Film Superlatives 2013 Part 1
We're winding down the Sketchys with two more days of film coverage. First up, we're looking at the best art direction, makeup, and directors of 2013. Much like the gaming superlatives, these categories are not ranked. They are an appreciation of film craft. Let's get to it.
Outstanding Art Direction of 2013
Antiviral
There was not a creepier looking horror film in 2013 than Antiviral. The slightly-off bright white walls and sanitized rooms throughout the celebrity disease selling company were just terrifying. Then, going outside of the safety of the facility, the gross saturation of celebrity culture--video screens everywhere projecting every little thing the most minor figures did--and warped celebrity moneymakers--cloned meat is legal, experiments to sell simulated footage of celebrities buried alive in glass coffins, the evolution of celebrity as commodity--are visually shocking in all the right ways. You'll want to look away from Antiviral, but you will be drawn back in again and again by the eerie beauty of the whole thing.
The Bling Ring
Yes, much of The Bling Ring was actually shot in the locations mentioned (specifically, Paris Hilton's house and the night club). That doesn't make the creation of such perfectly tacky sets any less impressive. Those near-identical bedrooms furnished just so to look like an episode of Cribs and the various glass-walled homes that allowed the burglaries to be viewed from outside are perfect. These little thieves were caught because they chose to rob literal glass houses and brag about it. Their crime was overexposure, reflected in too bright settings and shiny shiny accessories everywhere.
Mama
Speaking of horrible little monsters, the abandoned cabin the feral children at the center of Mama lived in are the perfect blend of depressing and terrifying. A house that ramshackle had to be built from the ground up to safely film in with child actors. Further, once in the house, the creep of the primitive drawings and remains of otherworldly visitors created a palpable sense of dread before the titular monster every showed up onscreen. Pay close attention to the patterns on the wall. There's a motif that plays out beautifully in the final confrontation.
Much Ado About Nothing
Joss Whedon has a really nice home. You have to imagine he picked it to potentially film something there. Much Ado About Nothing is shot entirely on his property and just the right camera angle turned one building into an expansive countryside. The party scene with the aerialists is particularly impressive and really pops in the black and white cinematography.
Only God Forgives
I do broad strokes here, sometimes. Only God Forgives lands in art direction partly because I'm lumping everything from sets to props to cinematography in one category. No other film was this gloriously lit in 2013. The saturated technicolor madness created an appropriate and otherworldly setting for the wrath of the angel of vengeance. The lush restaurant and gold-encrusted karaoke bars would have still made this film award-worthy for its visual design removed from lighting.
Click through for Outstanding Makeup.
Outstanding Makeup of 2013
American Hustle
Those wigs. Dear god, those wigs. I can't. Stop it. Amazing. You couldn't clock any of those lace fronts. The hair was part of the joke, but it looked real. That Christian Bale comb over job. And don't forget so much of the plot relying on an obsession with smelly nail polish and false identities with subtle presentation shifts--hair style and makeup choices make a big difference in how classy you appear to be.
American Mary
Surgery is one of those things that really freaks me out in a film. American Mary is no exception. The extreme body modifications performed onscreen and the resulting transformations (montage of actually tattooed, pierced, branded, and otherwise altered civilians aside) are really beautifully done. Three makeup transformations are particularly noteworthy: the living Betty Boop (a victim of terrible plastic surgery), the real doll (with nipples and private parts surgically removed), and the fate of the man who broke Mary's desire to be a surgeon (and you thought Boxing Helena was bizarre). The makeup is never sensationalized or overplayed. It just exists as a representation of the frontiers of body modification as living art.
Antiviral
Antiviral's makeup team had to accomplish three very different tasks to sell the bizarre story. They had to create the ultra glamorous megastar personas with high fashion makeup and flawless complexions. They had to create the standard "without makeup" foundation of the stars and employees of the celebrity disease dealing company. And then they had to create the many varieties of science gone wrong with the dangerous and deadly diseases destroying bodies in various nasty ways. The work is flawless across the board and as much a draw for the film as the story.
Warm Bodies
Can I just say how refreshing it is to see a new zombie design for once? Warm Bodies uses pale skin and a whole lot of airbrushed veins in various shades of red and blue to create the living dead. Then, as the dead begin to return to life--not shamble around, but transform back to human--the various layers of makeup made a realistic transformation back to living flesh. The reverse transformation is just so beautiful and subtle. It gives the actors a lot of room to stretch their character mannerisms for a bigger emotional response. This is one of the cases where less is more in a horror film. No prosthetics were needed to reverse engineer humans from zombies.
The World's End
There are two great aspects to the makeup in The World's End. The first is the creation of distinctive scars, markings, and styles for the five reunited friends. The story literally turns on a tiny scar above someone's eyebrow. Let's toss in the wonderful design of Simon Pegg's Gary King (that hair, people). Then there are the...creatures and the various ways they can be ripped apart and shoot bright cyan blood all over the set. It's a brilliant mix of digital and practical effects that works so perfectly in such a madcap horror/sci-fi/comedy film.
Click through for Outstanding Direction.
Outstanding Direction of 2013
Jen and Sylvia Soska, American Mary
Jen and Sylvia Soska do wonderful work in American Mary. They direct their own screenplay with a whole lot of style and nuance. I spent a lot of time discussing the actual role of the monster in my review, but it really bears repeating. In a film filled with body modifications (real and simulated), the people who choose to have their bodies altered are never played as villains or shown off like a freak show. They are real people trying to become the best versions of themselves. It's a sensitive, body positive approach to horror that most working directors can learn something from. Human nature is terrifying enough without othering people just because they look a little different. Jen and Sylvia Soska balance a whole lot of interconnected plot lines and tricky character relationships (the monster/creator divide expanded over many combinations) to create a horror film that goes down easy without sacrificing intellect and social commentary.
Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Blackfish
It all comes down to that middle act. Gabriela Cowperthwaite's decision to cut one story of a killer whale in captivity attacking after another after another leading to the emotional climax of the documentary is bold. It easily could have failed, turning too maudlin or shocking to get the message across. Blackfish never feels forced. There is a natural flow and rhythm to the 82 minute documentary that never feels like the audience is being forced to sympathize with the trainers and the captured whales. You have to take risks to create art and Cowperthwaite's near-snuff film display of evidence is the riskiest choice any director made in 2013.
Randy Moore, Escape from Tomorrow
Speaking of risks, Randy Moore shot his entire film in Disney World. Escape from Tomorrow does shift into weird for the sake of weird territory, but the skill of Moore in guerilla filmmaking deserves recognition. His entire film could have gone up in an instant if the Disney parks employees realized he was shooting a narrative film without a permit. So much of the substance of Escape from Tomorrow had to be digitally edited in post to avoid suspicion. The result is a surprisingly underplayed bizarro fantasy about a man's total break from reality in the happiest place on earth.
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
Speaking of risks, Alfonso Cuarón has spent years crafting Gravity, a big budget sci-fi epic about two people floating helplessly in space for 90 minutes. We're talking about a film where every frame could have looked like stills from the Hubbel telescope of distant space. Instead, Cuarón focuses almost exclusively on character development, human emotion, and just how sparse the universe really is. Then, just to outdo everyone else, he threw in some of the most thrilling and beautifully executed action sequences in years all shot in glorious and haunting 3D. You got served, Hollywood.
Chan-wook Park, Stoker
Chan-wook Park actually didn't take huge risks with Stoker. At least, not huge risks like illegally shooting a feature film or focusing more on how far back 3D can push into the screen. His risks were in embracing very taboo subject matter for his English language debut. Stoker is exquisitely shot and filled with great acting; all of Park's films are. The difference here is the brazen approach to subject matter. It's two-ish hours of a teenage girl becoming a woman through the discovery of a taste for murder, mayhem, and all sorts of uncivilized and taboo behavior. Park's hand is so subtle that you will not realize what is going on until it's too late to walk away and pretend it never happened.
Share your picks for direction, art direction, and makeup effects from 2013 below.