The costume vault

A couple of months later than usual due to this pandemic thing that has been messing with everyone's schedules, the nominations for this year's Academy Awards are finally out! And as is traditional in this blog, I'll do a quick recap of the nominees for Best Costume Design. Before we start, just a brief disclaimer. This is neither a review of the nominees nor an actual essay. These are just my most honest thoughts about the movies they nominated this year for Costume Design, two of which I haven't managed to see yet. I might change my mind about them later when I get around to seeing them. It happens sometimes, and that's ok. EMMA. Costume Design by Alexandra Byrne. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Autumn de Wilde's directorial debut adaptation of Jane Austen's novel is the best period film I've seen in a while. It's joyful, charming, romantic, sexy and mean, all rolled in one. It also happens to be the best adaptation of Emma ever...

The Oscars have come and gone once more, and so I am faced once again with the task of analyzing and reviewing this year's nominees (and eventually the winner) for Best Achievement in Costume Design. The first of these nominees which I'll be covering in this year's retrospective will be Joe Wright's latest period drama; Darkest Hour , a movie that in the end leaves us quite unimpressed by the effort. It's a paint by numbers movie that even though it boasts of outstanding photography, camera work, and incredible acting talent, still manages to waste it all into a boring, run-of-the-mill script that has nothing new to offer. Darkest Hour  focusses on the one month span between Churchill becoming Prime Minister and his famous "never surrender" speech that marked the decisive moment in which Great Britain decided to confront Germany and Hitler head-on. And while it sounds interesting enough on paper, it doesn't help that it feels that betwe...

The nominations for the 90th Academy Awards are finally out and... they are a mixed bag for me. At least in the Costume Design Category, which is the one I'll focus on here today. These are the nominees for Best Achievement in Costume Design: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Costume Design by Jacqueline Durran I have talked at length before about Disney live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast , and not in a very positive light (see here ). It is no secret that I hate this movie and this Costume Design. So this nomination is really painful for me. Despite that hate, I must recognize that there are some parts of the design that I like and that are worthy to look at. Still, considering the amazing Costume Designs that we've seen this year ( Lady Macbeth ,  Wonder Woman ...), it is terribly unfair that this gets nominated only because it's Disney and because it's a grand and flashy Costume Design. DARKEST HOUR. Costume Design by Jacqueline Durran I still h...

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the first of the planned spin-off/prequel series of the Harry Potter Saga and the screenwriting debut of J.K.Rowling, the mind behind the Harry Potter  books. This new installment is an ambitious attempt, both in scale and in narrative, as it tries to tell both a brand new story with brand new characters and also be linked to the original saga through the character of Grindelwald. The problem is that this juggling act forces the movie to fit in together two stories that have little to do with each other. On the one hand, there's Grindenwald and the Obscurial's story and on the other, the bizarre adventures of Newt Scamander as he tries to fetch back his creatures. Separately, these two stories, could have made for two entertaining movies, but the problem is that, together, they just don't mix  very well. On top of that, the radical changes in tone throughout the movie only manage to drag the final product further down. ...