Rating 24 Movie Makeovers, From the Lazy to the Jaw-Dropping
Overview
Remember when they just took Rachel Leigh Cook's glasses off in She's All That? That one scene has become shorthand for everything critics love to mock about Hollywood's approach to on-screen transformations: a character is deemed unattractive purely because of glasses, frizzy hair, or overalls, and a few minutes of screen time later, she descends a staircase in a red dress to a room full of stunned faces. It's a trope so recognizable that it's spawned its own genre of retrospective ranking, with outlets regularly revisiting decades of makeover scenes to separate the lazy shortcuts from the genuinely transformative moments.
The Makeover Scene as a Film Convention
The movie makeover has been a staple of teen comedies, romantic dramas, and coming-of-age films since at least the 1990s, though the convention traces back further to classics like My Fair Lady and Sabrina. The formula is consistent: a montage or single reveal signals a character's shift in confidence, social status, or romantic prospects, usually scored to an upbeat pop track. When done well, the makeover reflects genuine internal change. When done poorly, it reduces a character's worth to superficial styling choices, implying she was never truly seen until she conformed to conventional beauty standards.
Why the 'Glasses-Off' Trope Became a Punchline
She's All That is frequently cited as the textbook example of a lazy makeover because Laney Boggs' entire 'before' look amounts to glasses, a ponytail, and paint-splattered overalls — an outfit that, stripped of judgmental framing, is not actually unattractive. Removing the glasses and letting her hair down does the heavy lifting, while the film treats this minimal change as a full transformation. This has made the scene a recurring reference point whenever critics and pop culture writers discuss how filmmakers signal 'unattractive' with the bare minimum of visual cues, rather than meaningful styling or character development.
What Separates a Great Makeover From a Lazy One
The most memorable movie makeovers tend to share a few qualities: they connect the physical change to an emotional or narrative arc, they involve real styling effort rather than symbolic removal of an accessory, and they let the character retain elements of her original personality instead of erasing it entirely. Films that are held up as high points in these rankings typically use the makeover to reveal a character rather than replace her, while the lowest-ranked examples rely on tired signifiers — glasses, ponytails, baggy clothes — as the entire 'before' identity.
FAQ
Is the She's All That makeover really that minimal? Yes — the scene is often singled out specifically because the 'before' look requires almost no real change, which is why it's become a go-to example in makeover-scene critiques.
Why do these ranking lists keep coming back? Makeover scenes are a recurring, highly visual convention across decades of film, making them easy to compile, compare, and revisit as fashion and beauty standards evolve.
Source
Originally published at www.vogue.com.