Latinos love the booty.
That’s just the way we are, and there’s really nothing you can do about that.
Betty La Flaca is not an ugly woman, in fact she’s very well shaped, both on top and bottom, but her confidence is shaken and her current shape isn’t granting her the looks and howls other women get from men on the street as hard as she may try, and even worse at night when she seeks intimacy with her husband, he never reciprocates.
What starts out as the tale of a woman seeking attention from both her husband and the general male population, ends as a pretty misshapen horrific ordeal that snowballs minute after minute in a rather funny short.
Sometimes even the prettiest girls need a confidence booster, and Betty seeks help from a local “clinica” that’s not on the up and up with the law. She’s then implanted with silicone to increase the bump in her rump.
But then circumstances begin to launch out of her control when Betty’s slight aesthetic improvement is interrupted in a police raid. Informed not to move for two hours, Betty flees and accidentally ruins the improvements. Now in the midst of fleeing she seeks a way to bring it back to form.
Perez’ film is an entertaining mixture of old world sentimentality reflecting on today’s women, and the comedic results of a girl seeking a simple improvement on her body. Growing up in the Bronx, it’s very common knowledge that most latino men love women with large rear ends (I’m a leg and eyes man myself), and any girl who isn’t blessed with a noticeable backside is branded with the nickname “flaca,” the vernacular for skinny, or any girl who doesn’t bear the rotund assets.
Betty’s situation rings awfully true to any girl living in the Bronx, and to any man who has had to witness a girl without much of a shape inflicted with the name. And Perez is able to turn the self-conscious somewhat vain Betty into a sympathetic character doing everything in her power to make sure she’s noticed, even if she must walk around with a misshapen rump.
There’s a very memorable essence within Perez’ film, and for only seven minutes, he’s able to retain much comedic effect and sympathy for Betty, and that’s due to the lovely Ansenio’s performance, and on how utterly madcap the film becomes mid-way. Perez’ film is funny because it’s down to Earth and true to the human need for attention.
And he conveys that sometimes, vanity can be our worst enemy.
