Another day, another crushingly wrong list I've created in my ongoing quest to find new and more terrible ways to brutalize the people who feel compelled by whatever dark monsters in their head to keep clicking on these posts. Hooray for us! Tradition dictates that today's post would be about acting, or directing, or writing, or any of those more well-known cinematic enterprises that people normally tend to care about. But I've decided to buck tradition (not least because I wrote the bulk of this post without access to the internet) and write what I find more compelling--all the craft aspects of filmmaking that never get their due among the moviegoing masses. The artistry that goes into creating a movie is mind-buckling and vast, and I love all of it. Why would I want to try and come up with something nice to say about Gary Oldman when I could spend the next two hours gushing about the sound effects in Phantom Thread? I am who I am.
In interest of putting a face on some of these things, I have finally added visual aids to this list--something I've always wanted to do. Granted, they don't work exactly how I want (I wish you could click the pictures for a bigger version), but I think it's the best we can hope for, considering my limited technical prowess. So here we go! Bask in the luxury of actually being able to see or hear what I'm talking about!
Note: I didn't include pictures or videos for film editing or the sound categories, because I didn't really know how to capture film editing compellingly in a way that didn't waste either my or your time, and I didn't have the resources to make audio clips for the sound categories (which I would have loved to do).
Note Note: I've included a brief description of some categories, in case you need a couple signposts for what i"m talking about.
Production Design
(designing, creating, and building the world of the movie--sets, props, art direction, etc.)
5. Atomic Blonde-for a hedonistic, Schumacher-esque neon Berlin
hellscape, dripping with blood, sweat, and secrecy.
4. War for the Planet of the Apes-you’d think I’d be
tired of cinematic dystopias by now (and you wouldn’t be wrong), but the ice
palace hotels, arboreal hideaways, and Bosch-inspired army camps won me over.
3. mother!-If you’re going to
ask one house to stand in for all of creation, it needs to be one hell of a
house—and the one in mother! certainly
is, equal parts feigned Better Homes and Gardens and oozing crimson pits.
2. The Shape of Water-I really didn’t get the appeal of this
movie like the rest of the world apparently did, but I can’t deny its
green-is-the-future Baltimore, replete with fairy tale laboratories and time
machine cinemas.
1. Blade Runner 2049-Come on, what else
would I have put here? The original Blade
Runner is one of the signature design achievements in all of cinema, so the
new one had some shoes to fill; the fact that its grungy, neo-noir world
delighted when it could have so *easily* disappointed is something of a minor
miracle.
Honorable
mention: God planets and angry little ships in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Costume Design
5. Wonder Woman-arguably on the
strength of that blue dress alone,
but also for Diana’s London tomboy chic, and Glamazon battle-gear that is both
battlefield and runway-ready.
4. Atomic Blonde-speaking of
runways—the East German pawn shop of your dreams comes to slinking life,
bedecking the spies and runaways of another world to resemble the dizzy
daydreams of themselves they carry in their heads.
3. Lady Macbeth-an exercise in
vivid character-defining minimalism: each figure gets one or two costumes tops,
so the designer has to make them speak. And speak they do: is it possible to
imagine the titular bloodthirsty housewife without her dresses shaped like
prisons?
2. Blade Runner 2049-feel free to copy
and paste what I wrote in the last entry and apply it to clothes. Harrison
Ford’s ‘screw it, I tried’ t-shirt notwithstanding, the lifestyles of the
synthetic and infamous all look like rack-ready options in a fashion show in
Phillip K. Dick’s nightmares.
1. Phantom Thread-again, what else
could possibly have taken the top spot other than Paul Thomas Anderson’s ode to
clothes as a language? We should all be so lucky to have Daniel Day-Lewis (or
costume designer Mark Bridges) dressing us in the kinds of outfits hand-picked
to reveal our hidden selves in the mirror.
Honorable
mention: deceptively steamy Southern formalwear in The Beguiled
Visual Effects
(Both practical effects--e.g. things created in-camera--and CGI (animating, compositing, modeling, etc.)
5. Okja-for making the titular super-pig
tangible and touchable—a real feat of
emotional and character-based CG heavy lifting.
4. Thor: Ragnarok-somewhere, last
year, a team of dedicated men and women with art degrees had to spend a
significant portion of their week deciding how to animate the Hulk’s naked ass,
and I think they need to be commended for that.
3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2-sure, Groot and
Rocket are always a well-rendered treat, but what about that swarm of
mind-controlled, bee-like spaceships, or Michael Rooker’s vindictive and
playful arrow? Great stuff all around.
2. War for the Planet of the Apes-the artists
behind these series have painted themselves into a corner, in that we now
casually expect such photorealistic excellence from them that it’s now come to
seem commonplace when they deliver exactly that. And sure, the visuals in this
latest Apes movie aren’t reinventing
the wheel, but when the wheel already looks like this, why would you need to?
1. Blade Runner 2049-are the visual
effects here as technically impressive as the War for the Planet of the Apes gang? Arguably not, but good grief
how they linger—that double hologram love scene, or the jagged cityscapes, or
that haunted encounter between K and Joi on the bridge. The effects team on Blade Runner didn’t come to make
friends—they came to leave a vibrant and bloody hand print across this movie’s
forehead.
Honorable
mention: Eh, Star Wars: The Last Jedi,
I guess, if only for that final color-saturated battle on the salt planet.
Makeup
3. Atomic Blonde-who doesn’t want
to hire these stylists after watching Charlize Theron romp around Berlin
looking like a power-hungry CEO/lady of the night?
2. Raw-look, I’m not saying that I would
ever eat my siblings’ fingers or my significant other’s leg, but if I did, I’d kind of hope it looks like the
frenzied edible delights served up here on a bloody platter.
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2-I’m always a
sucker for well-executed sci-fi in this category, and this year’s no exception.
Elizabeth Debicki pancake head! Taser-face! Little ladies that look like bugs!
Now they’re speaking my language.
Honorable
mention: the fast and loose Olympic train-wrecks in I, Tonya.
Film Editing
(Cutting--generally responsible for a film's pace, continuity, keeping the audience focused on the right details, and keeping a consistent emotional and visual tone.)
5. Logan Lucky-see, Christopher
Nolan? This is how you do competing
time lines and perspectives—like your life depends on it, not because you just
can.
4. Get Out-a movie that
vacillates this wildly between comedy, violence, and drama shouldn’t feel as
tonally consistent and narratively tight as it does, and yet here we are—kudos
to the editor for managing to tame what must have been an impossible-to-tame
movie.
3. Lady Bird-I’ve already
waxed effusive about how much Lady Bird packs
into its brisk running time, but seriously HOW did they pack this much
character detail, wit, and heart into 90 minutes without it feeling like a
whirlwind sprint? Crazy.
2. Nocturama-the movie whose
editing most made me blink my eyes in disbelief. Nocturama giddily leaves editing norms behind: scenes repeat for no
apparent reason, time jumps forward and backward by seconds or hours, and all
of this happens without losing one iota of the film’s claustrophobic tension.
1. Baby Driver-this is arguably
a feat of choreography as much as anything else, but it’s such a feat of everything that I can’t deny it. Edgar
Wright’s latest opus choreographs each action scene—down to individual
movements and sounds!—to match to its soundtrack, creating a perfectly
controlled rat-a-tat-tat musical tragicomedy of errors. Wrangling such a woolly
film into such swiss-watch precision must have been a herculean exercise.
Honorable
mention: scenes like piano wires and pipe bombs in Good Time
Cinematography
(Essentially how pretty a movie is. Lighting, composition, camera choreography, etc.)
5. Hoyte Van Hoytema-Dunkirk-ugh, FIIIIIIIIINE
Christopher Nolan, take this stupid nomination for this stupid pretty movie.
This doesn’t let the movie off the hook—it’s still needlessly showboat-y and
contentless, despite its arresting compositions.
4. Ari Wegner-Lady Macbeth-dazzling brights
and even more glaring darks, Lady Macbeth
is nothing if not eye-catching: an entire world tuned a little too brightly and
situated too symmetrically to be comfortable.
3. Sayombhu Mukdeeprom-Call Me by Your Name-the sun-dappled
Italy of every world-weary teenager’s dreams, a world in sepia punctuated by
deep blue nightscapes and gossamer lace windowpanes.
2. Michal Marczak, Maciej Twardowski-All These Sleepless Nights-how have I not
mentioned this movie yet? A Polish pseudo-documentary (in that the filmmakers
said ‘hey, let’s just carry a camera around with our friends’) that disrupts
its own faux-verisimilitude with sporadic dance-breaks, fourth wall breaking
performances, and the improbable twilight mosaics of Warsaw streets.
1. Roger Deakins-Blade Runner 2049-I may or may not
be running out of ways to praise this movie’s visuals, so just go watch a
trailer. It’s really pretty. Roger Deakins is a demigod. We can all agree on
this, right?
Honorable
mention: quiet, malevolent tapestries in The
Beguiled
Original Score
5. Marco Beltrami-Logan-lilting mournful piano melodies and adrenaline-fueled Ennio Morricone-esque trumpet and harmonica riffs: Beltrami operating in his comfort zone (the Western) is always worth listening to.
4. Dario Marianelli-Darkest Hour-a propulsive and urgent engine to drive a movie about words, all arpeggio pistons and scales cascading like steam.
3. Hans Zimmer-Dunkirk-how much of this movie's success is due to its claustrophobic, nauseating nightmare soundcloud of a score? A pretty significant bit, I'd wager--Zimmer's full-on assault on the senses raked a rusty nail across my brain pan in a way that the rest of the movie couldn't.
2. Carter Burwell-Wonderstruck-What a multi-faceted thing this soundtrack is, tripping lightly from comfortingly Burwellian warm and weirdly orchestrated chamber pieces to silent era-inspired organ riffs. It's gorgeous work that deserves a more compelling movie around it.
(for some reason, the score just isn't on youtube, but here's a five-minute preview of its various tracks, if you want a taste of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewAxfbB5xeI)
1. Johnny Greenwood-Phantom Thread-What an absolutely perfect and totally ravaging piece of movie music--Greenwood's compositions mimic the shrieking violins and big weepy strings of 50s melodramas, but infuse them with their own slippery, subversive skin, which makes the music go down like pieces of candy dipped in raw egg. Perfect for what the movie itself is--sickly romantic, furiously funny, and just a little bit uncomfortable.
(I couldn't pick just one track from this score--seriously, just go take an hour and listen to the whole thing--so here's one track that really brings home the more unsettled elements of the score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjw9AbHFMow
And here's the score at its lushest and most lovely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT_XjcdgT6g)
Honorable mention: Daniel Lopatin's driving electro work on Good Time
Sound Mixing
(Blending the four elements of movie sound--dialogue, ambient noise, sound effects, music--into one cohesive and compelling track.)
5. The Lost City of Z-the everyday business of listening to your sanity wander through the jungle, all echoing, stentorian silences and earthy hums.
4. Nocturama-as weird and tight-lipped a mix as this movie deserves, weaponizing silence, pop music, and the timid little bumps in the night that signify that someone's been shot.
3. Dunkirk-livid shrieks from beasts of war, coupled with Zimmer's deathgrip of a score and the ever-present sonic presence of the waves.
2. mother!-arguably for that final rush of chaos in the last 20 minutes, but also for everything that comes before--the way the movie makes its audience lean forward to listen to the way the house breathes.
1. Baby Driver-I mentioned earlier how this movie precisely choreographs everything in it to fit to the music, and sound is perhaps its best tool for that--I legitimately just cannot get over how much work went in to making this movie happen just the way it did.
Note: I feel like what I'm talking about--the choreography, etc.--is maybe hard to visualize if you haven't seen this movie, so watch this scene and see what I mean (Stop around 3.30 if you don't want big spoilers for the movie):
(Sidebar: how is no one talking about the fact that the camerapeople hired for this movie were clearly olympians?)
(Side-Sidebar: in an alternate universe, Ansel Elgort got nominated for an Oscar for this performance, and it's not even that bad of an alternate universe.)
Honorable mention: crystalline action and frozen cities in Atomic Blonde
Sound Editing
(Creating the sound effects for a film--all the things that need to be added in post-production.)
5. Raw-Want to know what casually chewing on a finger sounds like? You probably don't, but Raw's going to make sure you're going to bath in the spongy smacking glory of it all.
4. Blade Runner 2049-isolated cityscape howls, choking and guttural ship engines, and a malevolent ocean where each wave arrives like thunder.
3. Phantom Thread-impossibly loud knives against toast like nails on a chalkboard, whispered rushes of different fabrics, and the quiet simmering of rage-filled skillets seasoned with bemused affection.
2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi-I'm always such a sucker for this series in the category, but who am I to turn down plucky little one-legged speeders, lightsabers on futuristic staves, and that perfect moment of nothing?
1. mother!-for that sound, a horrific and resonating little click, for the chem trails of panic that surround it, and for a house that speaks in its own dust-choked voice.
Honorable mention: space battles straight out of an 80s arcade in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Original Song
5. "This Is Me"-The Greatest Showman-How do I turn down this vaguely authoritarian self-empowerment anthem? During this exquisitely caterwauled yawp to the heavens, the audience is going to learn to love themselves OR ELSE.
4. "Re-Write the Stars"-The Greatest Showman-Look, I'm just not strong enough to resist The Greatest Showman, a monumental morass of cheese and glitter if ever there was one. And the day I stop loving Zac Efron and Zendaya singing on a trapeze is the day you need to come to my apartment and quietly and humanely destroy me.
(Also, this makes me realize that somehow I didn't put this scene on my best of the year list, and HOW COULD I--nothing in the cinema this year made me feel the same giddy joy as watching Zac Efron whoosh around in suspenders trying to convince Zendaya to take a leap of faith and jump onto his bones. Who wouldn't see stars?)
3. "Proud Corazon"-Coco-"Remember Me" has kind of stolen all the air in the room as far as the Coco soundtrack is concerned, and sure, it's the movie's anthem, but this song and this scene had me weeping actual buckets in the theater.
(Here's the whole scene that had me sobbing like a pudgy little baby--it's the very last scene of the movie, so maybe don't watch the video and just listen to the music if you don't want spoilers:
https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=yoX88L5Ig7Y)
https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=yoX88L5Ig7Y)
2. "Mystery of Love"-Call Me by Your Name-the second I heard Sufjan Stevens--my all time favorite singer, the guy who made me cry with the first four notes he played when I saw him in concert--was writing songs for the movie adapted from my favorite book, I knew he'd be taking the top spot in this category, whether i wanted him to or not. And then lo and behold, he wrote two songs for the movie, so he gets to be here twice. "Mystery of Love" is classic Sufjan, delicate plucking that grows and swells (but never too much).
1. "Visions of Gideon"-Call Me by Your Name-if the last shot of the movie, over which this song plays, didn't emotionally wreck you, then I don't know how to help you. The song's a perfect capper to the movie, capturing everything said and unsaid.
Honorable mention: the aforementioned Coco anthem "Remember Me"
And there we have it! I'm sure I'll return later today to finish all the categories I've missed (namely, the ones people care about), but I'm gonna go ahead and give you (and me) a break for the moment.
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