Instagram just served me a Netflix ad of a movie based on the book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, which I've been obsessed with since middle school and I'm both so excited and already curbing my enthusiasm a little because based on the trailer, they did the lightest amount of commitment to the whole thing where the transformation is actually...transformational. Like they literally decided to go from "no makeup" makeup to high glam as the transformation. Instead of going with no makeup and shitty lighting. We know from the Derry Girls that TV is capable of aging people down and making them look immature & emphasize their least cute features, and then we see those same actors/actresses on the red carpet and they literally look like an alternate universe version of themselves.
I feel like they could've really played with the meta narrative of how much we literally transform people to get to a certain level/phase of growth/society, and also the slight bimboification effect that we're obviously also watching both happen and the resistance to it happen? Just a flattening of the conversation to entertainment and satisfaction and lightness. And also how prettiness is literally in the eye of the camera/beholder, by playing with that more. Showing the "real world" perhaps even with a completely different color palette than the Pretty moments. But instead they chose to prioritize the presentation/appearance of pretty culture, which is kind of the whole thing the book is trying to critique.
I'm still gonna watch this because I'm obsessed with the books and committed but also I'm braced for disappointment :/ because if they can't even that that part right (the visual interpretation), I'm not convinced they are gonna get the deeper themes and things I loved about the book series right either.
Also as I was writing this up I looked up the YouTube trailer and the comment section is basically this and versions of this so ... Possibly this is either the correct take or the absolute wrong one, I guess I'll find out