Your trash TV obsession is actually a capitalist trap. Sorry bestie.
What do popular television makeover programs like What Not to Wear, The Biggest Loser, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and The Swan tell us about how to look and feel? What do they tell us about what a good life looks like in contemporary America? This new film based on Katherine Sender's book The Makeover explores these questions against the backdrop of American ideals of self-invention and upward mobility. Asking what it means to be an authentic self in an increasingly mediated world -- to be both ordinary and special, to be happy with who we are while always wanting something better -- Brand New You shows how the interventions featured in makeover shows, from weight loss to cosmetic surgery, reproduce conventional norms of physical attractiveness and success.
Writing
Academic rigor without the dry aftertaste
Editing
Savage juxtaposition of feel-good fluff and harsh critique
Direction
Sender's surgical precision dissecting the genre
Director
Katherine E Sender
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Sender's book became foundational in media studies; this doc brings her critique to the TikTok generation who grew up on transformation content.
The film reveals how What Not to Wear's '360 mirror' ritual replicated workplace surveillance, making contestants police themselves.
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