During summer 2020, like most people, I was looking for a new and healthy hobby. My sister recommended an at-home workout channel, and I was like great, this is who I'm going to be now! I'm going to do multiple at-home fitness routines every day! And I did--for about five weeks. And then I skipped a day, and because of how my brain is, I knew then that I could never do another at-home workout, and I never did. Cut to summer 2021 and a similar resolution: I'm going to go on walks at least five times a week! And I did for three whole months, and it was great, but then I only went once for a whole week, and then knew that casual walks had to be dead to me forever.
Point is, I'm really good at doing things in streaks, but the second the streak gets broken, it's all over--which will hopefully shed a little light into why I'm writing this last post like two weeks after the others. Every year (for over a decade!), I write these posts in three consecutive days--and then I missed a day, and because my brain is absolute garbage, my first thought was 'ok, well that was fun, guess I can't ever write about movies again.' Now, I'm gonna power through that impulse (much to the unfettered joy of everyone reading, obviously), and I'll do my best to make it seem as though I were writing this two weeks ago, but fair warning! I am a shriveled and empty version of my former self, and I have to assume that my silly metaphoring skills will follow suit.
Of course, the world in the past few weeks has been enough to shrivel and empty most things, and has contributed in some small way to me putting these off. Not to claim that me and my blog are the war in Ukraine's biggest and most important victims, or that I've been effected at all--just that it might have felt a little weird to post a silly movie list on the day the war was declared, and that helped delay me to the point where the delay itself became a deterrent. Anyway.
And all of this to delay my favorite lists--the crafts categories! All of the huge and impactful contributions without which movies would cease to exist but are most likely to be ignored when it's time to give credit for making a movie (I'm looking directly at you, Oscars, who have announced that 8 of their awards--all 'smaller' categories--will be awarded before the telecast starts, and the winners might possibly be announced on Twitter; this is definitely the worst thing happening in the world right now). But I like, love, and adore celebrating all the design elements that breathe life into a movie. You could not pay me $100 million to write 500 nice words about Christopher Nolan, but I would pay you $100 million to write and publish 50,000 nice words about sound effects. A movie's crafts are important--no movie moment you have ever loved would have been possible without committed and enthusiastic production designers, costumers, editors, composers, foley artists, sound mixers, makeup artists, etc.--so let's spend a little time giving thanks!
In interest of putting a face on some of these things, I've added some visuals to the lists. They should enlarge when you click on them, but I make no promises, as my technical skills are less than garbage.
Note: I didn't include pictures or videos for film editing or the sound categories, because I don't really know how to capture film editing compellingly in a way that doesn't waste either my time or yours, and I don't have the resources to make audio clips for the sound categories (even though literally nothing would make me happier).
Production Design
5. West Side Story-tough to stack up against the original's riot of color, but the new West Side more than holds its own with an expanded sense of place and time, pushing the musical into a realistic cityscape without sacrificing its flights of fancy.
3. Nightmare Alley-Enough lurid and bloodthirst carnival spaces and malevolent art deco monstrosities to bite the head off a chicken and come back for seconds.
2. The French Dispatch-It's too easy--even unfair--to expect and demand meticulously realized miniature worlds from a Wes Anderson movie, but they keep providing, so here we are. And what's not to love or be astounded by in this woozy easter basket rendition of France, each story with its own color palette and sensibility, and the central town itself a towering and derelict creature.
1. Dune-the obvious choice, but the easy one, with Villeneuve's brutalist romp a sparsely populated hellscape of empty pyramids, lumbering sky barges, and intricate, lived-in technologies setting the foundation for one of the more indelible sci-fi spectacles in recent memory.
Honorable mention: a big year for minimalist sets this year with The Tragedy of Macbeth's Caligari-ass pointed chambers making a strong showing as well
Costume Design
5. Spencer-combining recreations of actual outfits with stifled re-imaginings to create the perfect set of evening wear to swallow pearls, see ghosts, and flirt with Sally Hawkins in
4. The Harder They Fall-an array of immaculate, rough and ready duds perfect for even the busiest of gunslingers. I'll always go to bat for people who put real thought into the outfit they plan to wear whilst robbing a train.
3. Cruella-an all-out couture assault on the senses, massive and structured dresses flying by the camera a mile in a minute, like architectural models in a hurricane. Extra points, and my undying love, for the garbage-truck dress that reveals that its train is so big that it covers the whole block as the characters drive away.
2. Dune-A one-stop shop for hot looks to serve while dying in the desert. Much of the intention (rightly) goes to Jessica's arrival-to-Arrakis dress, or the wilting woven revelries of the bene gesserit, or the upscale fishbowl hats of the imperial dignitaries, but so much care and detail went into creating the armor and stillsuits, all gorgeous and believably functional pieces in their own right.
Visual Effects
5. Eternals-Ok, so maybe this is partly here because Richard Madden is the movie's (and maybe the world's) best special effect, but I admired how Eternals incorporated its monster mayhem and superhero antics into a more gently lit and outdoorsy environment than the usual marvel movie.
4. The Tomorrow War-the scale of the alien invasion is so stupid (in the best way) and immaculately rendered, and I love the goopy detail that each alien gets in close-up, all the viscera and spit and generally unpleasant liquids that punctuate how not chill it is to get dropped into the future to get eaten be aliens.
3. No Time to Die-the Bond franchise has been almost single-handedly (with Christopher Nolan and whatever staggering and impressive tomfoolery Tom Cruise is doing in front of a camera) been carrying the torch for practical effects into the 21st century, seamlessly incorporating in-camera stunts and live effects and digital augmentation, and No Time to Die is another stellar entry into this tradition.
2. Godzilla vs. Kong-Look, no force of god(zilla) or man is strong enough to keep me from loving these movies, or applauding the skill it takes to make a city-sized radioactive lizard take a punch. Somebody had to wake up that morning like 'what do godzilla jaw physics look like when they're hit be a fist the size of Luxembourg,' and the fact that those people haven't won a Nobel is a sin.
1. Dune-this post is dangerously close to becoming a total Dune love-in, but what can I do? It's hardly my favorite movie of the year, but it's obvious how well-crafted, ambitious, and successful it is.
5. The Green Knight-predominantly for the titular knight's intense dermatological situation, but also for Dev Patel's increasing filthiness, the grimy and well-inhabited dirt of characters on the road, and for Alicia Vikander's fancy noble hair (no excuses for her moppet peasant wig though).
4. Zola-enough big hair and smoky eyes for all manner of Florida shenanigans. Big, dramatic, and silly looks, all of which swell and wilt as the story unfolds.
3. Dune-while we are all impatient to celebrate transforming Stellan Skarsgaard into an engorged and dying testicle, it's also worth tossing a few appreciative claps toward all the pale and vaguely unsettled Harkonnens, as well as Lady Jessica's always salon-ready hair choices.
2. Halloween Kills-I hate this movie as much as (or probably more than) the next guy, but I can't deny that its ridiculousness was supported by stellar and eye-popping gore effects. Mounting violence at this level must have been a gargantuan task, and this makeup team was up for it, even if the movie didn't earn their incomparable talents.
(no image for this one, as there aren't a ton of stills of the kills in this movie, and youtube's also somewhat lacking. Still, go watch the movie, if you want to see some great splatter effects/were hoping to watch a bad movie tonight.)
1. Titane-an absolute showcase for everything that movie makeup can achieve: the ridiculous sleazy glamour of the opening scenes, the main character's increasingly horrific physical transformations, and immaculately gross gore effects. Just a total masterclass of makeup as a narrative device.
Film Editing
5. The Power of the Dog-exceptionally patient, allowing big moments to sidle quietly into the movie and then leave with just as much fanfare. Trust the audience not to need a permanent marker, and is content to plod forward like hoofbeats.
4. Summer of Soul-crafts both a compelling narrative retelling and a larger cultural/historical structure out of untold hundreds of hours of archive footage. The concert footage is cut together propulsively, and the non-music elements meld seamlessly with the performances.
3. Moffie-vindictive and monotonous rhythms, a treadmill being dragged out further and further into the ocean. A knifepoint balance of lyrical and furious, the film tipping into one or the other based on when the edit decides to breathe.
2. Titane-If action movies and musicals are the hardest genre to edit, then surely this action-horror-musical-family drama gets all the difficulty points in the world. Titane is pulsing but never frenetic, and quiet without ever relaxing.
1. Zola-fired off with the same intensity as a breathless twitter thread and occupying a space as big and as small as a single phone speaking to the entire world.
Honorable mention: making musical numbers fly in West Side Story
Cinematography
5. Moffie-like being trapped under a giant yellow-green dome, the dappled light gently strewn across your shoulders pleasant enough, at least until you suffocate.
4. This is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection-a shocking array of saturated blues and blacks to Moffie's summer array, This Is Not a Burial... soaks its characters in shadows and watercolors.
3. The Power of the Dog-the power of the American west (or New Zealand) gets strangled and slid under a road grader, stretching its images into a looming and inescapable alien tableau, with nothing but the skies and cigarette for company.
2. The French Dispatch-a never-ending array of swiss watch zoetropes, little self-contained boxes lined up. The framing, colors, lighting, and motion all more or less flawless. It's been tough to capture with a single image or gif, but the in the context of the movie, it's almost overwhelming how gorgeous things are.
1. Days-the film's central aesthetic conceit--one unbroken and unmoving shot for each scene--couldn't work without spectacular cinematography, and Days does way more than just work. That the camera could capture such constantly arresting and beautiful images while still narrating the story so eloquently within the one shot constrains is something of a minor miracle.
Honorable mention: painterly compositions and sharp contrasts in The Green Knight
Original Score
5. Spencer-equal parts harpsichord, Vivaldi, free jazz, and sheer insanity, Johnny Greenwood's interpretation of the sounds inside Diana's head--abstract, ambient, sharpening to some melodic point before falling into screams--shapes an already ugly mood to create something alien.
(Ok, just imagine the next three movies in a three-way tie. I kept changing the order they were in every single time I tried to write an entry. Really, what a great year for this category.)
4. The Harder They Fall-a full-throated amalgam of traditional western sounds, spirituals, and gorgeous orchestrations--music to play while looking in your rearview mirror one last time, but also while hitting Quentin Tarantino with a stick.
3. Luca-exactly what it sounds like in your head the moment you decide to act on some dizzy impulse that will send you careening towards something you always dreamed of but were always too afraid to reach for. Just excellent, movie-defining stuff. There's a moment in the track below about fifty seconds in where some hard piano chords chime in, followed by a drumline, that makes me tear up a little, just for how big, bold, and innocent it sounds.
2. Don't Look Up-an absolutely bonkers and unhinged effort, snazzy and sarcastic in one moment (god do I admire how easily Nicholas Britell makes music sound sarcastic) before pitching into anger, or silliness, or actual sadness. Just about any moment that lands in this movie lands because it's got this score backing it up.
1. The Power of the Dog-astonishing in every way, like the land itself throwing up and spewing forth and eon's worth of resentment and shame. Maddening and cursed and totally essential--the kind of music that elevates the movie itself. Consider the rage and ugliness of They Were Mine, the nausea in Paper Flowers or the extremely tentative loveliness in West Alone. Just great stuff.
Honorable mention: wacky medieval choirs in The Green Knight
Sound Mixing
5. Zola-self-contained worlds--inside your head or your phone--made to rub up against the chaos inherent to making new friends and/or being in Florida. Somehow manages to both under- and over-exaggerate every moment, in the best sense.
4. The Tragedy of Macbeth-life inside a dead giant's sternum, every thought echoing for a thousand miles. Has the courage to be both quiet and exceptionally weird.
3. Dune-another remarkably quiet movie, considering it's largely about explosions and giant space bugs. Silence becomes Dune's secret weapon, brooding pregnant pauses punctuated by moments of staccato shouts.
2. Moffie-the inescapable rhythms of the plain, the water, the camp, the sky--a hundred external voices whispering into the night, offering a hundred ways to define the movie except what the main character wants to let out of his head.
1. Titane-for the stentorian and jagged music sequences alone, but also for way fire feels soft and waiting alone in a room feels loud.
Honorable mention: big ol monster battles made aurally legible in Godzilla vs. Kong
Sound Editing
5. Titane-for the sound of that stool finding its forever home, for the baby-sized tonka truck voices and the squelchy sounds they make on their, uh, way out, and for the wet, hungry slaps of skin against skin--in a slap, a dance, a hug, whatever.
4. The Tomorrow War-aliens like a washing machine full of broken glass, futuristic combat, and the throaty growl of begrudgingly traveling through time.
3. Godzilla vs. Kong-trashing multiple cities and a navy fleet requires a whole symphony of giddy destruction, which this movie provides in abundance. Bonus points for the final villain's analog hums, and for making Godzilla the shriek-y champion he needs to be.
2. The Green Knight-listen to Dev Patel decomposing in real time! Chopped heads! Giant footsteps! Tragic medieval trudging! Barry Koeghan beating people up! A bounty of silly sounds given wildly specific voices.
1. Dune-I swear this is the last of the Dune love (...he says, with one category to go), but how could I deny its brittle dragonfly-winged vehicles, its apocalyptic hellfire battle, the thumping cataclysms brought by the sand worms, or that world-ending hiss that Oscar Isaac's shiny new poison tooth makes?
Honorable mention: animated grotesqueries abound in The Spine of Night
Original Song
5. "Second Nature"-Don't Look Up-really going all in on the Don't Look Up music, but who doesn't want to die horribly while listening to Bon Iver?
4. "U"-Belle-Belle's soundtrack slaps so hard and I don't care who knows it. This song, the film's opener, which the lead character sings while riding a massive, speaker-adorned whale through an apparently endless virtual world, certainly gives you some idea what kind of space you're going to live in for the next couple hours.
3. "We Don't Talk About Bruno"-Encanto-it's probably cliché at this point to talk about Bruno, but I am nothing if not suggestable, and the crowd has won me over. But so has the song--it's catchy, but its so well-constructed, folding in and out of itself, each mini-section getting its own musical voice before everything comes together in the big finale.
2. "Someone to Say"-Cyrano-famously, the song that made me give a shit about Cyrano. I had no enthusiasm for this movie, and then I saw the trailer, which is largely backed by this song, and then I was like oh man, would I die for Cyrano? Now that I've seen the movie, the answer is no, but I still love this lilting and wistful ballad about the gap between what love is supposed to be like and what you might have to settle with.
1. "Gales of Song"-Belle-like it was going to be anything but the protagonist's big 'finding my voice' song from my favorite wacky anime musical this year? A lot rids on this song--we have to get why the entire world is apparently in love with this bright pink fantasy--and it totally works. The quiet build into a huge and percussive chorus are still enough to make me run around punching the air in a show of support.
Honorable mention: a bubbly way to exit the theater (or for Netflix to cut off) with "On My Way" from The Mitchells vs. The Machines
And that's it for year-end lists--delivered a few weeks late, and with a little less energy than normal, but it's here! You're not entirely done with me yet, as I'll be back in a couple weeks to post my final Oscar predictions, but that's it for long weepy entries about movies (at least until next year).
For those playing along at home, these were the movies that showed up most frequently in my lists:
The Power of the Dog-10
Titane-9
Drive My Car-6
Dune-6
This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection-5
As for wins, it was a spread the love kind of year. Drive My Car, Titane, and Dune tied for the most wins at three apiece (Picture/Actor/Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor/Makeup/Sound Mixing, and Production Design/Visual Effects/Sound Editing, respectively).
So that's it! As always, thanks much for reading!
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