Top Ten: Ezra Miller Lewks
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 at 1:21PM by Nathaniel R
Tilda & Ezra 7 years ago. He learned from a master
We have been greatly remiss in celebrating Ezra Miller's rising fashion-icon insanity. I am pleased in retrospect to have been one of the five people who saw and admired his debut performance in the disturbing art film Afterschool which made $3,911* at the box office in 2009 (*actual figure, not sarcasm). I vividly remember seeing it because when I left the theater, a friend who worked at the Nashville Film Festival ran up to tell me that Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban had attended the screening directly before mine. (A tragedy truly: we saw the same movie at the same festival on the same day but weren't in the same showing. ARGH!)
More than ever in 2018, Miller has proven that his casting as Tilda Swinton's son in his breakout picture, Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) was more than a little prescient because he's following in Tilda's iconoclastic and androgynous footsteps in the department of causing stirs on the red carpet.
So herewith a top ten of Ezra fashion after the jump...
10 Trainwreck Premiere 2015
A reuinon with screen mama Tilda Swinton. It's easy to imagine Ezra's style calcifying in a couple of decades -- Johnny Depp's grungy boho-chic was once well, chic, before it started feeling like a habitual costume (and Johnny is also way too fond of hats) -- but for now it always feels like Ezra is having fun and not locked in to any one type of look
09 Batman v Superman Premiere 2016
Character specificity (which he'll get even better at recently). He's got a bit part in this steroided movie so he doesn't steal the red carpet but keeps it simple, and The Flash-adjacent (red red red) and even leans into the masculinity a little more than usual with that open shirt and classic James Dean hand me down silhouette and color combo from Rebel Without a Cause
08 Photographers and Stylists Can Put Him in Anything for Photoshoots and He'll Own It
So fluid and not just with the gender.
07 His T-Shirt Game in General
t-shirts are the ultimate democratizing fashion item and his are often on point. Sometimes they're hilariously blunt "Weird" sometimes they're taste-signalling (often 80s punk bands), sometimes they're political, sometimes they are annoyingly hipster. But a truth: he looks good in anything given the blessings of a lanky frame, and that sculptural face.
06 Various We Need to Talk About Kevin events (2011)
You can feel him testing all sorts of styles out on the campaign trail for that film and his future stardom.
05 He knows when to pull it back for other people's premieres
Consider these looks for Oceans 8 (2018) and On the Road (2012) they are low-key enough to not distract from the actual stars of the movies, but they're still totally Ezra. And with Oceans 8, he looks like you could throw him right into the movie itself, like that film's costume designer chose this for him.
04 Comic Con 2018
Whenever Ezra shows up at Comic Con he generally gets into the spirit of the event, acting like a true geek fan doing cosplay rather than a star promoting something. This Toadette Mario Kart look was a total pinnacle.
03 We Need to Talk About Kevin Cannes Premiere 2011
An early premonition of the fashion iconicity to come. Tilda was the star but look how perfectly Ezra compliments her, and the slightly oversized sized suit --like a David Byrne Jr for the 21st century -- is perfect.
02 Justice League Premieres 2017
He cleans up beautifully when he feels like it for more traditional-leaning (if not conservative) men's fashion. Then he sells it with fashion model flair. If you think about it, it's enormously ballsy to pair dandy fashion instincts with a painted lip for a premiere for a franchise that embraces toxic masculinity in nearly every frame with the other male leads all growling at each other and scowling for the bulk of their time onscreen.
01 Various Fantastic Beasts 2 Premieres 2018
Miller has moved into full "showman" mode this fall, embracing the red carpet as performance rather than publicity. First there was the "Supa Dupa Fly" influenced black puffy pyramid look. And dressing as Hedwig -- Harry Potter's owl not the iconic John Cameron Mitchell character -- was a camp masterstroke. Listen, if you're going to abandon art films and sell your soul to a franchise, embrace your subservience to the almighty Corporate Brand!
Reader Comments (17)
He is a beautiful young man, but I'm not really feeling many of these outfits. Tilda never looks as if she's in costume - it's all effortless. This comes across as a little try-hard to me - same with early Lady Gaga.
He's the male Tilda we needed.
That frame and that face. He owes it to us to wear any crazy shit he wants :).
Unpopular opinion but he gives me the heebie-jeebies.
I wish so badly that he avoided both HP and DC films because I feel we’re missing out some truly awe insprining work that because he’s tied up with these films for at least the next decade we’ll suffer as his fans.
I’ve not seen his debut but his performance in WNTTAK is truly amazing.
I like him. I like his strange fashion choices.
I rolled my eyes at him.
Most of these are some pretty terrible fails. It's too "look-at-me being ME!"
Pity his red carpet game hasn't translated into better on-screen performances...
Ugh!!!!
I've only seen him in We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I liked him in both. I don't remember him in Trainwreck!
I don't love all of these looks but I like a few. Much more importantly, I like that he has fun with clothes. Clothing for men can be so restrictive and boring, and a lot of people's knee-jerk response to seeing a guy experiment with clothing is to roll their eyes. He's looks like he's enjoying himself and can pull those looks off.
All the goodwill he recently earned with my penis was lost when I saw a friend showed me a photo of his toes (which the friend referred to as "bird claws"). Such a deal-breaking boner killer for me.
Those sort of cheekbones and almost sunken look to the jawline irrationally take me back to young men or the 80's and 90's at the end of their battles. Thankfully I'm mostly past that reaction with Ezra because he's always being posted about
I love him.
I also think that he tries too hard. And in some of his interviews he sounds conceited, which is not a good look.
I'm down with celebs that are avant-garde or think outside the box, but I read the "polycule" article and got a weird vibe. I couldn't tell if he was just trying to be oh-so-very New Age or was high or was psychotic. I worry for the guy, frankly.
Less is more, Ezra