Helga without the H

Almost every year I attempt (with varying degrees of success) to watch as many Oscar nominees as possible before the ceremony. I post half-assed reviews here on my blog, and then at the end I write up some sort of silly analysis, predictions, reactions, etc. The quantity and quality depends entirely on how much time and energy I have each year, and I’m not gonna lie, this year’s already starting pretty dang rough! But let’s see how it goes. Today we turn to:

A Different Man

[1 nominations for best hair/makeup]

Not to be confused with “Better Man,” which is also nominated for exactly one single award this year. I’ve rechecked the titles like a million times because I can’t remember which is which.

Let’s start with the easy bit: the nomination! I’ve seen most of the hair/makeup nominees already, and this one definitely deserves the win. It was helpful to see it after The Substance (one of its competitors), because the 2 films had some obvious similarities, especially where the make-up was concerned. In both films, a person undergoes a mysterious medical procedure to become significantly more attractive (in The Substance a woman trades in her aging body for a young body, and in A Different Man a disfigured man trades in his disfigured face for a non-disfigured face.) The Substance goes completely over the top and is in no way meant to be taken seriously, whereas A Different Man is aiming for at least some degree of realism. In my review of The Substance, I point out that, while early makeup (such as subtle early aging) is very effective, we hit a point where the prosthetic-covered version of the character looks like a person wearing a prosthetic prop rather than like a real mutilated person. A Different Man totally pulls it off, though. First of all, Sebastian Stan’s prosthetic-covered face at the beginning looks real. And the movie does a great job proving to us how real it is by casting Adam Pearson, a man with an actually-disfigured face, in the other lead role. If you didn’t know the casting ahead of time, you would have no way of knowing which one’s the faker. But the film has to do more than just make the guy look like his face is covered in tumors; it also needs to show scenes of the character “healing,” ie losing flesh from his face. He’s literally peeling pieces of himself off of himself. It looked totally believable. Well done movie!

I think I have to admit a bias; I think I judge “best picture” movies more harshly than movies in other categories. This movie is only nominated for hair/makeup, and I was watching it thinking “Well wait, why isn’t THIS nominated for best picture? This is better than the actual nominees!” I don’t know if I would feel the same if it were actually nominated for best picture. That being said, I thought this was a solid film. I didn’t agree with some of the styling, pacing, acting, etc, so I don’t think it deserves best picture. But maybe best screenplay?

If nothing else, the story was solid. Our protagonist is a man with a disfigured face who makes a career as an actor, playing roles where the only thing they really need is an actor with a weird face. He befriends and develops a crush on his neighbor. Then he undergoes an experimental medical procedure that turns him into a hottie, but he doesn’t tell anyone; instead he becomes a real estate agent. His ugly weird face had been holding him back in life, but now that he’s hot, he can do anything! Then he discovers that his old neighbor wrote a play about him, and he auditions for the role of himself. But another guy shows with a deformity, except this guy has a shining personality, and everyone is drawn to him despite his face. Our protagonist goes mad with envy, as it becomes clear that it wasn’t his face holding him back in life; it was his shitty personality. But [spoiler alert] instead of learning from the experience and becoming a better person, he goes off the rails and tries to reclaim everything that he thinks should be rightfully his. Then some crazy shit happens.

Good story, right? The script is pretty meta, as we the audience catch ourselves thinking and acting the same way as some characters in the movie. For example, a stranger in a bar is talking about how he spent a while trying to figure out if they did the disfigurement on an actor using makeup, or whether it’s his real face, etc. Well… not gonna lie, that’s what I was doing, too, and found myself googling the cast to find out. Our protagonist shows up in a PSA about not being mean to ugly coworkers, but it was so tone deaf that it was more insulting than helpful, and our protagonists certainly internalized some of the negative messaging. Our love interest seems sweet and great, like someone who doesn’t even notice the deformities. But then she writes an entire play about what a great person she was for taking pity on this deformed guy. The film is constantly asking us to evaluate our own biases as we compare ourselves, our behaviors, and our reactions, to those of characters throughout the film.

On the other hand… maybe it was a bit too on the nose? Or maybe the entire film was exploitative, and misses its own message, just like our playwright did in the movie? I don’t know. I can’t even tell anymore. But, in general, I thought this was a good watch.