Movie montages were first created back in the 1920s and have greatly evolved since. Some of the best montages in cinema history consist of a catchy song, lots of camera movement, and cuts to different points of the montage. Some montages cater to heavy narration, and sometimes they even jump across spans of time. However, they all have one major thing in common: montages are meant to develop both the character and the plot to reach the arch of the story.
Makeover montages have been a popular tactic in developing a story arc when the main character of the film is breaching from one “personality” to a new one. These sequences started to reach their peak in the early 90s, when a woman would go through a Cinderella-like transformation to be united with her charming prince. Early remnants of these can be seen in films like Grease and Ally Sheedy’s transformation at the end of The Breakfast Club. Montages serve as transformation scenes and often display a change in the character on the surface level. The 2000s delivered some of the most memorable makeover sequences in cinema history, and some of these movies have even become cult classics today. Here are the best makeover sequences from the 2000s, ranked.
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4 House Bunny
When Playboy Bunny Shelley gets told that she needs to move out of the mansion because she is too old to be a bunny, she finds herself on a college campus where she soon meets the Zeta Alpha Zeta girls. They take her in and make her their housemother, and in return, Shelley transforms the geeky Zeta girls into college campus bombshells. House Bunny fits almost every key point of a classic makeover montage scene, down to the catchy pop song. Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” plays as Shelley explains to the girls how to completely revamp their look in true Playboy Bunny fashion. The interesting twist in House Bunny is that Shelley must go through a makeover scene after Oliver catches her eye, and Oliver isn’t one to fall for her Bunny tricks. He is reserved, intelligent, and looking for more than just a flirtation. So in return for her efforts, the Zeta girls help transform Shelley into the kind of girl Oliver would be interested in. Overall, Shelley and the Zeta girls all learn that the very best thing to be is yourself.
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3 Mean Girls
Paramount
Mean Girls was released in 2004 and slowly rose to the cult classic it is today. The comedic brilliance of Tina Fey’s helped bring this feminist comedy film to life, so much so that October third has become recognized as “Mean Girls Day.” When we are first introduced to Cady Heron, she is a new transfer student who just returned from Africa with her parents after being homeschooled. She meets outcasts Damien and Janis Ian, both of whom give her the rundown on the school’s hierarchy. After the popular “mean girls” take interest in Cady, the three devise a plot to take down The Plastics once and for all. However, in her effort to help Janis take down her arch enemy, Regina George, Cady becomes the very thing she is trying to destroy.
Becoming plastic was an easy feat for Cady being that she had three of the most popular girls in school to transform her. There is even a point in the movie where Regina claims that she “invented Cady.” Cady’s makeover scene is probably the most simple montage of the 2000s, but it is delivered with an unbeatable narration that truly captures the importance of being a teen girl desperate to fit in. Cady narrates over the scene in reference to Gretchen that, “She knew it was better being in the plastics hating life, than not be in at all. Because being with the plastics was like being famous.” The introduction is short and quick. The four scatter into what is presumably Regina’s room, and then there is a cut to them at the mall. The camera pans from the feet up revealing Cady’s full makeover showing that Cady has officially traded in her army pants and flip-flops for short skirts and heals.
2 Miss Congeniality
Warner Bros.
Miss Congeniality quickly became a 2000s classic, and is on every best Sandra Bullock-movie list to any fan. Bullock plays FBI Agent Gracie, who, after a brief misjudgment on the job, faces a disciplinary action that may cost her big time. Yet, after she pieces together where The Citizen, the FBI’s most wanted terrorist, may attack next, she is tasked with going undercover at a beauty pageant. When we first meet Gracie, she is a disorganized mess, lacking any sense of femininity. However, for the pageant, she must put her feminist feelings aside and transform into a typical pageant-runner’s aesthetic. The brilliant Michael Caine plays Victor Melling, the pageant world’s most notable beauty consultant. He works effortlessly with the FBI to transform Gracie into a pageant queen, but he even doubts himself at points. The makeover montage is cut so that it shows Gracie being borderline tortured and the male FBI agents preparing their guns and eating sandwiches. Miss Congeniality is a staple as far makeover montages go.
1 The Princess Diaries
Walt Disney
Disney’s 2001 classic, The Princess Diaries is one of the greatest princess tales of not just the 2000s, but of all time. Mia Thermopolis, a quiet girl from San Francisco, learns on her 16th birthday that she is actually the heir to the thrown in a country called Genovia. Reluctant to endure her grandmother’s princess training, Mia receives easily the greatest makeover montage of the 2000s. Mia’s grandmother, Queen of Genovia, calls in a favor to Paolo to tweak her granddaughter’s look into that of royalty.
Paolo enters and asks where the Queen’s granddaughter is, and after being addressed to Mia, he lets out a hilarious audible shriek. From that moment forward, the chemistry between Larry Miller and Anne Hathaway is hilariously astonishing. From Mia’s hair breaking Paolo’s brush to Paolo snapping Mia’s glasses in half, the scene is without a doubt one of the very best makeover montages of the early 2000s. However, it isn’t just Mia’s looks that must endure her switch from regular teen to princess: Mia must change her entire demeanor, and learn to speak, act, and move like royalty.
