Hans’ Oscar Bites

Thank god for the Makeup & Hairstyling Branch for still proving you can look beyond the usual contenders for fascinating examples of excellence in craft. Up until the day before noms I was still predicting Marty Supreme and One Battle After Another in this category, so I am thrilled to be talking about several new films here.

The nominees are:

• Frankenstein
• Kokuho
• Sinners
• The Smashing Machine
• The Ugly Stepsister

In order of preference:
5) THE SMASHING MACHINE (Kazu Hiro, Glen Griffin, and Bjoern Rehbein)
I mean, this is pretty bad, right? We have 53 year-old Dwayne Johnson playing 29 year-old MMA fighter Mark Kerr, and the illusion is nowhere near convincing. We have some shoddy hair-plug looking wig pieces, skin-smoothing attempts (likely aided by digital effects?), and a body habitus that is clearly not half the age its trying to portray. Kazu Hiro does some good work with the actual MMA injury work, which is probably what ultimately dragged this over the finish line, but otherwise, like, what are we doing here?

4) SINNERS (Ken Diaz, Mike Fontaine, and Shunika Terry)
Obviously, again ranking my favorite movie this year this low feels bad, but this, along with visual effects, is one of the categories that feels like it got caught up in the sweep coattails of this film’s nominations momentum. Most of the work here is concentrated on the various vampire bites and injuries, with an especially memorable Final Boss fight with Jack O’Connell’s vampire character likely being the main makeup piece. It’s one of those craft nominations that ultimately I think serves more of a supporting role than anything the Academy might deem worthy as a Capital A-Achievement

3) KOKUHO (yoko Toyokawa, Naomi Hibino, and Tadashi Nishimatsu)
Two young men find themselves rising in the competitive acting world of Japanese kabuki. At first, I was curious as to why this three hour film exploring the cutthroat world of kabuki artistry would be nominated, considering that most of the work just seems like stuff you would see in, you know, kabuki theater. On further research, though, there was much discussion about how to handle the kabuki makeup in the context of filmmaking, such as taking into account continuity, the blazing on-set lights, the scenes where actors are applying makeup onto themselves, and so forth. The kabuki scenes themselves are beautifully rendered, especially knowing the hard work that went behind keeping the makeup so consistent across shots and scenes.

2) THE UGLY STEPSISTER (Thomas Foldberg and Anne Cathrine Sauerberg)
A sinister body-horror twist on the classic Cinderella story chronicling the lengths one of her stepsisters will go to to make herself beautiful for the Prince’s ball. At first I was a little confused as to what major makeup pieces were actually being highlighted here. Over the course of the film, however, I realized I was clocking the transformation of our protagonist on a subliminal scale, as about 1 hour in I realized I was definitely not looking at the same face that I was at the start of the film. When this really starts entering body-horror territory, it ends up augmenting the previous work, rather than acting as shock-craft, as the film thoroughly earns the the nauseating climax and denouement that on a subconscious scale you knew was coming

1) FRANKENSTEIN (Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, and Cliona Furey)
This is where the Netflix money was put on screen. Within the context of this category, it’s the Jacob Elordi show from beginning to end here, as we follow his transformation from otherworldly being to bumbling adult infant to fully fledged Creature. Jacob Elordi’s performance is married to this makeup in creating the ultimate illusion of a being from dimension, not of this realm, and one would simply not work without the other.

• WILL WIN: Frankenstein
• COULD WIN: The Ugly Stepsister
• SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE: Bring Her Back. There is one scene in particular involving a knife that….gaaaaahhhhh….