One Category at a Time: Makeup and Hairstyling

Like it was this time last year, I find myself running around in illogical circles trying to determine the winner of this year's Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Do I go with the most liked film, the coolly received but star-transforming biopic, or the fantasy with the “most” makeup?

My Award nominations: Makeup and Hair

This is the only category this year in which none of my own nominees are up for the Oscar. Shame, shame, Makeup branch. Don't you understand that these three movies have the Best Makeup and Hair of the year?

My Awards nominations: Hair and Makeup

In this digital age it always does me good to see that this dying art is still kicking its legs. The best Hair and Makeup achievements of the year are:

Captain America: The First Avenger
(David White, Lisa Westcott):

Redskull is a creepy and iconic creation, but let's not forget all the detailing that goes into those WWII battle scars and period hairdos.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows 2
(Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin):

Okay, so not everybody was convinced by the epilogue aging, but that doesn't diminish the quality and quantity of the other fantastical character designs.

Green Lantern (Joel Harlow, Felicity Bowring):

Wonderful alien creations and Peter Saarsgard's pronounced forehead are appropriately cartoonish but also convincingly done.

The Iron Lady (Mark Coulier, Marese Langan):

Nuanced aging work takes us through Thatcher's glory days to her desiccated "golden years" with tangible authenticity.

Thor (Luisa Abel, Janice Alexander):

The frost giants are particularly elaborate designs, but let's not forget all that robust Asgaardian facial hair.

Just missed: Captain America, Harry Potter 8, Hugo, War Horse

One Category at a Time: Best Makeup

It's hard to tell what direction this branch will go on a yearly basis. They really do nominate what they feel constitutes the best work, and pay little attention to critical reception or Best Picture buzz. And to be honest, that's the way it aught to be. So who stands a chance of getting in this year?

Given their openness to nominating films that the critics really don't give a damn about, I haven't got a problem in predicting a film like Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - one which I doubt will fare too well with cinephiles - to earn a nod. Two of the previous three Pirates films made it in here, and with past winners Joel Harlow and Peter King on board, I imagine the makeup work will be great.

A call I'm less confident in but still willing to make is A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg's look at the lives and work of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. The film's makeup and hair designer Stephan Dupuis already has an Oscar to his name, albeit for his more grotesque transformative magic on Cronenberg's The Fly. Can he follow up his sole nomination from 25 years ago with another one for what we can only assume will be more subtle work?

And what about all those comic-book-character-based blockbusters coming out this summer? Surely they can't all be passed over by the Academy. Captain America's WWII setting may allow Lisa Westcott and David White to cook up some realistic war-related makeup to compliment what will probably be their more memorable creation; Hugo Weaving's transformation into Red Skull.

Predicted three:
Captain America: The First Avenger
A Dangerous Method
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Also consider: Cowboys and Aliens, The Green Lantern, Harry Potter 7, The Iron Lady, Thor, War Horse.

My Award nominations: Hair and Makeup

Truth be told, I didn't come across that many worthy contenders for Best Hair and Makeup this year (I haven't even seen all seven of the Academy's bakeoff finalists), but hey, I can always go back and change my nominees if I eventually see something better. Anywho, the three best I've seen so far are:

Black Swan
(Judy Chin, Paul LeBlanc, Michael Marino):
Darkly stylized stage makeup and grisly bodily transformation horrors dance together in this beautiful psychological thriller.

The Fighter
(Donald Mowatt, Johnny Villanueva):
Whether it's Christian Bale's burnt-out drug addict, Mark Whalberg's battered boxer's mug, or the subtle aging work done on Melissa Leo, all the makeup efforts are realistic and believable.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
(Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin):
There may not have been many new characters to create, but the makeup work here is still highly detailed and effective, especially at making the three leads look progressively wearier and worn down throughout their saga.

The Way Back
(Eduouard Enrique, Yolanda Tousseing):
The work done on Peter Weir's "modest" epic (by the same Oscar-nominated team of Master and Commander) is so good you almost don't even notice. The realization of sunburns, swollen feet, and general dishevelment is detailed and incredibly realistic.

The Wolfman (Rick Baker, Lisa Westcott, Dave Elsey):
What is there really to say? When Rick Baker's on the job, you know he's gonna give you nothing less than Oscar-worthy makeup. Not only are the werewolf effects awesome, but the wound and illness effects are rendered just as artfully.


Just missed: Shutter Island