OVP: Best Sound Editing (2018)
The Nominees Were...
Benjamin A. Burtt & Steve Boeddeker, Black Panther
John Warhurst & Nina Hartstone, Bohemian Rhapsody
Ai-Ling Lee & Mildred Iatrou Morgan, First Man
Etahn van der Ryn & Erik Aadahl, A Quiet Place
Sergio Diaz & Skip Lievsay, Roma
My Thoughts: Back in the 1990's, it became something of a running joke at the Oscars to distinguish the difference between Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. This is a lesson that Oscar needs to receive himself as the gigantic amount of overlap between these two categories in terms of their nominations indicate to me that voters have struggled to understand the difference (a likely reason the categories were merged in 2020 despite some protests from fans). Few years indicate that they understand this less, though, than 2018. In one of the strangest fields they've amassed, we had films that truly didn't have any notable Sound Editing, and in a bizarre twist...that movie won the category.
Let's just get it over with-I don't what the hell AMPAS was thinking giving this trophy to Bohemian Rhapsody. Even if you want to forgive some of the movie's most egregious sins & literally just hum "I love Queen!" in your head throughout all of the bad editing & the hammy acting, the Sound Editing in this movie is virtually nonexistent. The only real uses of Sound Editing is the actual lip-syncing and the concert sequences. In the former's case, you can do what Rami Malek did at every drag bar in America (and with a lot more entertainment value), and in the latter's case, A Star is Born is much better at sound editing its concerts, and that was nowhere near a nomination. The film basically won this Oscar for doing nothing, an unforgivable sin.
You could make an argument that Roma deserves to be in a similar boat. Unlike Bohemian Rhapsody, I think that Roma's soundscape is a landmark, and when we discuss mixing on Wednesday, we'll talk a bit more about how I'm enamored by this. However, while Roma doesn't have a lot of sound editing, what it has is at least impressive. The planes, the riots, the training montages-these are clearly edited to a certain degree, and contributing to one of the best films audibly of the year. It's not a big aspect of the film, so it's hard to really recognize it as a true success, but it's at the very least solid for what it is.
A Quiet Place is also a weird nominee, but in this case it's at least one that's forgivable. The film is about silence, and so its mixing might be a more appropriate nomination, though considering how obnoxious Marco Beltrami's score is throughout the picture, that would've been the harder nomination to get behind. Instead, we get pretty generic alien sound effects, but ones that use the lack of sound in the rest of the picture to solid effect-think of how grating & loud the speakers are in the end of the film when they start to fight back against the aliens. This is a good trick, but like Roma, it's not something that stands out as a major component of the movie's success.
The final two films are the films that feature a lot of sound editing, but they are different recipes for "more = better." I think, similar to the Visual Effects, Black Panther's sound work is okay. This isn't a bad movie (by any means), but the movie isn't breaking new ground on this front-this isn't what I'd consider Oscar-worthy, but merely the kinds of big-screen effects we've come to expect from a well-produced blockbuster. There's nothing, not even Shuri's gadgets or the magnetic train, that stands apart as exceptional in this movie for me, other than its something that happens a lot.
Which brings us to First Man, the one effects-driven film that also is going for the gold with its soundscape. The early days of flight sound magnetic onscreen. I love the way that they played with not just our expectations, but also made it a visceral experience as the astronauts are thrown into space-you get the feeling as if you're right there alongside Neil Armstrong, hurtling from the earth, the sound work is so pristine & detailed. When we get to the moon, they also mess with the lack of sound, keeping us breathlessly wondering what will happen next (in a moment that is about as well-known as any in the history of humanity). First Man is a total triumph, building off of movies like Gravity or The Martian to create something captivating.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Golden Reel Awards split their categories between live-action & animated. Live action went to Bohemian Rhapsody (vomit), over A Quiet Place, A Star is Born, First Man, Green Book (say what?), Mary Poppins Returns, Mission Impossible-Fallout, and The Favourite, while animated went for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse against Incredibles 2, Isle of Dogs, Peter Rabbit, Ralph Breaks the Internet, The Grinch, and Smallfoot. In terms of sixth place, A Star is Born was the odd-man out here (who competed in Mixing), so that's a decent bet, though I am going to guess that maybe Avengers: Infinity War or Solo: A Star Wars Story was in the running here given the dearth of major blockbusters in the field.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I mean, Spider-Man, right? This is an easy call and I don't quite get why the Academy didn't take it. The film sounds amazing, they tend to like quality animation in this field, and the whirling vortex effect toward the end with Kingpin is too good to pass up.
Oscar’s Choice: Oscar chose Bohemian Rhapsody, giving it one of the least deserving trophies in the history of this category.
My Choice: First Man, and it's not close. It's the only film that's worthy, and it's the only film I'll be nominating on My Ballot. I'll follow with A Quiet Place, Black Panther, Roma, and Bohemian Rhapsody.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Is everyone comfortable over with First Man, or does someone want to dare defend Bohemian Rhapsody? What do you think is the best-sounding MCU movie? And was it A Star is Born or one of the franchises that was in sixth place? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
Also in 2018: Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2018
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