Somewhere along the way, my blog started attracting views even when no one (that I know of) was promoting the articles. When that happened, my piece from 2014 on Makeup and Hairstyling garnered a lot of attention. One might think that I benefited from google searches along the lines of "repugnant grandpa penis," and, well, yes, there's evidence to support that. I prefer to think, however, that it's actually more palatable of a piece than the previously most-viewed piece which was on gender roles. I wrote it in 2011 and am honestly worried to read over it again. No, I'm not linking you to it. Onward and upward!
Makeup and Hairstlying:
- Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega, and Damian Martin for Mad Max: Fury Road
- Love Larson and Eva von Bahr for The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
- Siân Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini for The Revenant
I've written extensively on my love for Fury Road, so you probably suspect I will simply give it some adoration and call it quits, don't you? To be certain, Fury Road contains oodles of instances of creativity from Nux's chest scarification, to the dirty but not overwrought facial blacking. Too, for a character that has only seconds of screen time, Miss Giddy is given a considerable amount of attention with her extensive tattooing. The hairstylist might just have shaved everyone's head, and to those that got away, told them do not wash for a month. Fury Road is mesmerizing, but it does have good competition.
I brought up 2014 not just for the pageviews, but also for the reference to Bad Grandpa as unpalatable as it is. In The 100-Year-Old Man, the makeup crew went to extensive lengths to make Robert Gustafsson look decades younger and older than his natural fifty-one years. In doing so, they appreciably surpassed the job of the crew in Bad Grandpa who only attempted to age their actor. This crew did a fantastically marvelous job adjusting everything from wrinkles, jowls, and his hairline, to the size of his nose and the scraggliness of his eyebrows. This vaguely Coen-esque film* lives and dies on the believability of the aging process. While the film may have sputtered in parts, the makeup was a constant driving force carrying the film with it.
The Revenant has a lot of people talking about it. Funnily, to my ears, most of the chatter revolves around the bear mauling despite how thoroughly well-executed the rest of the film is. That's either indicative of the fantastic job done by the makeup crew or of their need to work to perfection. The lacerations Glass suffers at the paws of Momma Bear are jarring here (their saving grace being Leo's hair adorably held up in cute, little hairclips), but in the film, they are perfectly repugnant. There are some places in that scene where the physical and computer worlds don't quite mesh, places where I was pulled out of the film, but the work of the makeup crew really pulls the viewer back in and sells the scene. Obviously, the crew's work is on display throughout the film, but this is the scene that sold the movie. Did they get enough of a return to buy an Oscar?
A strong part of me wants to give this to Fury Road just because I am in love, and that love only grows every time I think about, write about, or watch this movie. Another part of me looks at the job so thoroughly and exquisitely done in The 100-Year-Old Man. My feeling is that with the hype on its side, Fury Road will take home this statue (did anyone even watch The 100-Year-Old Man?). The makeup crew certainly had considerable creative license to work with in the fantasy world of Mad Max. The crew on The 100-Year-Old Man, however, had to exist in reality and mimic things we all know. They get the nod here for me, but I don't expect them to win.
Should win: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Will win: Mad Max: Fury Road
* It reminded me of the Coen brothers in a lot of respects, but it particularly was reminiscent of The Ladykillers.
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