OVP: Best Sound (2022)
The Nominees Were...
Viktor Prasil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel, & Stefan Korte, All Quiet on the Western Front
Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, & Michael Hedges, Avatar: The Way of Water
Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray, & Andy Nelson, The Batman
David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson, & Michael Keller, Elvis
Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon, & Mark Taylor, Top Gun: Maverick
My Thoughts: We're finishing up the aural categories today with a look at Best Sound, our third year of the Sound categories being melded as one (I swear, I'll eventually stop pointing this out, but I still don't love it). Part of that reason is that you end up with a race like this, which I personally would've split the categories between two very impressive films, both with outstanding sound-work, but in a combined world I have to pull a Sophie's Choice between the two and only pick one.
Those two films are the best place to start, and so we'll begin with Avatar: The Way of Water, one of my favorite films period of 2022. The sound work here is brilliant. James Cameron, deprived of James Horner for the first time in a number of movies, still makes superb use of the new score, especially in the film's energetic final third, and also does a great job of mixing in the sound work of actors that are in green screen or motion-capture suits, making it feel organic to what's happening, particularly as we are also using splashing water & marine mammals throughout the background, giving us a really rich tapestry of noise-scapes throughout the film.
The other major contender here is Top Gun: Maverick. This movie uses sound in a remarkable way, and a lot of it is organic sound. Tom Cruise's commitment to practical effects feels increasingly risky given his age, but it gets us results on the big screen as we hear the actual roar of engines and marvelous sound design in all of the aerial battles in the movie. The film sharply incorporates mixing and editing to the point where I honestly couldn't tell the difference during the film's best sequences, and has a lovely 1980's motif to its score even if we're well-past the 80's (it's the movies...there's few things as potent as nostalgia at the movies).
The other three nominees might have some good moments, but they aren't in the same league as these two. One of those is The Batman, which honestly struggles as much with repetitiveness as anything. The best sound moments of The Batman are scenes involving the batmobile or the Riddler taunting Batman in a ticking clock scenario...but we've been here before. This isn't a direct sequel, and there is some nice crowd work (and a solid score) happening throughout this movie, but it feels like one we've done so many times. Even if Pattinson might be the best Batman in a generation (I think he's a better fit for the role than Bale, particularly as Bruce Wayne) & there's nothing inherently bad about it, I left bored, and that included the audio track.
The same could be said for All Quiet on the Western Front. I was watching a war movie this past week (War Machine with Brad Pitt), and I was struck by how many times we've gone to the "war is hell" well and it can still look different. That's not the case with All Quiet, which feels like the story pales in comparison to the original film, but the sound work fails next to 1917, a much better film from a few years earlier which is also about World War I. Perhaps because this film was not intended for the big screen (most, including me, saw it on our couches because it's on Netflix) it doesn't need to sound as all-encompassing, but it doesn't, and the omnipresent three-note score takes you out of the film more than it invites you into its supposedly immersive world.
Our final sound score (and the second nominated for Andy Nelson, who became the third-most nominated living person with his double whammy in 2022), Elvis, is also working with a score we know by heart, but it does the most to insist you don't know it yet. Austin Butler's vocals are impressive, and the sound mixers do a good enough job you can't entirely tell when it becomes a situation where Butler's voice is now combined with the real-life Presley's. The film also plays with the Presley legend by giving us sexual overtones to the music (look at the way the first concert slows down so you know exactly what is, ahem, erupting from the audience both on and off screen). But when it's not time for the musical numbers, there's nothing really standing out about this movie. That's perhaps unfair (you go to a musical for the music), but if you're talking Oscar, especially in the company of Avatar and Top Gun, it all needs to be strong.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Cinema Audio Society splits its nominations between animated and live action. While we used to have more animated films nominated for Oscars, this year it wasn't the case so a new group of the victorious Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio sits atop Lightyear, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and Turning Red, while Sound Mixing has Top Gun: Maverick winning against the exact Oscar lineup. BAFTA gave their top prize to All Quiet, and kept the Oscar lineup almost completely with just The Batman out in favor of Tar. In terms of sixth place, in 2022 we had a shortlist so we know it was either Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Babylon, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, or Moonage Daydream, and given its dominance everywhere else, I'm going to guess that EEAAO was the just miss here.
Films I Would Have Nominated: When we get to My Ballot, I'll be splitting the Sound categories into the traditional Mixing & Editing, but I will own that I have a shocking amount of overlap (not usually the case for me) between the two in 2022. Two names that I wish I could see here are The Northman and Nope, both of whom stood out in a remarkable number of technical categories, and this would've been a great place to give them a little bit of love.
Oscar’s Choice: Top Gun was going to win somewhere, and though All Quiet probably made it closer than expected given its stampede otherwise, between the two, I'm glad Oscar went the way he did.
My Choice: Again, if I were to split these, I'd give each of them a statue (I'll share which gets which when we get to our My Ballot later this month), but for now I'm going to crown Avatar as the victor over Top Gun as I think it does the best overall and not just in the big moments. Both make worthy statue holders, though (they're both going to win medals in each category from me). Behind them are Elvis, The Batman, and All Quiet, in order.
Those are my choices-how about you? Do you want to stick with the Academy taking to the skies, or are you more inclined to join me in the water? Are we slowly moving away from a world where this is a default win for the musical in the bunch? And are we all in agreement that EEAAO just missed here, or do you think that another contender was in the running? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Also in 2022: Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2022
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