Oscars 101: Best Makeup and Hairstyling

In which I run down on the nominees (and likely winners) of the Academy Awards.

After covering the Best Visual Effects nominees yesterday, I thought that it would be prudent to cover another kind of visual effect: makeup and hairstyling.  It's admittedly not nearly as flashy or eye-catching as the special-effects laden action sequences that populated the aforementioned category, but it is nonetheless and integrally important aspect of film making: one that is often overlooked when weighing the merits of a given film.  This year, the nominees are:

Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Guardians of the Galaxy

That's right, it's one of those categories: the kind with only three nominees, rather than the usual five.  The implication behind the number of nominees is that there were not enough outstanding films in this regard to warrant any more than this, which I find simply absurd.  Into the Woods is probably my favorite for this category, given how the way in which Meryl Streep was equally convincing as the hideously twisted witch and the beautiful enchantress largely came down to how makeup artists and hair stylists were able to transform her completely from one to the other (and that's saying nothing of Johnney Depp's turn as the Big Bad Wolf or Mackenzie Mauzy's endless locks of beautifully kempt hair).  The Hunger Games, The Imitation Game, Birdman all would have been fine picks to round out the category's nominees.

Foxcatcher - Much has been made of Steve Carell's astounding transformation into John "The Golden Eagle" DuPont in Foxcatcher, and for good reason.  It's a career high for the actor, in no small part assisted by prosthetics and makeup that helped him seamlessly disappear into the role of the psychotic millionaire.

Although thoroughly convincing in the film, they did occasionally grate against the Carell's instantly recognizable personage, especially during the close-ups, where you could tell - not through any fault of the prosthetics, but through knowing what Carell is supposed to look like - that something was up with his nose and mouth.  That, paired with some flashier competition, will likely mean that the Academy will pass the film over for this category.

The Grand Budapest Hotel - This is, in my mind,the likeliest choice to win in this category.  Everything in the film - right down to the masterfully styled hair of its eclectic cast - pops out like pictures in a pop up book.

While not much can be said for the makeup side of things, the hairstyling is immaculate and showy.  Everything and everybody in this film screams of style, sophistication and money, in no part because everybody quite simply looks the part.  Don't expect this to be the last award, least of all technical award, that the film earns next month.

Guardians of the Galaxy - That's right, not even the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences could resist the wiles of Guardians of the Galaxy.  While most every branch was sadly able to shirk off its idiosyncratic charm - the Academy's technicians were at least up to the task of recognizing their accomplishments (and in a three-nominee category, no less).

Although perhaps the flashiest hair and makeup contender this year - with huge swaths of cast members painted blue, green and pink in equal measure - it will probably lose out to the more realistic offerings of its competitors.  Even here, the Academy prefers subtly to scale, augmentation to ambition, which is a monumental shame when it comes to the awards themselves.

Safe Bet: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Long Shot: Foxcatcher

Longer Shot: Guardians of the Galaxy

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