OVP: Best Makeup & Hairstyling (2004)
The Nominees Were...
Valli O'Reilly & Bill Corso, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Keith Vanderlaan & Christien Tinsley, The Passion of the Christ
Jo Allen & Manuel Garcia, The Sea Inside
My Thoughts: We begin, as always, with Best Makeup. This category expanded to five-wide in 2019, but like several races we'll discuss in 2004, this was in the era of lineups that are short of a quintet, and so only three films fought for the screen looks (which is so weird...every film uses makeup, yet it was the last film to go five-wide even if not every movie has visual effects or songs). We're going to start with a movie that it's hard to grasp now how controversial it was, but at the time The Passion of the Christ was a huge water cooler picture.
Mel Gibson's biblical epic thankfully didn't get nominated in any of the major categories (it isn't a good movie, and wouldn't have deserved those slots), but as a result we don't really have an opening to discuss its cultural impact (I was a film critic for my college paper when this came out, and amid a campus-wide debate over whether it was anti-semitic, I was tasked with actually seeing the movie and giving our newsroom a perspective). The movie is anti-semitic, for my money, something backed up in the years since by Gibson's political leanings, but the makeup is impressive. It's hyper-realistic, gross, but effective in what Gibson is trying to do (showing the human agony of Christ's death on the cross). Gibson's later movie Apocalypto would struggle with having its realism taking you out of the story, but here it works-you find yourself trying to understand the title character's pain. It is not the makeup artist's fault that the story has nothing else to say about Jesus than he is being tortured-they did what they were hired for.
The Sea Inside is less impressive. In the mid-aughts it was all the rage to not only cast famous actors as real people, but to try & make them look unrecognizable in those roles, and Javier Bardem was a less successful attempt at this fad. Yes, he doesn't look like himself, but it's also not character building that he has a balding hairline & extra wrinkles. I judge this category both on the skill of the makeup artists and if the makeup work is bringing anything to the story. Here it's not-the most difficult aspects of the performance are being brought by Bardem's physicality, not his grey hair, and I feel like this was a missed opportunity by the Academy to highlight a movie that was less one-note.
Lemony Snicket, for example, actually uses its playful makeup to full effect. Bringing to life the beloved characters of Daniel Handler's novels, we see a gothic cascade of characters, including Jim Carrey totally transformed as Count Olaf. Here the makeup artists add notes to the characters (look at the vain Olaf's sculpted eyebrows or Violet's perfectly uneven bangs), while also creating visual treats for the audience. We know from Aunt Josephine's unmoving bun that she's someone that does care about herself, even if she's bad at it...these insights are particularly necessary for a movie that attempts to move itself through three books in a rapid two hours, and the makeup artists give the director shortcuts to succeed.
Other Precursor Contenders: BAFTA went five-wide long before Oscar did, and so here we have The Aviator besting five films that also didn't compete for Oscar: Finding Neverland, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, House of Flying Daggers, and Vera Drake (it's worth noting that BAFTA is more likely to notice hair-styling or "make the stars pretty" makeup than the prosthetic-obsessed Academy). The Saturn Awards went with Hellboy as their winner (a reminder that the Saturn Awards generally favor SciFi/Fantasy/Horror, rather than the full genre gamut), with it besting Dawn of the Dead, Van Helsing, Harry Potter, and Lemony Snicket. The Academy did have a bakeoff in 2004, with Hellboy, Harry Potter, The Aviator, and De-Lovely getting shortlisted, and my gut for fourth place says it's either Hellboy (they'd cite the sequel a few years later) or The Aviator (it was nominated everywhere else-why not Makeup?).
Films I Would Have Nominated: I honestly don't get what the Academy was thinking it dismissing The Aviator-it's showy work & obviously not focused on latex facial reconstruction (this ain't a Rick Baker movie), but it brilliantly emulates the looks of a half dozen iconic movie stars...it's totally up Oscar's alley. They were less-inclined then to go for comic book movies, but Hellboy would inspire so much cinema afterward (even if it wasn't a giant hit at the time), that I think that Oscar should've tipped his hat.
Oscar’s Choice: Lemony Snicket took the prize, probably because the Academy didn't want anyone to have the chance to thank Mel Gibson (this is the race The Passion came the closest to winning).
My Choice: I will also give this award to Lemony Snicket, a perfect combination of "a lot of makeup" and "best makeup," though I am not blind-The Passion is not a bad nomination here (The Sea Inside takes last).
And those are my thoughts-what are yours? Are we all in agreement that Lemony Snicket deserved this prize, or does someone want to make the case for a different nominee? Why do you think the Makeup branch skipped an easy citation like The Aviator? And why'd it take so long for this category to go five-wide? Share your theories below!
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