Should We Watch A Few Makeover Montages Real Quick?

I really liked Nathalie Atkinson’s thorough deconstruction of the makeover montage. “The important step forward in happily ever after begins — and ends — with the right shoe,” Atkinson says. True in films, true in life. (I think!?!?! Seems legit.)

I particularly enjoyed this part:

Hollywood loves a fashion film almost as much as a makeover story and has a glossy tradition of cinematic fairy tales à la mode, with a side of Cinderella. Give or take a totemic ball gown and glass slipper. The latest is the Canadian film After the Ball, set in the garment industry of Montreal.

Change your clothes, change your fate. This is true from the makeover in Grease to the one Claire gives misfit Allison in the gym bathroom of The Breakfast Club or Cher taking Tai under her wing in Clueless. The fashion before-and-after is a Cinderella story of humiliation, recognition and social redemption. (Take the wicked stepsister stand-ins that are the shaming co-hosts of What Not to Wear, a show with a sadomasochistic Cinderella impulse if ever there was.)

Clothes are the fairy tale’s natural accessory and if they’re not persuasive, they certainly are consistent.

Her use of the phrase “Cinderfellas” is also just *chefs kiss.* Read the whole article here.