Less mugging and distracting ‘styling’ for Maine

MENDOZA. Invitation to self-delusion.MENDOZA. Invitation to self-delusion.

MAINE MENDOZA may not be interested in “constructive” notes on her debut film performance in “My Bebe Love.” —After all, she won the MMFF’s best supporting actress award, besting some acclaimed veterans.

But, on the off chance that she really wants to become a good movie actress for the long term, she could consider these observations:

Despite her acting trophy, the new film actress did not come up with an “awardable” portrayal as Vic Sotto’s darling daughter in Joey Reyes’ film. On the plus side, she sometimes came off as natural and endearing.

Most of the time, however, she “mugged” too much for the camera, in her effort to be “lively, funny and entertaining.” We know that this is the sort of thing she does on her hit TV show, but the movie screen is way larger than TV, so her mugging is “over” for the movie screen’s purposes and requirements.

In addition, Maine has insufficient understanding of and appreciation for what characterization is all about. In “My Bebe Love,” she just plays a minor and more glammed-up variation on her Yaya Dub TV persona.

If she wants to be a really good actress, she has to understand that just playing herself is limiting and eventually boring, so she must create another person different from herself.

If she understood the character assigned to her, she wouldn’t feel obliged to “push” her performance to an artificially “fun” level.

Instead, she would “find” in the character the natural vitality and “truth” that would move and delight viewers.

Essence

“Pushed” acting would no longer be needed, because the character’s “found” essence would be the element that would effect the all-important connection with viewers.

It would also be good for Maine to worry about how she was “styled” in “My Bebe Love,” with excessive makeup that made her look not as freshly pretty as she really is. In fact, in some shots, she looked overly glammed up, with “hyper” hairstyles and chunky accessories adding to the problem.

As the film’s resident ingenue, Maine needed to come off as fresh, delightful and light, not hot and sultry from too much makeup and “packaging”—especially on closeup!

This “hot and mugging on closeup” projection was dead wrong for her, a major distraction that made us wonder if the MMFF jurors and our viewing party were watching the same film!

Oh, well, the MMFF has missed the mark before. Our concern is mostly for Maine, that she doesn’t get the wrong ideas and believe that she did well as a film actress, with her trophy as “proof.”

That invitation to self-delusion would be really sad, because she can do much better—if she admits to and solves her (hopefully temporary) thespic distractions and limitations!