character struggles to win just a single title, while also battling their own inner demons.
Blinded by their belief of in the power of their so-called "beauty", they still have to prove to themselves that whether on or off the stage, beauty doesn't come in packages wrapped in foundation, mascara, eyeliners and witty beauty pageant answers. Their travels will bring them back to the basic of themselves and of each other. And what they will discover about themselves may just teach them that being a run-away loser is not ugly after all.
THANK YOU GIRLS is a deviation from how Filipinos define a gay film: it is not tragic, it is not sad, it is not centered on sex. In fact, I think this film captures what Filipino gay culture is all about...it is all about being funny, being funnier and being funniest.
Humor is the discriminator of Filipino gay life. Yes, their lives may be sad (just like Europeans and Americans depict gayness in their films), but Filipino gay men learned to ground those sorrows by putting a layer of humor above their foundation creams. Plastic as they may appeat...but no one can deny that they are fun to be with.
The execution of the film is not bad either. Charliebebs Gohetia crafted the nono-linear story telling flawlessly. For PULP FICTION enthusiasts, you'll get nostalgic while watching THANK YOU GIRLS. The cinematography was good as well. The color-grading was almost perfect, giving the film a hint of "orange" to depict Mindanao's humid weather. But since the film is queer, splashes of colors were evident as well (like the tela hanging from their "gay" jeepney named Char...how gay can it get!).
The success of the film, I think, was with the screenplay. Kudos to the writer for capturing the "gayest of the gayest" moments in a beauty pageant. The Q&A's were hilarious...it made me spew Coke through my nostrils. The screenplay was also able to splice in real gay issues and dramas to the grandeur and extravagance of each gay beauty pageant. And that proves my point...Filipino gay life is the most colorful and "plastic" in the world.
If you want to laugh...watch all of these: