Hair transplants, breast augmentation, facelifts and liposuction galore; The world has become obsessed and needle-deeply infatuated with beauty.
???America The Beautiful, directed by Darryl Roberts, takes a hard look at America's extreme and unhealthy view of beauty.
???Cosmetic surgery and makeup are a billion dollar industry and are examined throughout the movie.
???The film showcases how children are taught that beauty matters at a young age, fueling the fire alongside the fact that fashion and beauty magazines are sold on every street corner.
???Across the nation, the fine line between beauty and normality is often toyed with and tiptoed upon.
???Roberts shows us the lives of fashion models and designers throughout the film as they lead the public to believe their images of beauty are what viewers should resemble.
???Audiences will laugh at the fashion elites' ignorance and the shallowness of their definition and concept of beauty, alongside a few egotistical men.
???The documentary follows Gerren Taylor, an extremely slender black fashion model, who has traveled the world and is admired by women of all ages and sizes.
???Although her fame comes a price: Taylor is forced to change her appearance and lose weight.
???Instead of a being treated as a person, she is seen as an expendable object. What is most heartbreaking about her lifestyle is that Taylor is only 12 years old.
???Using the images of Taylor, Roberts exposes the beauty industry for what it really is-heartless and unrealistic. He conveys the message that the average person should be proud of their body instead of paying big money to conform to others' standards.
???The film's focus is seen through the perspective of the female idealization of beauty and pop culture. A large weakness in the documentary is that Roberts did not fully explore the opposite side of how men are affected by the idealistic and societal concepts of body image.
???Everyone who picks up a magazine or watches an ad on TV is affected by this pandemic, according to the film.
???Roberts puts himself in the center of the beauty and fashion world by showing viewers the dark underbelly of the fashion industry and the struggles that carbon copy models endure.
???His ultimate goal is to promote self-confidence while showing the true beauty in individuality.
???Thought provoking, while not afraid to show the realistic dark side of the fashion media, this brilliant documentary properly exposes the cause of body image problems, identifying the root lying in mainstream media.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
