Oscar Volley: Best Makeup is the Battle of the Biopics

Team Experience will be discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Nathaniel and Cláudio to discuss Makeup & Hairstyling...

At the moment, MAESTRO looks like our undisputed frontrunner.

NATHANIEL: Dearest Cláudio, it falls on you and I to kick off this year's pre-nomination Oscar volleys. Best Makeup and Hairstyling is up first. So please picture me in heavy old age makeup with some crazy wig atop my bald head. Also, I have green skin (I'm covering as many films as possible in my look). The dark circles under my eyes are not a makeup effect in honor of Lily Gladstone's suffering Mollie Burkhardt -- that's unfortunately just my face! I'm doing too much in my look because like many other craft categories, Makeup is often a race for "Most" rather than "Best"; when we get phenomenal winners it's usually because they are accidentally both of those things at once! I always wish the "Hairstyling" part would get more attention since that would complicate predictions. 

I want to start with an unexpected question before we get to things we're rooting for (however unlikely) and actual predictions…

Do you think the cultural Marvel fatigue -- you can see it in the weaker than usual box office, the lack of constant conversation, and the suddenly no-longer-fawning reviews -- suggest that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 won't land a nomination? We don't have a lot of statistic history to go on since the category expanded to five nominees just three years ago but in the past the makeup branch's interest in franchises in this category has been extremely sporadic and random. Many popular franchises have been honored (they're not stuffy about genre -- outside of a weird aversion to horror makeup) but usually only once or twice.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 may be Disney's best bet.

CLÁUDIO: Starting any missive with "dearest" makes my brain bring up Cate Blanchett's line deliveries in Carol. It's a Pavlovian response at this point. So, my instinct is to imagine you in perfect 50s style instead of that...interesting lewk you've conjured. Since you won't be doing the honors, I'll be the one who everyone should picture in a Barbie blonde wig sculpted to post-war elegance, mug serving femme butch realness for the Eisenhower era. This branch rarely recognizes straight-up glamour, so someone has to!

Getting down to business, I think Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is making it. Not only was it news in the makeup community, breaking the record for most prosthetic pieces ever used in a movie, but it also represents the last vestige of outright success for the MCU in 2023. If AMPAS will reward Disney's multiverse project - and they often like to honor the House of Mouse - then it'll likely be through Guardians. At the very least, it should have a spot on the shortlist.

Now let me volley you a question - how many biopics will the Marvel flick be rubbing shoulders with on said shortlist?

Kate McKinnon in a BARBIE behind the scenes video.
NATHANIEL: Does Barbie count as a biopic? I'm joking but it does give her the full cradle to grave treatment... or rather "origin" to "retirement". You mention that the branch doesn't recognize glamour which is sadly true but here's hoping with Barbie. I suppose some would argue that you don't have to do too much work to make Margot Robbie represent iconically perfect femininity. But the work is so right... and fun, too:  "Weird Barbie", Ken's dye job, etcetera.  My aggravations with this category go way back to literally my first Oscar year (1982) when I was pissed that Blade Runner (noir glamour plus effects makeup plus indelible character details)  and Victor/Victoria (glamour + period + wigs and makeup as "performance" effect) were passed over but... Gandhi was there? I can't go down this rabbit hole. I have gripes every year about this branch's narrow idea of great work and you asked about biopics, so...

I think Maestro is a done deal. Not only is it old age and facial shifting prosthetics (both of which they love, arguably even if the work isn't stellar) but it's also stellar work.  The work on "Old Bernstein" is tremendously realistic looking and doesn't at all take you out of the movie, but helps you feel it more. It's not like "oh he's wearing prosthetics!" but ""we're decades later in the story now... and time has taken its toll." I think part of the strength of the age makeup here is when to press for an age effect and when to let your imagination do it. For instance, other than the black and white of the early sequences they don't appear to be doing too much to make Bradley and Carey look "young" (the movie starts when they're in their early twenties but the actors are 48 and 38, respectively.)

THE IRON CLAW wiggery is an ugly spectacle.

But Oscar voters are not lacking for biographical choices since we've also got Rustin, Cassandro, Ferrari, Golda, Napoleon, Nyad, Priscilla, The Iron Claw, and Oppenheimer this season. Oppenheimer isn't the flashiest of those choices -- and we have to assume it will miss a nomination somewhere -- but I'm not really counting it out because frontrunners have a much easier time selling their wares across the board. When it comes to the biopics, I guess I'm most curious about whether they'll find "anti-glamour" makeup without a lot of prosthetics interesting -- like Nyad's traumatized skin (from too much sun and water and no sleep to the point of hallucinations) or the awkward ugly spectacle of all that late 70s early 80s hair in The Iron Claw. 

CLÁUDIO: Having just watched Maestro, I agree that its nomination here is a done deal. I quibble with its artistic merits a bit more than you - overall, we're very at odds with this picture - but the technical achievement is undeniable. Even if the work feels disparate in how it affects each player, what Kazu Hiro does on Cooper for the film's full-color passages is, on its own, reason enough to make him a threat for the win and not an unfair one at that. It's certainly more impressive than whatever's going on in Napoleon, where three decades pass, and everyone looks the same.

OPPENHEIMER's old age makeup may secure the nomination.

Regarding Oppenheimer, it'll surely miss something, anything, but the power of that Tom Ford bronzer is too great to doubt. Not to mention that its late-movie aging effects fit so nicely into a model AMPAS has rewarded over and over again since the category's inauguration in 1981. Continuing these traditional "great" man biopics, Ferrari could bring Aldo Signoretti his fifth Oscar nomination, upping his current record. At four nods, he's the most nominated makeup artist without a win. Sadly, I can't see the Mann movie winning against heavyweights like Maestro. He shall remain the Diane Warren of Makeup & Hairstyling. 

Like you, I'm curious about those prestige flicks where massacred flesh and tortured skin take center stage. You mention Nyad and The Iron Claw, but I'd add Society of the Snow to the group. Sight unseen, Spain's Oscar submission could be that international curiosity that sometimes finds its way into the Makeup ballot. Is there another non-English contender we should look out for?

SOCIETY OF THE SNOW is all about hunger, sunburn, and frostbite.
NATHANIEL: I can't thing of one off the bat but that might merely mean it doesn't have a big campaign. I haven't seen it yet but I know you're a fan of Nigeria's Oscar submission Mami Wata which definitely has striking makeup work (though with black and white pictures they tend to stop at cinematography, don't they?)

Speaking of film's without the benefit of assumptions of prestige / worth or sizeable campaigning budgets ... I'm curious what impossible longshots you're rooting for or, even if you wouldn't vote for them as "top five", that impressed you.  I'll start by saying that Goran Stolevski's Of An Age is remarkable in its subtle restraint about the picture's decade jump and through a combo of subtle visual choices (haircuts, skin changes) you totally buy the history of the time inbetween which is crucial to the picture's emotional whammy. I love that movie. I also like the makeup work in Cassandro. It's not flamboyant about itself (a weird thing to say about an 'exotico' wrestling biopic I know) so too little for Oscar probably. And earlier in the year Renfield's makeup work was a lot of fun, prosthetic and otherwise. But Oscar has trouble with all three of the things you could classify Renfield as: comedy, horror, "B-movie".

Margot Robbie rocks an Elizabethan coiffure in ASTEROID CITY.
And finally on my rooting fors, however impossible long-shot-y, I adore Asteroid City and the work across the craft categories is wondrously good fun. But it's so presentational (i.e. anti-realism) and whimsical... two other things that scare Oscar voters who like to reward "serious" art. 

CLÁUDIO: You're so right about this branch hating horror, so every makeup achievement in that genre feels DOA regardless of quality. I could spend many paragraphs writing about 2023 horrors, but I'll try to be more succinct. Infinity Pool continues Cronenberg Jr.'s obsession with discombobulated bodies, while Evil Dead Rise is brilliant with blood and guts galore. The Last Voyage of the Demeter has horror mainstay Javier Botet made up into an animalistic Dracula, and M3GAN's plastic face is a plunge into the uncanny. Talk to Her is unnerving in its quieter moments and absolutely sickening when it emulates the shunting from Society. Finally, Beau Is Afraid has good work, including nifty aging effects, but it's far too weird and horror-adjacent for AMPAS. 

Beyond the scary stuff, no Best Makeup ballot is complete without Sick of Myself, Kristoffer Borgli's vicious satire about influencer culture. The protagonist's self-inflicted decay is an escalation, and it's fascinating to see when her disfigurement passes the threshold from pitiful but monetizable to outright disgusting. There's also The Crime Is Mine, Ozon's latest lark, full of beautiful 1930s pastiche, including silent movie parodies and Isabelle Huppert made to look like a past-her-prime Sarah Bernhardt.

Huppert serves drag excellence in THE CRIME IS MINE.
NATHANIEL: So should we get to predictions? I think they're going to go for:

MAESTRO - for sure
POOR THINGS - which we didn't discuss!
BARBIE - is this wishful thinking? I don't care!
OPPENHEIMER - you've convinced me
and i'll go out on a limb and say THE IRON CLAW

Though...The Color Purple, Guardians of the Galaxy, Wonka, Nyad, and Killers of the Flower Moon are all right there so that's probably a crazy guess.

I also forgot to mention Paul Giamatti's lazy eye in The Holdovers. With this category you never know so the reveal of the bake-off finalists will be where the real drama is.

Willem Dafoe's mug is one of POOR THINGS' greatest feats.

CLÁUDIO: Poor Things is an excellent piece of cosmetic showmanship, colorful and varied like a carnival of oddities. There's the obvious matter of Willem Dafoe's mad scientist scarring, through which the actor still manages to conjure a delicate performance, and Emma Stone's ever-growing locks and dark brows. But even beyond the pair, one can marvel over a brothel full of garish color, Victorian pomposity, and Kathryn Hunter with full-body tattoos. It's so memorable! 

Indeed, like you, I include it in my predictions. They are:

MAESTRO - as locked as anything can be this early on.
POOR THINGS - big and marvelous, showy as hell.
OPPENHEIMER - our likely nomination leader.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 - never bet against Disney, not even when they're down on their luck.
SOCIETY OF THE SNOW - because this category loves out-of-left-field picks with international pedigree. 

The Color Purple is a big enigma for me, mostly because the promotional material has hidden the actors' aged visages from the story's end. I could also see The Iron Claw or Nyad overtaking the spot I reserved for Society of the Snow. And depending on how much AMPAS falls for them, Killers of the Flower Moon and Barbie may crash the party.

Any final thoughts?

NATHANIEL: Society of the Snow is a great prediction -- especially given that right after you typed that it was honored for European Film Award Excellence.  Sadly, The Color Purple has also remained a mystery to me due to a screening I had to cancel. I am finally seeing this the very day that people are reading our conversation and perhaps I'll be forced to immediately move it into my predicted five?

DiCaprio has a coyote smile in KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON.

You mention Killers of the Flower Moon and I agree that it's the type of thing that could surprise if AMPAS falls hard for the picture. It's not particularly noticeable work when you stack it up against its competition but it does have the 'wasting sickness' work on Lily Gladstone and of course they de-movie-starred Leonardo DiCaprio starting with the teeth. In the latter case I wish they hadn't as it was so hard to understand why Mollie fell for this man. To explain my inability to connect to their relationships further, she makes it clear in the movie that it's not intellectual attraction and he's not particularly emotive either as a character, so we have to assume her interest in him is physical. At the same time the movie takes pains to make DiCaprio less attractive.  I frankly don't understand that choice since the marriage is the fulcrum of the story. I think believing in their connection would have helped me feel for the characters more and make the movie's tragedy more viscerally painful beyond just the natural moral anger you feel watching horrific true stories like this. Still, if they love a picture enough, nominations are possible in virtually any category (as we've seen time and again over the years).

To close I'd like to mention I'm imagining a strange alternate universe where awards are given out not for the craft itself but for depictions of what the craft does onscreen. In that case for our Makeup and Hair conversation, I'd like to honor May December which has an amazing scene of one actress (Julianne Moore) making up another (Natalie Portman) in front of a mirror... for character research purposes!

CLÁUDIO: We'll have to debate Killers of the Flower Moon on another occasion, but let me just say I have a friend who was lusting after DiCaprio even with the Ernest makeup so...never doubt the boundlessness of thirst.

In any case, I just wanted to say that I love and co-sign that last point about depictions of the craft on screen. It made me think of Priscilla, and how so much of the character's arc is sublimated into the curation of her image. Hell, the movie basically opens with a tight closeup of her eyeliner and you realize she's starting to free herself first through her hair and only after through behavior. Sadly, just like May December, it's probably too little for the Academy. After all, for AMPAS, more is more.

What are your Best Makeup & Hairstyling predictions?
RELATED READING:

• Nathaniel’s Oscar Charts
• Team Experience Predictions – From Picture to Screenplay

Comments

[Mr Ripley79]

Old Age make up has come a long way since the horror days of For The Boys.

Poor Things will win this prize.

[Robert G]

This category is hard to predict even when we get down to the bakeoff.

I'm a sucker for good body horror, so Infinity Pool easily makes my lineup.

I also like well done glam, so Barbie's a no-brainer.

M3GAN could be an interesting curveball and this would be one of the few places the surprise hit could pop up if the Academy goes for it. Renfield would be competing for the same kind of slot, and the Academy has been far kinder to more traditional monsters than mechanical marvels since the official addition of the Makeup category. I really don't see either making it, but stranger things have happened (like a win for the Wolfman remake). The monster movie quotient is likely Poor Things, even if it's not a "traditional" monster makeup.

A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes could finally see The Hunger Games franchise get some Academy recognition. It's surely making the cut for Original Song. This might be the time they recognize the consistently great quality of makeup in these films. It's a much more naturalistic film with some great story-driven hair and makeup transformations. There's a little flash here and there (Lucky Flickerman with the bright blue hair) but it's a lot of hard living, sickness, and sorrow painted onto a lot of unhappy people. Plus, the prosthetic work and design on Viola Davis' villain character is genuinely haunted.

I can't speak for Maestro, though we know the Makeup branch likes ok to great old age makeup. Remember, Iron Lady won here (somehow). I'm sure if the old age makeup is capable of expression and diction it will make it in.

[Antônio]

Nice shot on Sick of Myself, Cláudio. Amazing craft, I hope it gets the shortlist at least.

[McGill]

I love the craft categories when the emphasis is on craft, not what movie is a “front runner”. It really makes me stop and consider the skill involved.

I’d go for 1) “Society Of the Snow” and 2) “Nyad” for the ravages on the human body that look so realistic and detailed.

3) “Golda” for work where an actor is made to look like a real life person. Consummate actress Helen Mirren inhabits and illuminates the makeup, so you just see the character.
But I wouldn’t choose “Maestro” here because the real life people were so much more attractive than the actors in makeup, and had so much more charisma. So there’s a disconnect there.

4) “Barbie”. This is a very large ensemble where everyone looks just right, in tune with the movie and distinct from each other. Such a stunning looking movie.

5) “The Color Purple”. It’s a rare and valued skill when craftspeople, working on many different types of hair, find just the right style for both the actor and the character.

[Fabio Dantas Flappers]

I'm with "Maestro".
Cooper as Bernstein is an astonishing achievement.
Like "Bombshell", " The Darkest Hour" and "The Eyes of Tammy Faye", it seems unbeatable.