The costume vault

The biopic as a cinematic genre goes a long way back. Long enough that certain tropes have started to stick around it.  Because of that, it's perceived by many people as formulaic and simply not-very-interesting cinema. And they are usually right. There are many biopics that are superficial stories that try to pass as inspirational. So, when the highly anticipated biopic of Jacqueline Kennedy released its first trailer, I feared for the worst. Thankfully, Jackie is not your average biopic. The movie, directed by Chilean director Pablo Larraín, is an insightful look at Jackie's life in the three days immediately following JFK's assassination framed by her famous Life magazine interview. It's a deep and profound analysis of Jackie both as an icon and a woman. An exciting and subtly emotional portrait of a woman in extraordinary circumstances. Above all, Jackie is a study of loss and legacy. A deep essay on myth-making and the strength that images have when m...

La La Land 's nomination for Best Achievement in Costume Design was a weird choice for the Academy, but not for the reason everyone seemed to agree on (mainly that it had no merit because it was contemporary costuming and it consists solely of just shirts and dresses). It was an uncommon choice because, had it won, it would have been the first contemporary film to win Best Costume Design in 22 years (the last one to do so was  Priscilla, Queen of the Desert  in 1994). But, truth be told, this is a more than well deserved nomination.  La La Land  is a felt tribute to Hollywood's Golden Musicals and, as such, works at a purely emotional level; through the music, the acting, the cinematography, the sets and, of course, the costume design, it creates an emotional roller-coaster for the audience. And it makes sense;  La La Land  is a love story. It exudes love: for L.A, for music, for cinema... for being in love. True, it's not the most complex and nuan...

For a very long time, in film and literature, has prevailed an over-romanticized view of the "wild west"; with the unending deserts and the long sunsets, the honorable loner that rights wrongs across the country and the humble cowboy that fights mean Indians. This, of course, could not be furthest away from the reality of life at the frontier. Because of this, whenever a movie comes along that even remotely tries to stray away from that romance version of American history and tries to bring it closer to actual history, it feels like a very much needed breath of fresh air. Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant certainly feels that way. His take on the survival story of a real-life fur hunter (Hugh Glass) is a grizzling tale of hate and revenge, as well as a fresh look upon men's relation to nature. To top it all, it's also a very interesting commentary on the whole Indian conflict. But what makes this movie relevant is not the story itself, whic...