Please note: I won’t be discussing Michael Giacchino’s score for War for the Planet of the Apes, Mark Mothersbaugh’s score for Thor: Ragnarok, or Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch’s work on Blade Runner 2049, as all three are high-profile films that have received a lot of attention. That being said, all three scores are excellent and are well worth a listen. Another final note: this article will strictly discuss scores (originally composed music) and not soundtracks. Sorry, Baby Driver.

Good Time – Oneohtrix Point Never

The conversation for the best film scores of 2017 starts and ends with Oneohtrix Point Never’s work on the Safdie Brothers’ grimy urban thriller Good Time. Daniel Lopatin (who uses OPN as his stage name) has been producing some of the most compelling electronic music of the last few years. The duo was smart to attempt to add a new chapter to film’s long catalog of excellent, electronic musician-composed scores, and they picked a perfect collaborator in Lopatin. His score is feverish, pulsating and wild. In other words, it’s exactly like Good Time. The Safdie Brothers (along with editor Ronald Bronstein) boldly place the score right at the forefront and let it dictate the pace of several key sequences. In a wonderful touch, it even echoes its lead character, Connie Nikas (Robert Pattinson). Upon recruiting OPN, the Safdie’s reportedly wanted him to make a “sloppy prog” album. This relentless drive combined with frenetic, wailing synths and guitars perfectly encapsulates Connie’s recklessness and determination. I’ve been playing it non-stop. As a nice bonus, Iggy Pop provides vocals on the mournful ballad “The Pure and the Damned,” which, despite being musically at odds with the entire rest of the score, fits totally at home here. There should be a law against listening to this score while driving. It’s that exhilarating.

Standout Track: “Leaving the Park”

Columbus – Hammock

My favorite film of 2017 was Columbus – a beautifully understated and emotionally resonant film by first-time director Kogonada. Hammock’s wonderful score manages the tricky balance of not overwhelming the hushed tone of the film, while also accentuating the emotions present in many of the key scenes. Kogonada has openly cited Japanese maestro Yasujiro Ozu as an influence on the film’s pace, tone, and visual style, and Hammock’s score fulfills the same role as the music in Ozu’s films do. It evokes a time and place, and at once sounds instantly nostalgic and wholly unfamiliar.

Standout Track: “Eliel”

Raw – Jim Williams

Another one of my favorite films of last year was Julia Ducournau’s Raw, a massively disturbing and wholly unforgettable mashup of cannibal film and coming-of-age drama. In keeping with the film, the score shifts wildly between playfulness and outright terror, while never letting go of the underlying tension. The main theme is one for the ages, and more than lives up to the themes it’s undeniably going to be compared to (A Clockwork Orange, Suspiria). The first time it’s played is one of the most genius marriages of picture and sound I’ve seen in quite some time.

Standout Track: Finger Scene

Super Dark Times – Ben Frost

Super Dark Times – written, directed, photographed and produced by SCAD graduates – resists taking the easy road at every turn. There are no pop songs to telegraph its mid-90’s setting and very few pop culture references. The score is emblematic of the film’s bold approach. It almost appears to blend its sound design to its darkly disturbing score, which creates the sensation that this mid-winter New York town is perched on the edge of the world. It evokes both the adolescent innocence of pre-Columbine America and the catastrophic violence that factors heavily into the film’s plot. Frost’s work creates a mood so oppressive and unnerving that just writing about it makes me feel like I should sit by a fire.

Standout Track: I Have No Maximum Velocity

A Ghost Story – Daniel Hart

A Ghost Story’s soundtrack sounds as immense as it’s lofty thematic ambitions, building a deep wall of emotion behind the facade its deceptively simple plot. Hart’s score allows the film to feel profound yet not ponderous. Its influences are tricky to pin down – it appears to brush up against post-rock, classical music and folk-rock that sounds ripped straight from the American heartland. Hart manages an awe-inspiring blend of vastness and intimacy that is all too rare. There’s also another factor to consider – much of the film is dialogue-free. Luckily, Hart’s music doesn’t just cover for the lack of dialogue. It finds meaning in the silence.

Standout Track: Thesaurus Tuus

Mudbound – Tamar-kali

Most good film scores are inseparable from the mood of the film – they either support the images on screen or they contrast them to great effect. Sometimes these connections are tangential, and other times they’re literal. Tamar-kali’s Mudbound score is certainly an example of the latter. I had the great privilege to interview Tamar-kali at the Savannah Film Festival, and she told me that director Dee Rees wanted the score to evoke the feeling of being “dragged through mud.” The visual metaphor of African-Americans historically being trampled underfoot echoes throughout the entire film and is omnipresent in Tamar-kali’s churning, uncompromising score. By refusing to sanitize any of the horrifying images on screen, the score sounds as if it’s been unearthed from the Mississippi Delta itself. It’s both period-accurate and wholly modern – which suggests that the societal issues the Jackson family faces in Mudbound are more than relevant today. Spoiler alert: they are.

Standout Track: Intro / Mudbound Theme

The post Most Underappreciated Film Scores of 2017 appeared first on SCAD Radio.

4 Things that Excited Me

1. La La Land, with 14 nominations, equalled the record previously shared by All About Eve and Titanic. It deserves every single one and even though it won’t win all of them, I wouldn’t be surprised if it equals or breaks the record of 11 wins held by The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Ben Hur and Titanic.

Here’s my review: http://scadradio.org/2016/11/04/la-la-land/

2. Hooray for diversity! While I’m not really a proponent of tokenism (as I feel that it can ultimately hurt the integrity of the very people that seek representation), it’s become incredibly evident over the past few years that the Oscars fail to recognize the diversity of voices and stories that are currently being told. 4 out of the 9 Best Picture nominees either starred or were directed by POC (and in the case of Fences and Moonlight, both), and 7 out of 20 acting nominees were POC. That’s a huge step in the right direction. #OscarsSomewhatDiverse, I guess?

Here’s my review of Moonlight: http://scadradio.org/2017/01/16/moonlight/

3. Although Arrival wasn’t in my top 5 films of the year (it’s hovering somewhere around the #10 spot), it’s wonderful to see an intelligent sci-fi film earn 8 nominations. I’ll touch on this film later when I talk about the snubs, but Denis Villeneuve is one of the most promising up-and-coming directors working today. I also would love to give a somewhat biased shoutout to its screenwriter Eric Heisserer, who I had the immense privilege of interviewing at the Savannah Film Festival.

Here’s my interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvBW0iItlIk

Here’s my review: http://scadradio.org/2016/11/20/arrival/

4. Amazon made history as the first streaming service to have a film nominated for Best Picture with Manchester by the Sea. It’s a great film, equal parts darkly comic, tragic and heartwarming. Amazon also committed to giving the film a sizeable theatrical release (this strategy directly contrasts that of their closest rival, Netflix), and they’ve reaped the benefits as a result. Props to Amazon for identifying a quality piece of non-commercial film and giving it the push it deserves. They took a gamble by marketing the film based on spoiler-free trailers and positive word of mouth. It worked.

4 Things that Bummed Me Out

1. As far as I’m concerned, the biggest snub of the night was the Academy’s decision to not nominate Amy Adams for her stellar work in Arrival. Yes, the Best Actress field was stacked this year, but aside from Emma Stone, Adams was arguably the favorite to win. She gave one of the best performances of her career in Arrival, and has still somehow never won an Oscar, despite being nominated five times.

2. Another notable snub was Joel Edgerton for Loving, despite being up against far less stiff competition than Amy Adams. The film works because of Ruth Negga and Edgerton’s quiet, understated chemistry, and Edgerton expertly portrays a man trying to stay strong for his family in the face of unconscionable prejudice and hatred. He also sounds and looks completely unrecognizable.

Here’s our review of Loving: https://scadradio.org/2017/01/16/loving/

The post My Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations appeared first on SCAD Radio.