We are currently still in awards season, with the Golden Globes winners and Oscar nominees being announced. It is also the period where I am still listening to as many scores as possible for the awards I participate in. For this Spotlights article, I would like to combine both by closely examining all these nominees. I have already written a Spotlight on Babylon, and you can also find a leit review about The Fabelmans on this site, but there are still many other nominations I want to write about. Please be sure to check my conclusion below the Spotlights in this article as well.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio – Alexandre Desplat
Two Pinocchio movies came out this year, and two streaming platforms released them: Pinocchio on Disney+, a retelling of Disney’s classic animation, and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio on Netflix. I want to address the latter because its score, composed by Alexandre Desplat, has been nominated for many awards, including a Golden Globe. The film is quite interesting because not only is it darker than I was expecting, it is also a stop-motion animation, making the movie a refreshing and exciting viewing experience. The film also contained songs I did not expect, with music by Desplat and lyrics by Roeban Katz. The melodies of the songs are used for some of the themes in the score, together with a handful of other themes. What also surprised me was that the music is uplifting, even during the story’s darker moments. The music that Desplat wrote did not excite me as other scores by him did, but it is a solid score nonetheless. I was surprised that it was not nominated for an Oscar this year.
All Quiet On The Western Front – Volker Bertelmann
One of the surprises in the nominations for Best Music at the Oscars this year is All Quiet On The Western Front by Volker Bertelmann, and it made me curious about the soundtrack. I was hoping to be pleasantly amazed by the music, but, unfortunately, that was not the case. While I am listening to so many soundtrack albums at the moment, it is impossible to take the time to see how each one works in the film, which is probably needed for the music Bertelmann wrote for All Quiet On The Western Front. In the music you can hear some emotional melodies, like in “Flares,” for example, but most of the cues are more textures and sound design, making the music unpleasant to listen to for me. As someone who adores melodies and all kinds of emotions in the music, I had to struggle to finish listening to the album of this Oscar-nominated score.
The Banshees of Inisherin – Carter Burwell
One of the scores that is nominated for both the Oscars and the Golden Globes is the music for The Banshees of Inisherin by Carter Burwell. The score is not traditional because even though the movie is set in Ireland, the music does not reflect that. For most of the score, Burwell uses only a handful of instruments like the marimba, flutes and an Indonesian percussion instrument: the gamelan. He uses these instruments to integrate some thematic ideas into the music. With only 33 minutes, the album is not very long, but the music still got repetitive for me. You can hear some variations in the music if you listen carefully, but if you are listening to it while doing something else, these details are hard to recognize.
Women Talking – Hildur Guðnadóttir
Most of the composers I mention in this article have been nominated before, including Hildur Guðnadóttir, who won quite a few awards for her work on Chernobyl and Joker. When I listened to her previous work, I had the impression that she prefers sound design over melodies. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the many melodies in her music for Women Talking, a drama about women struggling with sexual abuse. These tunes are primarily performed on all kinds of string instruments, and with that, I do not mean only the violin family but also many guitars. The album only contains 26 minutes of music, but most of the cues make it worth listening to. Especially the main theme of the film, with its catchy melody, which you can hear in “Speak Up,” is exceptionally well done. It appears many times, but as a different variation each time, making it exciting to experience.
Everything Everywhere All at Once – Son Lux
The biggest surprise for me in this year’s awards season is the Oscar nomination for the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once, with music by the American experimental band Son Lux, consisting of the band members Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia and Ian Chang. I am surprised because I had not heard about them in my circle of soundtrack enthusiasts. When I listened to the almost two-hour-long album, I knew why: the music is pretty much made to support the movie with all kinds of musical textures and patterns. Without the context of the images, the music does not stand out to me among the many albums I have listened to these last weeks.
There you have it: my thoughts on most nominations for Best Music at the important awards. As you can tell, I am not too enthusiastic about most of them. When I look at the nominations of the most important awards like the Oscars, the BAFTAs or the Golden Globes, I see a trend of film music being nominated that accompanies a magnificent movie. My preference is film music that works well in a movie and elevates the quality of the film to a higher level, but is also outstanding outside the context of the film, preferably adding something refreshing or new. If you are curious about my picks, I will be announcing my eSWay Awards in a couple of weeks.
