Spotlight On: Colleen Atwood

Somewhat related to last weeks spotlight, this week's spotlight is on costume designer Colleen Atwood. She has worked on several movies with Tim Burton as well as many other films. She has been nominated for nine Oscars and has won two. I am hoping that she will win her third on Sunday because her costumes for Alice in Wonderland were so much better than the costumes in the other nominated film. I am about as far as it gets from a fashion expert, but here are some of my favorite costumes that she has designed.

Edward Scissorhands

Colleen does a great job in Edward Scissorhands making costumes for both the dark, gothic looking title character and the pastel-clad inhabitants of the little suburb. I just love the look of Edward's costume. There is just so much detail and I'm really curious about whether he can take it off or not. He wears it throughout the whole movie, even under his normal clothes, so I'm wondering if his costume is actually a part of him.

Ed Wood

In Ed Wood she had to create costumes for characters that were actual people, including director Ed Wood and Vampira.

Little Women

Period costumes are always really cool in movies, and these are two of my favorite costumes in Little Women. my favorite is probably the one that Winona is wearing. Its a pretty simple dress, but I like the black lines going up the front.

Mars Attacks

Mars Attacks is a movie thats not necessarily well-known for its costumes, but my favorite costume in the movie is the one for the Martian girl.

Sleepy Hollow

I love everything that Katrina Van Tassel wears in Sleepy Hollow! All the costumes that Colleen made for her are gorgeous!

Chicago

Chicago is the movie that Atwood got her first Oscar win for, and it was well-deserved. I adore the outfit that Catherine Zeta-Jones wears to court, and all of the sparkly costumes for the musical numbers are amazing!

Big Fish

Wow, all of the movies that she does with Tim Burton have the most amazing costumes! All of Alison Lohman's costumes look gorgeous on her, but my favorites are the costumes for the people from the circus.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

All the costumes in this movie are really cool, but Emily Browning's are my favorites.

Memoirs of a Geisha

This is the movie that got Colleen Atwood her second Oscar. There are tons and tons of absolutely gorgeous kimonos in this movie. Visually speaking, I don't think that this movie would have been nearly as beautiful without Atwood's amazing costumes.

Sweeney Todd

Lots of black and white stripes, with the ocassionaly pops of colors like blues and reds, these costumes are very Tim Burton-esque. I was actually really disappointed when she didn't win for Best Costume Design for this movie because I think that she did a fantastic job.

Nine

This movie wasn't my favorite, but I did like the costumes. My favorite has to be the costume that Kate Hudson wears for her musical number.

Alice in Wonderland

If Colleen Atwood doesn't win Best Costume Design on Sunday I will be pissed! Every single costume in this movie looked fantastic and fit the character perfectly!

Movie I Want To See: Last Night

When is this movie ever going to come out? As far as I know this movie still does not have a release date here in the U.S. This is a movie that I have been waiting to come out for forever because I love Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington and Eva Mendes, and I thought that it seemed like an interesting movie filled with absolutely gorgeous people. Finally there is a trailer for this movie (that says coming soon at the end instead of a date...grrrr) and it does look pretty intriguing to me. I'm really pleased that all of the actors have their normal accents in this movie. Relationship dramas aren't really my thing, but you know what I will admit that I want to see this for purely superficial reasons. Sam Worthington is SEXY! He says the very first thing in the trailer, and with his Australian accent too, so I'm like DAAAAMN! Anyways, Worthington's sexiness aside, this movie looks like something I might enjoy seeing and I think that both Keira and Eva are good matches for him....

Even More Sucker Punch Posters/ New Trailer

With only a month left to go until Sucker Punch hits theaters, the people at Warner Brothers released five more character posters for the film. These ones have a sort of vintage-y look to them, and are definitely targeting males...

Personally, I'm not a big fan of these posters because I don't really understand why they would make vintage type posters for a very special effects driven movie. I think that the images of the girls really clash with the backgrounds. Anyways, a third trailer has also been released. Instead of giving more of the plot, they just show more of the effects in the movie. Interestingly enough, there is no dialogue at all in the trailer. While I am kind of disappointed that they are just showing us more of the same stuff that was in the other two trailers, I still think that its pretty neat and has a really cool song.

Character of the Week: Enid Coleslaw

This week's character of the week is my all-time favorite comic book character, Enid Coleslaw. Daniel Clowes' Ghost World is my favorite graphic novel and I have read it dozens of times. I actually have two copies of it, I have the normal copy, and the special edition copy with the screenplay that I got signed by Clowes at Fantagraphics! I also have a few issues of Eightball, so I guess I have three ways to read Ghost World.

I just love Enid because while she is very clever and funny, she is also flawed and seems like she could be a real person. Shes sort of like the girl who you really want to be friends with, but once you are friends with them you can't really stand them. I also just love her relationship with her best friend Rebecca. She sees herself as somewhat superior to her, and yet the two of them have this somewhat possessive relationship with eachother.

 You are always seeing the two of them together, and even when you don't, they seem to be talking about eachother. Enid is definitely the more dominant one in the friendship, and she is the one that realizes that they don't need to be friends forever, and she really starts seeing this when she is applying to college. Enid always acts like she doesn't care what people think, even though deep town she really does. This really shows when she changes out of her punk look after talking to Johnny Apeshit, and when she sells her car after people, like Rebecca, make fun of it, calling it a "goth dorkmobile."

In the 2001 movie version, Enid is played by Thora Birch, who does an amazing job. She is great at the sarcastic and bitch sides of Enid, as well as the vulnerable and lonely sides as well. Even though I do love Thora in the role, I am curious about how the movie would have turned out with Christina Ricci, who was originally going to play Enid. I think that she would have been fantastic in that role and I was really excited to see a drawing that Daniel Clowes did of her as Enid.

Anyways, Ghost World is one of my favorite movies, and a good chunk of the reason I love it is because of Thora Birch's portrayal of Enid Coleslaw. Here are some of the best scenes in the movie.