Even if a queer drama is about struggle, it shouldn’t require great effort to watch. “Beauty,” an ‘80s-set period piece about a young singer’s conflicts with her sexuality, race, and family strife, feels labored and wary before the film hits its second reel. “Beauty” telling the story of a young starlet on the cusp of fame is not a unique one.
While it often places its lesbian relationship centrally in the narrative, any commentary on the difficulty of such a relationship, especially involving people of color, adds very little freshness to the proceedings.
Read more on theplaylist.net