BWW Reviews: Behold Beauty in ADVANCED STYLE - She Is Ageless!

(The 21st Annual Sedona International Film Festival, running from February 21st through March 1st, is featuring 160 documentaries, features, shorts, Academy Award nominees and specialty films. The following is one of a series of reviews of selected films from the Festival.)

Hurray for Advanced Style, a manifesto in film that calls upon us to free ourselves from society's fixation on commercialized notions of beauty and aging! The special joy of the movie is the introduction to a bevy of enchanting beauties, role models in their own right.

This highly-acclaimed documentary, directed by Lina Plioplyte, features seven remarkable New York women, as young as 62 and as advanced as 95, who decry the conventions of fashion and fashion for themselves the style that best suits them. Colorful, chic, radical, flashy ~ whatever their arrangement of clothes and splashes of hues, they carry themselves with poise and self-assurance, the gifts of fearlessness that come with age, independence, and the imperative of self-reliance.

Each is an artisan in her own right, proving that "money can't buy style," that a woman can be active, creative, and vital regardless of age," and that "the body is an armature on which to create the right look."

Ms. Plioplyte's camera dutifully follows the trail of Ari Seth Cohen as he roves the broad avenues of New York City seeking the next stars for his blog, Advanced Style. Cohen patiently and politely approaches his subjects with a warm greeting, a rich compliment ("You look so gorgeous and elegant"), and a request to photograph them for his ever-expanding album of grand dames. Ms. Plioplyte then gives a wide lens to the narratives of the seven women of this film who, in turn compel us to yield wide grins of delight at their idiosyncrasies, their candor, and their wisdom.

The glorious and glamorous stars of this show reveal that beauty and age are a state of mind and that, even when the body goes arthritic or ailments befall you, you can choose to surrender or declare unequivocally, "Advance in style!"

Here's a documentary to put on your bucket list and share with your boomer + friends and family!

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