OVP: Best Costume (2021)
The Nominees Were...
Jenny Beaven, Cruella
Massimo Cantini Parrini & Jacqueline Durran, Cyrano
Jacqueline West & Robert Morgan, Dune
Luis Sequeira, Nightmare Alley
Paul Tazewell, West Side Story
My Thoughts: We're returning to the 2021 race again today. I'm methodically getting back on a number of routines after almost two months of my day job taking up far more of my free time than usual with an eye on finishing at least the visual categories this week with Best Costume Design (see below for past contests) our category du jour. We're on our 20th Costume writeup at this point, and it's hard not to see that this is one of the few categories where Oscar struggles to change. This isn't always a bad thing, as this is a pretty good slate of nominees we're dealing with today, but it does underline that Oscar generally only rewards a specific type of period costuming, and can't have a year without a corset.
We'll start there, because Cyrano is the nominee that feels the most on-par with what Oscar usually picks, a romantic epic with bodices & lace in every corner of the screen. I am usually a fan of Jacqueline Durran, whose work with Joe Wright in previous films is hard to deny, but I'm a little tired by this one, I'll be honest. There's nothing that stands out, which feels like a problem for a movie that has been told repeatedly, but more importantly a problem for a musical. Musicals are supposed to be heightened realities (we all have an aunt that will randomly break out into song, but generally she doesn't come with a chorus of twenty backup dancers), and with that they should feel playful & inventive. This costuming is pretty, but it doesn't enhance the film's motif or really bring us any closer to this world.
It certainly doesn't in the way that West Side Story does. Of all of the technical aspects of Spielberg's remake, this is probably the most impressive improvement on the original film. The film plays with color schemes throughout, giving us a sea of hotter colors for the effervescent "America" number while giving us a bluer color scheme for some of the Jets' numbers. I think Spielberg's eye-for-detail here is really remarkable, and the way that Paul Tazewell telegraphs shorthand about each character (Tony is buttoned up, Bernardo is literally popping out of his shirt he's so sexy, Maria is still finding her look, etc) is genius in enhancing the plot.
This is not quite the case for one of the year's other remakes (ugh, I just realized that all five of these movies are either remakes or expanded universe takes on other high-profile films), Nightmare Alley. This film certainly takes advantage of the color scheme that the 1947 film (which had some good costumes, let's be fair here) didn't by putting Rooney Mara in that gorgeous spin on Jackie Kennedy (red pillbox hat, but with a thigh-high slit up her peacoat). But there's not enough intrigue here. Toni Collette's cliche look as a medium, Mara's inconsistent in whom she wants to be to the audience. There's fun touches (I like that Blanchett, whose character requires some slinking back into the shadows, wears muted colors most of the film), but it's not cohesive enough.
Certainly not in the way that Cruella manages to pull off. It always helps in getting nominated when you're making a film about an actual fashion studio (see also Mrs. Harris, nominated this year), but Beavan is a genius at creating different spins on the same three colors: black, white, & red dominate everything Emma Stone's Cruella trots out, and it'd be easy to make that dull, but she constantly one-ups herself, inspired by the swinging sixties (that military jacket look feels popped out of the Sgt Pepper's album cover), as well as just inventing totally brilliant innovation all on her own (the single best costume effect of 2021 was surely that trash dress, barreling down the street as even Emma Stone the actress had to be like "damn, I bet I look cool right now").
Our final film (another remake) is Dune, and it's hard not to draw a quick comparison with the film's 1984 predecessor and understand how different the films end up being. While the original film, directed by David Lynch, had the feel of a David Bowie music video, this one is at once more realistic (you actually believe those military uniforms that Timothee Chalamet & Zendaya are wearing in the desert have practical effect), but also showing occasional glimpses of beauty. Much of that comes from Rebecca Ferguson, rocking out with her mustard-yellow ball gown & matching headdress, or the way that the men, particularly Oscar Isaac, are poured into weathered dress uniforms (it's a planet made of sand...things are not going to stay pristine). The realism & creativity help to enhance and invite the viewer into this strange world.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Costume Designer's Guild splits its nominees into three categories (Contemporary, Period, & SciFi/Fantasy) so we have sixteen nominees here. Dune took the SciFi/Fantasy awards against The Green Knight, The Matrix Resurrections, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and The Suicide Squad, while Contemporary went to Coming 2 America atop Don't Look Up, In the Heights, No Time to Die, and Zola. Period film was almost a carbon copy of Oscar, with Cruella winning and Dune replaced by House of Gucci. BAFTA also went for Cruella, and their nominees were identical to Oscar's with just West Side Story missing in favor of The French Dispatch. In terms of sixth place, I guessed this lineup exactly, and looking at these I wonder if this was a pretty dominant five. Maybe sixth place would be Spencer, which is royalty porn even if it didn't do well all season? Otherwise House of Gucci is a pretty plausible option, or even The Tragedy of Macbeth which made it for Production Design.
Films I Would Have Nominated: The lack of love for Spencer in this category remains one of the bigger mysteries of the 2021 awards season to me. It's by an Oscar favorite (Jacqueline Durran, who is doing better work here than in Cyrano), and I think she plays well between taking looks that were clearly inspired by the real-life Diana, while also messing with the viewer's memory by not picking any exact copies of outfits that the real-life princess wore. It's smart-it makes you understand there's a line between the real Diana and the fictional one we're seeing in Pablo Larrain's movie, but it also is so close to things she would have worn that you can't tell where fact meets fiction.
Oscar's Choice: In a different year, a film like Cruella might have struggled-it would've been easy to see a West Side Story sweep getting this statue-but with neither of the Best Picture frontrunners nominated here, Cruella beat West Side and Dune.
My Choice: Cruella is some career-best work from one of our finest costume designers-it's a no-brainer win, even against something as good as West Side Story. Behind them I'll do Dune, Nightmare Alley, and Cyrano.
And now, it's your turn. Are we all on the same page that Cruella is unstoppable here, or does someone want to try a different option? Why do you think that Oscar went with Durran's work in Cyrano when Spencer was getting more play during the season (and is more thoughtful work)? And what is your guess for sixth place? Share your thoughts below!
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