OVP: Best Makeup & Hairstyling (2002)
The Nominees Were...
My Thoughts: As we are back in 2002, we're also in a year where the nomination counts for at least certain categories are going to be a bit unusual. While we'll hit some of the five-wide races soon (possibly as early as Sunday if I can get my act in gear), our first two contests are just a few nominees. I've always found it odd about Best Makeup that it A) took until the late 2010's to go five-wide and B) that it took until the early 1980's to be a category at all. Makeup has been a part of the movies since the early 1900's, and has created such iconic looks as Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, & Regan MacNeil. Weirdly, though, it wasn't recognized, perhaps because so much of the most iconic makeup work happened in horror films (shout out to my friend Cody who is an ardent supporter of getting more mentions for horror movies from the Academy for makeup).
Sadly neither of the two nominees in 2002 are from horror films, or are really all that interesting to begin with. I have weirdly fond memories of The Time Machine primarily because it was the first time I got a phone call to the house to have one of my friends invite me to go to the movies (I was a profoundly unpopular child...in retrospect I'm not entirely sure that was my fault thought I took that on as a burden at the time, but that's a conversation for a therapist). The makeup work in this forgotten movie is distinct but quite repetitive. The Morlocks are not that much different than other artist interpretations of the creatures from HG Wells' classic (which I weirdly finally read during the pandemic), though they are at least well-constructed.
You cannot claim the same for Frida. I hate to be reductive about films getting nominated for (and in this case, winning) Oscars because obviously someone saw something in it, but for me it's hard not to think this won a trophy solely by putting a unibrow on a devastatingly beautiful woman. That's really it-even in the dying scenes it feels like Hayek is decked out to look ultra glamorous, not like the real-life Kahlo, and nothing else in the movie rises above your standard-issue period makeup. This isn't the worst that Oscar has ever done (remember when they put Jared Leto in $8 worth of CVS cosmetics in Dallas Buyers Club and it won the statue?), but it's pretty paltry.
Other Precursor Contenders: BAFTA was five-wide long before Oscar, so here we have Frida beating Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Hours, and The Two Towers, while at the Saturn Awards (which primarily honor SciFi, Horror, & Fantasy films) we had The Two Towers win against Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Blade II, Minority Report, Star Trek: Nemesis, and The Ring. From what I can tell, I can't find evidence that 2002 had a bake-off (if I'm wrong, correct me in the comments as it looks like 2001 & 2003 both had them so I'd presume they would here), but if I had to bet it was likely a contest between The Two Towers and Star Trek: Nemesis, since both series had been cited previously for their makeup work.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I mean, only a fool wouldn't go for The Two Towers. I don't care that it was just out-there's still so much in this movie (Theoden, Gandalf the White, the battle of Helm's Deep) that invite mention that weren't in Fellowship that it missing is unforgivable. I'm also a big fan of glamour so I think the period loveliness of Chicago would make sense. And finally, since I'm a horror champion here, I have to admit that The Ring (which twenty years later has looks that are still parodied) was a missed opportunity from AMPAS.
Oscar’s Choice: The Miramax machine (yes, 2002 is one of the two years with a Harvey Weinstein nomination, and we are deeply in the throes now of when he was a household name for his Oscar campaigns, not for his nefarious offscreen crimes) wasn't going to let Frida go without a victory here, and it took an easy win over The Time Machine.
My Choice: I'll be real-even in a five-wide race, neither of these are showing up when we eventually get to My Ballot, but The Time Machine at least tries so I'll give it the victory over Frida.
And those are my thoughts-what are yours? Are you siding with Salma's unibrow or do you want to chill with me & the Morlocks? How is it that they skipped Lord of the Rings and Star Trek after nominating them repeatedly outside of 2002? And why'd they skip the bakeoff randomly in 2002? Share your theories below!
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