Category: Best Costumes

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Cruella (2021)

I mostly avoid these Disney live-action money grabs for good reasons. They throw lots of money at the production (How many rock songs can we fit? Buy them all!) and little care for actually addressing the origin story (How exactly does Cruella become a wannabe dog killer?). The purpose seems to be to distract with lavish visuals and to touch as many points from the original film as possible with no actual direction or purpose. The Emmas put their all into their characters for sure and I enjoyed the casting of Horace and Jasper, but there’s no explanation as to why anyone goes along with the machinations of someone clearly suffering from a mental illness nor how that extra neatly wrapped up ending even comes to pass.

Oscar Win: Best Achievement in Costume Design

Oscar Nominations: Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

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The Dead (1987)

The first three-quarters of this film is like being invited to a holiday party where you don’t know anyone. The guests are warm and welcoming, but as an outsider, it takes a bit to figure out who everyone is and how they relate to each other. The winter setting inspires a bit of wistfulness amongst the characters as they contemplate their losses from both the past and future. Anjelica Huston, being directed by her father in a screenplay written by her brother, is vulnerable and beautiful as the wife of the hosts’ nephew, especially when she is recalling the lost love from her youth.

Oscar Nominations: Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Costume Design

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The Actress (1953)

The story of Ruth Gordon’s early years as an aspiring actress doesn’t sound like a particularly interesting plot and it really isn’t. Jean Simmons plays Ruth as a manic pixie to poor effect. Though I do think it was rather inspired to cast Simmons and Teresa Wright as relatives, though they look more like siblings than mother and daughter. Despite the title, the film is really Spencer Tracy’s. He plays her father with more depth than usual and his character arc is heartfelt. There’s also a delightful scene where he participates full-heartedly in a gymnastics exhibition.

Oscar Nomination: Best Costume Design, Black-and-White

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Otello (1986)

An Italian opera about a Shakespeare play produced by Globus-Golan is probably testing my patience on one or two points. The lighting and filming of this have the quality of a stage production made for PBS. The colossal sets are either filled with dozens of extras or overwhelming a single pair. The singing and acting are spot on though and after reading a synopsis of Verdi’s opera, I was able to just go along for the ride. The blackface is unfortunate but it is reassuring that that particular quirk of Othello productions is going out of favor. Regrettably the disagreeable sexual politics remains.  Musical

Oscar Nomination: Best Costume Design

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Richard III (1995)

I generally enjoy the resetting Shakespeare’s works to other time periods. In some ways it makes them much more accessible while also allowing for more creativity for the adapters. Unfortunately if I’m not already semi-familiar with the work, it often makes it harder for me to initially engage with the work. That was the case with this rendition of Richard III set in an alternative 1930s England including fascist elements of the era. Getting over that obstacle, I think reworking the setting added a lot of texture to the story, particularly in the visuals. There are a number of great actors in the film, being lead by a particularly oleaginous Ian McKellen as the titular character bent on murder, war, and manipulations all to ascend to the throne.

Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Costume Design

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The Robe (1953)

By coincidence, one of the special features to the DVD of Titanic was a newsreel detailing how The Robe and Cinemascope won multiple Oscars in 1954. Indeed Cinemascope used in this film, supposedly the first ever, is absolutely gorgeous. It looks like a moving version of Raphael’s The School of Athens. I sadly maintain little interest in Biblical epics and this one about early followers of Jesus, focused on one of the Roman Tribunes at the crucifixion and his slave , definitely overstays its welcome. The acting is fine: Richard Burton is only slightly hammy as the Tribune, Jean Simmons is solid but only appears sporadically, and Victor Mature looks like he just walked off the set of Samson and Delilah.   Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Wins: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Cinematography, Color

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Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Angry, unhinged Bette Davis is an aspiration. Here she is Charlotte, an eccentric who defiantly haunts her ancestral mansion, the site where her married lover was graphically hacked to pieces many years ago, a crime many locals believe she committed. Olivia de Havilland deliciously plays her cousin whom Charlotte hopes will help her in fighting the local highway commission. Olivia is perfection, using her sweet reputation as a façade on some darkness that is evidently hiding underneath. Agnes Moorehead wickedly adds to the cast as Charlotte’s only real ally. Young Bruce Dern is also great as the murdered lover. Rather surprised to see that the creepy song Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte became a hit and that it was composed by The Brady Bunch theme writer Frank de Vol.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White; Best Costume Design, Black-and-White; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Original Song; Best Music, Substantially Original Score

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A New Kind of Love (1963)

Paul Newman is a womanizing journalist; Joanne Woodward works in the fashion industry while sporting a masculine look (she repeatedly gets mistaken for a man). It’s probably not a spoiler to say that the story progresses pretty much how you’d expect from such a setup, including Joanne undergoing a makeover to be more feminine and ol’ Paul not even recognizing her as a woman he had met previously. Alas, the cuteness of Newman and Woodward together plus a semi-crush on Paul Newman means I couldn’t pass it up. Bonus points because for including Thelma Ritter who elevates movies even in the smallest of roles.

Oscar Nominations: Best Costume Design, Color; Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment

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The Young Philadelphians (1959)

Ostensibly about the life and times of one Anthony J. Lawrence, played by Paul Newman, the supporting characters bolster a story of an entire generation of young Philadelphians and themes on history repeating itself and fighting against the expectations of others. Also featuring Robert Vaughn, an aged Brian Keith, and small roles by Billie Burke and Adam West, I really dig any film that ends with a trial featuring a wily defending lawyer.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; Best Costume Design, Black-and-White

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Pinocchio (2019)

The story of Pinocchio is a a bit sad and creepy, a lonely old men using his skills to create a companion child. Why there are two new versions being released in as many years is beyond me. This adaptation, while dark, is a rather engaging one. Roberto Benigni brings a long-suffering, haggardness to his take on Geppetto. The effects to create a world with self-moving wooden puppets, fairies, and assorted magic is fanciful and impressive.

Oscar nominations: Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

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