Shawn is a black gay man, who works on the street as a trans hustler Coco. He lives with his aunt. Then we meet Michael, a man married for 10 years, whose wive desperately wants to have a child, who is rich and a successful lawyer, but he has been hiding his identity of being gay and wanting to dress up as a female. The two have a chance encounter when Shawn is being harassed by a lawyer. Michael offers help and the two become friends and lovers. Shawn shows Michael his true self as Coco. Inspired by the bravery, Michael decides to open up too and shows himself as Honey, his true self as a trans women. He ask Coco, against his advice, that Honey wants to feel free so he would like to to go on streets and hustle and do sex work as Coco. While initially it is fun, it later becomes a problem, when one of Michael's client sees him as Honey and he is removed from his job. Meanwhile, Michael's wife suspects of her husband being gay, but when she shows up unannounced to his other apartment, she sees him dressed as a woman and also later meets Shawn (Coco) and assumes that they are lovers. In a bizarre ending, she kills herself, Coco is still on streets and not sure what happens with Michael.
This film was really cringy to watch. From synopsis, to actually what was presented was totally different. We see how a black trans woman help a white straight guy realize and accept his true self. But then later we also see that Coco is either jealous and wants keep Honey cautious of these sex parties. Scenes like when Shawn and Michael first have sex and are lying on bed, that scene goes on forever, similarly towards the end when Michael and his wife are talking, or the scene in the apartment when Honey is talking to the other worker, a real woman form the street; These scenes go on forever and ever. And then there are scenes like when Coco asks Honey to not get very comfortable in the sex party, it just abruptly ends, without telling us why was Coco doing that. I am really not sure what this film was trying to say. Was this supposed to be about trans women or gay men or self acceptance or family life or what? Being gay or wanting to be trans are two sides of same spectrum. Clearly these people had not done much homework. It tries too hard to be a decent and realistic portrait of the life of transgender people, just to end up messing everything up with a negative, pessimistic message. Neither the sexuality, nor race, nor social economic disparity is really addressed in this film. It felt the film was made just for the sake of it. Direction, screenplay or even acting, everything here was quite bad. This film could have been something but it's an opportunity lost. (2.5/10)
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