Watch the trailer HERE Despite languishing in unreleased hell for a year in the U.S. and not even having an official distributor here in the UK, we thought we’d show you this trailer for Middle Men (made in 2009, directed by George Gallo) because it brings to light the difficult task of recent period costume design. The period in question is 1995. The story of this ‘based on true events’ comedy concerns nothing less than the birth of chargeable internet pornography. Wayne Beering (Giovanni Ribisi) and Buck Dolby (Gabriel Macht) are two horny lady lovers with the idea of creating the first online billing service for adult entertainment. They meet…

Starring: Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow Back in 1991 the world was a smaller place. The internet was in its infancy and subcultures, tribes, such as the surfing community, were mysterious to most of us. Perhaps they did act and sound like Patrick Swayze’s boho-hippy bank robber in search of ‘the ultimate rush’, we didn’t know. Only now we do, and, assumed caricatures apart, they really don’t. Point Break (1991) is quaint in its depiction of an alternative lifestyle. Not faithful, yet still functions as an above average, really quite vicious action thriller. It vividly showcases brutality, not least with the gunning down of a…

Not much call to comment on a solitary official image from espionage thriller The Tourist starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. Only to say that after Public Enemies and Alice in Wonderland, Colleen Atwood is now tackling contemporary couture costuming instead. For our money this is potentially an even more interesting area for Atwood. Obviously her stage/period/ fantasy outfits on the likes of Sweeney Todd, Nine and Memoirs of a Geisha, cannot be ignored. They’re terrific. She’s terrific. However following her early work on The Silence of the Lambs and The Mexican, contemporary costume perhaps offers Atwood an even greater challenge. Rather than recreate, the contemporary costumer often has to…

Frankie Says Watch the HD trailer (redband too) HERE Surely worth a look for eighties fans, the trailer for Hot Tub Time Machine starring John Cusack recently arrived on the web. It’s Back to the Future, for drunk guys. The plot for Hot Tub Time Machine is completely mental and probably wouldn’t be attracting any internet attention were it not for the noteworthy cast involved (meaning Cusack and eighties survivor Chevy Chase). It does seem like an amusing idea however. A group of middle aged guys take leave of their boring lives for a wild night of drinking in a ski resort Jacuzzi. They get completely sozzled, fall asleep and…

If there’s one thing that doesn’t mean much in World War Z, it’s looking presentable. This is costume at its worst, so to speak. Clothes that have been thrown through panes of glass or off the top of buildings, torn, stained and saturated with blood. This is the art of breaking down. Breaking down, distressing, aging, these basically achieve the same result – they make clothes seem more believably lived in, or in the case of World War Z’s zombie hoards, believably dead in. Clothes in movies are broken down by many tried and tested methods. Professional ‘agers’ chisel with files and sandpaper, unpick seams, wash over and over, even…

Recently Clothes on Film editor, Chris Laverty was invited to discuss the costumes, themes and food in HBO mini-series, Mildred Pierce. Joined by journalist, Georgie Hobbs; senior content producer for Sky Atlantic, Ben Boyer and Julia Murphy Buske from the Primrose Bakery, we chatted in detail about what made this superb adaptation come alive. HBO ‘Sessions’ video (including expert pie making tutorial) below: For further discussion of Ann Roth’s meticulous and beautifully symbolic costumes in Mildred Pierce, try our article on the functionality and sex appeal of the housedress, plus keep your eyes peeled at Clothes on Film over the coming week for more on the subject… HBO’s Mildred Pierce…

strong>Part one of a new Dual Analysis costume film review. Costume designer Anthea Sylbert was prolific following Rosemary’s Baby. Roman Polanski’s atmospheric horror was essentially her big break and apparently one of her toughest challenges too. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) tells the story of young newlyweds Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse (Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes) who move into an apartment building that turns out to be a haven of witches lead by old timers Minnie and Roman Castevet (Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer). On the promise of a big career, Guy allows the witches to impregnate Rosemary with the seed of the devil. Rosemary is trapped and alone, surrounded by an…

Costume design is more than just period – much more. Contemporary costume has an even tougher job of defining character and establishing setting. Yet every once in a while a period film comes along with clothes, hats and accessories so impeccably researched and realised on screen that it is impossible not to get swept along in the majesty of the past. Predominately early 1930s set Lawless is one such example. Costume designer Margot Wilson (The Thin Red Line, The Proposition, The Road), has created one of the richest costume palettes of 2012, and all in a believable real world setting. Speaking exclusively to Clothes on Film, Ms. Wilson talks us…

A brand new international trailer for Burlesque has pranced onto the internet, bursting at the bodice and swinging its tassels. It’s arrived in other words. The film charts the highly coloured tale of Ali Rose (Christina Aguilera), a wide-eyed small town girl who moves to Los Angeles on a whim and ends up becoming a hit headliner on the burlesque stage. Club owner Tess (Cher – yep, she’s back) teaches Ali the moves, though soon discovers she already has the singing part covered. It looks daft and enjoyable, like a trip to the seaside in winter. Just nobody mention Showgirls. Opps. Very plainly, ‘burlesque’ is risqué theatrical entertainment involving comedy,…

Paddy Considine plays The Guardian journalist Simon Ross in The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). And thanks to costume designer Shay Cunliffe, he wears a Belstaff man bag. Nothing unusual about him carrying a bag, he is a reporter after all. Except that, somehow, there is; even in this day and age when gender blending style has never been more prominent, it still looks ‘wrong’. But why? Male journalists tend to fall into two categories: those that shave on a regular basis, and those that don’t. Ross is the former, a squeaky clean type in inoffensive brown fine stripe moleskin jacket, white and blue stripe shirt and dark rinse jeans. The man…