These scenes have more in common with Michelle Pfeiffer’s zonked-out secretary suiting up as Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992) or the tragic body horror of Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis’ Oscar-winning prosthetics and make-up in The Fly (1986). Whether it’s a drastic haircut after a devastating break-up or a concealer which hides a dark past as well as a pimple, these are makeovers which explore our relationship with beauty beyond looking or feeling good. The rituals surrounding beauty are often described as forms of self-care – which, of course, they absolutely can be – but they can also be expressions of darker emotions and more difficult transformations. It always signals character development, not necessarily from bespectacled and dowdy to blowdried and desirable, but perhaps from vulnerable to armoured, or from human to monstrous. There’s another kind of makeover scene though, often linked to a different kind of revenge, or sometimes representing melancholy, ecstasy, or rage. Many cite achieving a ‘glow-up’, which seems intrinsically tied to the before-and-after makeover scene often depicted on film, from Pretty Woman (1990) to The Princess Diaries (2001). When you Google the words ‘revenge make-up’, the results mostly refer to the idea of showing an ex-lover what they’re missing through the beautifying effects of a makeover.
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