VIVAMAX is launching so many new stars to make sure they have their regular weekly supply of fresh content.
Among the many stars they’re giving one project after another, two of the most promising for us as competent actresses are Cindy Miranda and Kylie Versoza, both former beauty queens.
Cindy has had four releases so far: “Adan”, “Nerissa”, “House Tour” and “My Husband, My Lover”.
Kylie has also had four releases: “The Housemaid”, “Bekis on the Run”, the series “Parang Kayo Pero Hindi”, and “My Husband, My Lover”. She also did a cameo as Sharon Cuneta’s daughter in “Revirginized”.
Both Cindy and Kylie look good on screen. Cindy is more the sweet type, mas bagay na tipong inaapi. Kylie is the more steely, hard edged type of beauty, tipong supladita, palaban.
That’s why she’s so perfect in her role in Star Cinema's “Kasal” as a girl who won’t hesitate to mess up anyone’s life.
Cindy is memorable as the lesbian lover in “Adan” (for which she got an acting nomination), as the mysterious woman who gets revenge on the men who oppressed her in "Nerisa", and as the slow-witted but feisty vlogger who gets away with the crimes she did in “House Tour”.
Cindy manages to shine even if the movies she star in are far from being perfect.
Kylie did well in the title role of “The Housemaid” even if she’s lovelier and classier looking than her “amo” in the film. In “Bekis on the Run”, she convincing as a lonely girl who willingly tags along with the guy who robs their company.
In “Parang Tayo”, she also does well in the familiar role of a woman torn between two lovers, Marco Gumabao and Xian Lim.
Now, the two of them have been cast together in “My Husband, My Lover”. The movie starts with Kylie as Alice. We see her in a mango farm with Dennis (Adrian Alandy) and we think he is her husband.
But then, she leaves and goes home to her husband, Noel (Marco Gumabao), who’s younger, hotter, handsomer and very considerate so you’d wonder why she still needs a lover.
Well, wala lang. Alice just wants to have her cake and eat it too. When Noel learns about Alice’s philandering, they separate. Noel finds Loida (Cindy) who seems to be a better performer in bed and obviously wants to please him.
But they need a new complication. Noel and Alice meet again and whaddaya know, they have to make true the film’s title, so now, Noel, Alice’s ex-husband, becomes her lover and they meet clandestinely in hotels.
Loida, a lawyer, learns about it, informs Dennis, then tells Dennis they should get even by sharing the same bed themselves. Dennis is not difficult to convince and complies.
Things get even more complicated in this game of musical chairs. The infidelities portrayed here are aeons away from the love triangle films so popular in the 60s and 70s spawned by “Sapagkat Kami’y Tao Lamang”.
Actually, th better title for this film would be “Sapagkat Kami’y Pokpok Lamang”. The machinations in the plotting are mere flimsy excuses for lots of salacious bedscenes and exhange of partners.
The common denominator is that these women are sluts, as Cindy said in one scene: “Puki mo swapang”. Whatever happened to the sanctity of marital vows?
We’re sure members of the Legion of Mary will have fits when they watch this movie that is obviously made for sinful viewers.
Well, anyway, our topic concerns Cindy and Kylie so let’s go back to them. In fairness to them, they both do well even in their most dramatic scenes with Marco and Adrian.
But it’s Kylie’s tough luck that Cindy is given the more attention-getting role. As the articulate lawyer who won’t give up easily, she really fights for Noel and certainly won’t just take things sitting down.
She confronts everyone and Cindy manages to excel in all her scenes, delivering her lines with the right mixture of sarcasm and petulance, sneering with derision when the scene calls for it.
Not everyone can do such scenes persuasively, but she did it with so much elan. Move over, Cherie Gil.
We believe Cindy has the capability to tackle more serious roles but right now, she’s mired with Vivamax, the home of erotic films aimed to titillate repressed viewers.
So she might show good acting here and there but in the end, she will first and foremost be required to bare her body, do nude scenes and graphic sex scenes which are the selling factors in most Vivamax features, and forever be identified as a bold sexpot.
The same goes for all the other nubile nymphets that are now a dime a dozen on streaming channels who say this is just a stepping stone for them. “Huwag na po kayong umasa.”
Sex sells and that’s it.
