Why Suicide Squad is Deserving of an Oscar Nomination (For Makeup and Costume Design)

Suicide Squad is not a great movie. I didn’t hate the film, but it wasn’t one I enjoyed very much either. I thought Margot Robbie was great as Harley Quinn, and Will Smith turned in a good performance. I would have preferred a Joker and Harley Bonnie and Clyde mayhem movie, but we got the mess with The Enchantress. The film overall does not deserve an Oscar nomination, but for its makeup and costume design it most certainly is deserving.

All one has to do is look at Killer Croc and realize why it is deserving. The individuals making the film could have easily used CG for the character or motion capture. Instead they went with practical effects and had the actor wear prosthetics and makeup to bring the character to life.  At a time when many movie fans are crying for more real effects in big budget films the use of makeup in Suicide Squad should be praised. It is most deserving of the Oscar Nomination because the character was brought to life with what the makeup artists did on the set. This wasn’t the only character in Suicide Squad which had stellar design. El-Diablo was also well done, along with Harley Quinn. The work the people who designed the makeup and costumes for film deserve to be praised. They had no part in how the film was edited or the story being told on the screen. They had the job of making incredible looking characters and they executed this extremely well. Their efforts for the year were above and beyond numerous other movies, and it is why the people who worked on the film deserve the praise.

I understand Suicide Squad now gets to promote it is an Oscar Nominated film, and it is unfortunate that Deadpool didn’t get a writing nomination. Deadpool was worthy for writing, but it still doesn’t devalue the film because it didn’t get nominated. Deadpool was a fantastic success and while it would be nice for it be part of the Oscars it not being nominated doesn’t take anything from it. Suicide Squad is not in Deadpools league as far as quality of film, but it did have better makeup and costume design. This is what it was nominated for, and it is well deserved.

The people who work on the film work hard to bring the productions to life, and while the general public will not remember the names of the people who win the award, people in the industry will. They also get to add this to their resume so they can get more work, and everyone should relate to getting praise for a job well done. If you do great outstanding work on something at your job, but someone else doesn’t pull their weight, that doesn’t invalidate your work, and you should still get credit. This is no different for the people who worked on Suicide Squad. The overall end product is not great, but the job of the makeup department headed by Allan P Apone deserves its kudos.