The Barker (2017) PG

It's not as great as Kita Kita, and the buildup and flow of the story is not seamless(like it was not shown how Bela and Coco fell in love etc.), but for a first directorial job for the big screen, Dennis Padilla does have a future.  Empoy Marquez and Shy Carlos are good actors.  Empoy is even very graceful and he's such a natural.
Shy Carlos who is NOT in any way related to Sarah Carlos(well, at least that's what I think---they do have a great resemblance so people often mistake Sarah for Shy....Shy or Schai is Schirin Grace Sigrist in real life), is beautiful inside and out.  Regarding the many kissing scenes she had with Empoy she said, "Pogi naman si Empoy at hindi na kailangan paghandaan yun." (Empoy is charming and I don't need to prepare for it)  One newspaper even misquoted her regarding what she said about her imagining kissing Piolo Pascual.  When I heard and read her REAL quote, she was just saying that as actors it's the same when you kiss Piolo and Empoy.  
As we noticed in Kita Kita, Empoy does know how to look charming and he also exaggerates his looks to look physically ugly.
Come on!  The world is not filled with Barbie Dolls and Ken.  It is not filled with Betties and Baldwins.  The earth is filled with ordinary looking people, who become handsome and beautiful depending on his or her character and how he or she deals with people. A physically beautiful person could be ugly due to her core values.  A plain looking person could have lots of suitors just because of her personality.  Some people are mean and they say, "She's not all that.  Maybe she hexed them." Tsk, tsk, tsk
The love between Bela and Coco is pure.
I didn't even want to blog about this because of the aforementioned or stated reasons, but coming to think of it, because of the acting of the main characters, plus Sylvia Sanchez, Ronnie Lazaro, Atak, Gary Lim, Wilma Doesn't,  and Nonie Buencamino(and some others), one may enjoy this too.
One senior citizen of Makati while going out of the theatre even said, "Puede pasar!" then chuckled.  La película tiene una calificación aprobatoria.