OVP: Best Makeup (2006)
The Nominees Were...
Aldo Signoretti & Vittorio Sodano, Apocalypto
Kazuhiro Tsuji & Bill Corso, Click
David Marti & Montse Ribe, Pan's Labyrinth
My Thoughts: As always, we will start our 2006 individual races with Best Makeup (the hairstyling portion is still five years away), and a category that was still very much in the Rick Baker era (even if Baker himself isn't cited in this field), leaning heavily into the grotesque, the prosthetic, & the old age. Two of these films we'll visit in future episodes as they were multiple-time nominees with Oscar in 2006, so we'll start instead with the one film in this lineup who is getting its only nomination, a film that means that yes, Adam Sandler has starred in an Oscar-nominated picture.
Click is about as good of a reminder as you can get that you shouldn't judge a film's craft nominations by the quality of the movie, as oh man is this picture absolutely dreadful, completely lacking in logic or common sense (and filled with plot holes). However, there's parts of the makeup nod that feel relatively well-earned. The old age work, particularly on Sandler in the lead, is believable & more subtle than you'd expect for the movie. However, the film's use of fat suit makeup is not only tacky (then and in retrospect), but also it takes us out of the movie. It's unneeded, and not convincing-really the technology never improved past 1996's The Nutty Professor, and here it feels a bit like it's not sophisticated enough when compared with where other makeup technologies had come.
That's certainly the case for Pan's Labyrinth. This film is in the great pantheon of Hollywood makeup, particularly the Pale Man, a fascinating, toothless creature there to haunt your nightmares (I remember in college drawing eyes on my hand for the Oscar night this was nominated, and doing the eye motion like in the film every time Pan's was announced during the ceremony). The whole film, though, is brimming with fascinating creatures, many of whom are enhanced by visual effects (also solid), but made otherworldly through movie makeup. A case where more is more, and one of this category's most well-earned victors.
Which leaves us with Apocalypto, another film that has a lot of makeup, but unlike Pan's, it's on a sliding scale with diminishing returns. The film's bloody, frequently grotesque use of cartoonish violence in its makeup work steals focus throughout the film. Apocalypto, more than virtually any other Mel Gibson film, earns its reputation as needlessly violent, to the point where it starts to hurt the story, and much of the (convincing) makeup work will pull you out of the picture. It's worth noting that the film's best scene (the jaw-dropping sequence on the beach) has literally nothing to do with the quality of the makeup category, and considering how omnipresent this craft is in the rest of the movie, that is telling.
Other Precursor Contenders: BAFTA went five-wide long before Oscar did, and so we have Pan's Labyrinth besting The Devil Wears Prada, Marie Antoinette, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, and The Queen, (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 Slither as their winner (a reminder that the Saturn Awards generally favor SciFi/Fantasy/Horror, rather than the full genre gamut), with it beating The Hills Have Eyes, The Descent, Pan's Labyrinth, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, and Pirates of the Caribbean 2. The Academy did have a bakeoff in 2006, with Pirates of the Caribbean 2, The Prestige, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, and X-Men: The Last Stand getting shortlisted...I would assume Pirates (both considering the precursors & the film's presence otherwise with Oscar that year) was in fourth place, but wouldn't it have been hilarious if Santa Clause 3 had somehow made the cut?
Films I Would Have Nominated: I would have also included Pirates of the Caribbean 2. I think people forget that while the film's most famous transformation was caused by visual effects (Bill Nighy's Davy Jones), the rest of the cast had to endure hours of prosthetics to give the proper feel of the Caribbean & to match the aesthetic Disney was trying to capture with this franchise (that would become omnipresent in movies for the following decade as the series became a multi-billion-dollar bonanza)
Oscar’s Choice: Without Pirates, it wasn't really a contest-Pan's Labyrinth took this easily.
My Choice: Again, without Pirates, there's not really a contest-Pan's Labyrinth goes first. I'm going to give the second place to Click-its old age work is impressive, and while the fat suit is terrible, Apocalypto's makeup work genuinely took me out of the picture, a more unforgivable sin (even if it's more realistic).
And those are my thoughts-what are yours? Can we all just assume that Pan's Labyrinth got everyone's vote? How did Click get into this field when Pirates was right there for the taking? And don't you hate how long it took this field to go five-wide? Share your theories below!
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