Makeover Movie

Many a teenage girl has grown up watching movies showing a tomboyish, nondescript or even unattractive protagonist undergo a makeover and turn into a head-turning beauty. It’s every girl’s dream. But why? And just what is Hollywood’s beauty ideal?

Filmmaker Sue Ding takes a deep dive into over a hundred years of film history to compose this humorous but alarming visual essay comprising countless clips from nearly a hundred films that all present precisely the same image. She calls up her girlfriends on the phone and together they re-examine what they found so irresistible about specific scenes, and what they now regard as problematic. Why were the stars of the show always white and thin? Why did they make such an issue out of food, wearing glasses and having frizzy hair?

With a blend of criticism and self-deprecating humor, the kaleidoscopic images and commentary arrive at an alarming conclusion: “normal” women, women of color and people who identify as queer are totally absent. Money is always the holy grail. And how come it’s always an older, wealthier, white man who’s in charge?