OVP: Best Original Score (2019)
The Nominees Were...
Hildur Guanadottir, Joker
Alexandre Desplat, Little Women
Randy Newman, Marriage Story
Thomas Newman, 1917
My Thoughts: We move on in our look at the 2019 Oscar races into Best Score. The music branches are notoriously clique-y, allowing only one newcomer per year as a result, but in 2019 you might have assumed that they had run into a brick wall. After all, it seemed like the same seven movies were nominated in virtually every one of the tech categories, but by happy (boring) coincidence the music branch got lucky here. Three of the biggest films of the year were scored by a trio of perennial nominees in the music categories, and they had room for their one newcomer with Joker. Our fifth nominee, though, isn't nearly as dominant in 2019, and that's because there is one rule that trumps all others when it comes to Oscar: always nominate John Williams.
Williams work in Rise of Skywalker is supposedly his final piece for the Star Wars series (he scored all nine installments of the Skywalker Saga, an impressive achievement). With Williams' work lately, you have to take the old with the new, and of course we have musical cues to his greatest hits from A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, but I do feel like we find some new sounds in Rise of Skywalker, continuing what he picked up in Last Jedi. I think the finality has freed him up to try for new swoops of grandeur here, with piano & strings coming together to create minor moments in the film that really pop. I know the Academy is default with Williams, but this is nowhere near the worst score in this bunch, and in many ways it's an appropriate capper to Williams work with the series (and potentially his career-at 88 years of age, the only work he has on docket right now is the long-gestating Indiana Jones 5, and he wasn't even nominated for the last one).
No one comes near Williams' nomination count except Walt Disney, but Randy Newman is no slouch in this department (this is his second nomination in just 2019). Of this bunch, though, I'd argue that Marriage Story is the least successful. There are times that Newman's work is perfect for what he's doing, but as the film progresses his twee & spritely score (which feels like it is dropped out of a Pixar movie with the melodic piano & over-reliance on wind instruments), doesn't fit the drama that's happening onscreen, and threatens to pull us out of the great work being done by the lead actors. It's lovely on its own, but in the context of the movie this doesn't work.
The same can be said for Desplat's Little Women, though it better captures the theme of the film. Plucky and rich, Desplat's work here doesn't have enough soul. You feel like he composed it in the March drawing room with a piano & a piano bench full of sheet music, it has that sort of feel...which should work within the movie, but it feels too feather-weight. This is my problem in general with the movie, which I am less favorable toward the further I get away from it (we'll get to it, but I think Saoirse Ronan is wrong for the lead & that causes problems with the picture), but the score is too generic & doesn't distinguish itself within the film or immediately recall it upon a separate listen.
This is not true for Thomas Newman's work for 1917, which instantly transports me back to the trenches. This is occasionally for the worse-Newman's score threatens at time to overtake the picture, particularly in dialogue-less moments where it becomes its own character. But Newman knows what he's doing (he is the true student of Williams), and there are pieces of the movie where the crescendoes & wind instruments swell to a point where you get the grandeur of what Mendes is doing. 1917, unlike Little Women, has aged better in my mind-it is such a methodical, technical achievement-and the score is part of what brings out that excellence. It keeps the movie's "too fast" pacing going.
Hilda Guanadottir is the only new name for Oscar of this bunch, and in order to get a shot with this branch you either need a big movie or a big score, and she has both. Joker's score is iconic, recalling the movie quite quickly upon re-listen; Guanadottir's main themes using minor strings & an almost rusted quality to her music to create a sound that matches the movie. However, it's too repetitive, and uses the same chord progressions without enough newness. This sort of thing might work in a sequel (where you can match the sounds of multiple movies), but in a stand-alone movie it makes it feel one-note.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Grammys eligibility window for the best film score nomination is not the same as Oscar's so oftentimes you'll see films from two different years getting citations, and that's the case here. For the Grammys held in 2020, Avengers: Endgame and The Lion King both showed up (but lost to the TV score of Chernobyl), while for the upcoming 2021 Grammys Ad Astra, Joker, 1917, and The Rise of Skywalker are fighting it out for the trophy. The Globes went for nearly an identical cutout of the Oscar lineup, picking Joker as its winner, and replacing Rise of Skywalker for Motherless Brooklyn, while the BAFTA Awards also picked a near copy of the Oscar lineup, again honoring Joker as the victor, and then replacing Marriage Story in favor of Jojo Rabbit. The Oscars did a shortlist for Best Score in 2020, so we know that the ten also-rans were Avengers: Endgame, Bombshell, The Farewell, Ford vs. Ferrari, Frozen II, Jojo Rabbit, The King, Motherless Brooklyn, Pain & Glory, and Us, of which I suspect Jojo Rabbit probably bested Motherless Brooklyn since the former was one of the Best Picture nominees (and from perennial Oscar favorite Michael Giacchino).
Films I Would Have Nominated: I honestly would start from scratch with this lineup. It's not that all of these choices are bad, it's that many of them are lazy. I would have added in the stilted tensions of Us, the soaring terror of Midsommar, the glories of Ad Astra, the elegant symphonies of A Hidden Life, and the city-capturing Last Black Man in San Francisco, all of which beat out this lineup.
Oscar’s Choice: There was a chance that Thomas Newman was going to upset & finally get his Oscar here, but it was a small one (made smaller by Parasite clobbering the film in the big categories). Joker wins, and by a decent margin.
My Choice: 1917 is going to get my trophy though I toyed with Rise of Skywalker overtaking it. Following them would be Little Women, Joker, and Marriage Story in the back.
Those are my thoughts-how about yours? Are you with Oscar picking the super-villain, or you with me giving Thomas Newman his overdue trophy (this is his second OVP trophy, and first in Original Score)? Do we think John Williams will ever get that sixth Oscar? And why do you think this is the clubbiest of all of the Oscar branches? Share your thoughts below!
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