Best of 2018 - Costume Design
Let's get this recap party started with a fun, breezy category - Best Costume Design!
It's no secret that I love fantasy, sci fi, historical dramas, and basically any other genre that features people in elaborate getups. This is always a hard category to narrow down. Are the "best costumes" also the "most costumes"? Does subtlety ever win here? Not this year, although I do have one pick here that goes straight to the beautifully understated category. Weigh in on the comments on what you think I'm missing.
WINNER: The Favourite
With a category this stacked, it really comes down to personal preference. The costumes in this are fabulously ornate, mostly in stark tones of black and white that marry beautifully with the production design and lighting of the film as a whole. It's not just the detail on the costumes, but how well they marry with the overall aesthetic of the film, and reveal telling character details. Lady Sarah's pantsuit and jaunty hat say so much about her, as do the elaborate wigs and high heels of Robert Harley's strutting peacock. The specificity of design goes far deeper than just period accuracy and helps to create the fully realized world of this unforgettable film.
Black Panther
As far as fully realized worlds go, Black Panther is also in a class of its own. I am not familiar with any of the comics this film is based on, but these designs are stunningly innovative and unique in the cinematic landscape. I can't say all of them land for me totally - I really hate the dress Nakia wears on the mission to South Korea - but so many of them are full of color, grandeur, and life. Most exciting to me are those of the Dora Milaje, the female warriors that protect the King of Wakanda, and the mountain-dwelling Jabari tribe, replete in both furs and grass skirts. The melding of African culture and sci fi fantasy is unique in today's cinematic landscape, a celebration of black heritage and art.
Mary Poppins Returns
These costumes are absolutely pure delight, practically perfect in every way. I'm partial to the "hand drawn" ones seen above, especially Mary's frilly Victorian bustle when they first enter the china bowl, but everything she wears is enviable, from her bathing costume to her incredible shoes. And the coats! The gloves! If I could raid anyone's cinematic wardrobe this year, it would certainly be hers.
Wildlife
Here it is - the subtle pick. None of the individual costumes here stand out as stunners the way the others in this category do. It's the cumulative effect of the perfect colors of these simple pieces, creating a poetic harmony with the rest of the mise-en-scene. This kind of film could easily be visually flat, focusing on the intellectual and emotional resonance of its cinematic language, but first-time director Paul Dano is careful in every aspect, elevating this story to something delicately beautiful. The robust reds, that robin's egg blue motif, the chartreuse of the dress above - it all comes together for something really special.
Sorry to Bother You
Films that take place around the modern era usually get the short shrift when it comes to honoring their costume design. Although Sorry to Bother You has a whiff of the futuristic about it, it is more definable as an alternative version of now. And yet it's far bolder than any full blown sci fi film in recent memory. The costumes are as ostentatious as the script, and that's really saying something, but they're also justified by the characters that inhabit them. As Detroit, Tessa Thompson wears every strange getup she's given with absolute confidence, and her performance jumps off the screen for a role that really is slightly underwritten. Cassius's ascent within the world of telemarketing is easy charted just by the suits he wears. And let's not get started on that "big" costume that comes late in the film. That will really leave a lasting impression.
Honorable mention: Suspiria
If I'm being totally honest, I think most of the costumes in this film are ugly. Which isn't to put them down. It's a very deliberate choice, and it works wonderfully to recreate 70s era Berlin in all its misery and intrigue. The almost unrelenting drabness of this film really works to the point that you feel like maybe you've discovered some long lost artifact of that time, maybe some cursed VHS discovered in the closet of a condemned European studio. And then once the film starts getting really RED - in more ways than one - the contrast is all the more breathtaking and terrifying.
What's your vote for the best costumes of the year?
It's no secret that I love fantasy, sci fi, historical dramas, and basically any other genre that features people in elaborate getups. This is always a hard category to narrow down. Are the "best costumes" also the "most costumes"? Does subtlety ever win here? Not this year, although I do have one pick here that goes straight to the beautifully understated category. Weigh in on the comments on what you think I'm missing.
WINNER: The Favourite
With a category this stacked, it really comes down to personal preference. The costumes in this are fabulously ornate, mostly in stark tones of black and white that marry beautifully with the production design and lighting of the film as a whole. It's not just the detail on the costumes, but how well they marry with the overall aesthetic of the film, and reveal telling character details. Lady Sarah's pantsuit and jaunty hat say so much about her, as do the elaborate wigs and high heels of Robert Harley's strutting peacock. The specificity of design goes far deeper than just period accuracy and helps to create the fully realized world of this unforgettable film.
Black Panther
As far as fully realized worlds go, Black Panther is also in a class of its own. I am not familiar with any of the comics this film is based on, but these designs are stunningly innovative and unique in the cinematic landscape. I can't say all of them land for me totally - I really hate the dress Nakia wears on the mission to South Korea - but so many of them are full of color, grandeur, and life. Most exciting to me are those of the Dora Milaje, the female warriors that protect the King of Wakanda, and the mountain-dwelling Jabari tribe, replete in both furs and grass skirts. The melding of African culture and sci fi fantasy is unique in today's cinematic landscape, a celebration of black heritage and art.
Mary Poppins Returns
These costumes are absolutely pure delight, practically perfect in every way. I'm partial to the "hand drawn" ones seen above, especially Mary's frilly Victorian bustle when they first enter the china bowl, but everything she wears is enviable, from her bathing costume to her incredible shoes. And the coats! The gloves! If I could raid anyone's cinematic wardrobe this year, it would certainly be hers.
Wildlife
Here it is - the subtle pick. None of the individual costumes here stand out as stunners the way the others in this category do. It's the cumulative effect of the perfect colors of these simple pieces, creating a poetic harmony with the rest of the mise-en-scene. This kind of film could easily be visually flat, focusing on the intellectual and emotional resonance of its cinematic language, but first-time director Paul Dano is careful in every aspect, elevating this story to something delicately beautiful. The robust reds, that robin's egg blue motif, the chartreuse of the dress above - it all comes together for something really special.
Sorry to Bother You
Films that take place around the modern era usually get the short shrift when it comes to honoring their costume design. Although Sorry to Bother You has a whiff of the futuristic about it, it is more definable as an alternative version of now. And yet it's far bolder than any full blown sci fi film in recent memory. The costumes are as ostentatious as the script, and that's really saying something, but they're also justified by the characters that inhabit them. As Detroit, Tessa Thompson wears every strange getup she's given with absolute confidence, and her performance jumps off the screen for a role that really is slightly underwritten. Cassius's ascent within the world of telemarketing is easy charted just by the suits he wears. And let's not get started on that "big" costume that comes late in the film. That will really leave a lasting impression.
Honorable mention: Suspiria
If I'm being totally honest, I think most of the costumes in this film are ugly. Which isn't to put them down. It's a very deliberate choice, and it works wonderfully to recreate 70s era Berlin in all its misery and intrigue. The almost unrelenting drabness of this film really works to the point that you feel like maybe you've discovered some long lost artifact of that time, maybe some cursed VHS discovered in the closet of a condemned European studio. And then once the film starts getting really RED - in more ways than one - the contrast is all the more breathtaking and terrifying.
What's your vote for the best costumes of the year?
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