Growing up in the early 2000s, the US filmmaker Sue Ding was exposed to a seemingly endless procession of makeover montages in Hollywood films. Think of Sandra Bullock’s transformation from FBI agent to pageant queen in Miss Congeniality (2000), or Anne Hathaway’s royal metamorphosis in The Princess Diaries (2001). As a teen from an immigrant family, Ding was entranced by their glamour as well as the roadmap they provided for ‘not just how to be a woman, but also how to be American’.
But, as she explores in her short documentary Makeover Movie, this trope spans far beyond the films of her youth, deep into Hollywood history, and up until today. Steeping her production in the Noughties nostalgia of pop-rock soundtracks and early flip phones, Ding summons her besties for a makeover montage-watch party. While poking fun at the cringey sexism and sheer silliness on display, the group also makes many incisive points about the troublesome messages these ugly-duckling-turned-swan stories send to young women and society at large.
