The film music of 2023.

Okay, then.

My favorite scores of 2023:

      

(Michael Abels - Amazon)
Abels' score for the true-life courtroom drama plays like the best score Terence Blanchard never wrote.
Favorite tracks: "Call Me a Child of God", "No Intention of Closing", "Gonna Have Him on a Cross"

      

(Thomas Newman - Disney)
Newman's score lent a lot of flavor to the Pixar romance.
Favorite tracks: "Across the Ocean", "Pipe Blows", "Make Connection"

     

(Benjamin Wallfisch - WaterTower)
Easily the weakest comic book movie of the year, but one would never know listening to Wallfisch's exciting score.
Favorite tracks: "Run", "What is This Place?", "Worlds Collide"

     

(John Murphy - Hollywood)
Murphy laces moments of awe and warmth into this lively score.
Favorite tracks: "Warlock vs. Guardians", "It Really Is Good to Have Friends", "The High Evolutionary"

    

(Laura Karpman - Disney)
Karpman provided one of the more unique efforts in the Marvel canon.
Favorite tracks: "Dar-Benn", "Entangled", "The Marvels"

    

(John Powell - Back Lot)
Powell's music for the animated feature is appropriately lush and colorful.
Favorite tracks: "Bedtime Story", "Heron Adventures", "Jamaica"

    

(Daniel Hart - Disney)
It's virtually impossible to write a bad score for a Peter Pan movie and Hart's fun work continues the tradition.
Favorite tracks: "The Darling Darlings", "Peter Pan Shall Perish Today", "Goodbye Peter Pan"

    

(Panu Aaltio - Moviescore Media)
Delightful action music that should point to a bigger career for Aaltio.
Favorite tracks: "Newspaper Ad", "Grand Adventure", "Mystery Never Ends"

    

(Marco Beltrami - Back Lot)
Beltrami revisits his Warm Bodies and injects a lot of musical style.
Favorite tracks: "Wake and Bake", "You're the Monster, Renfield", "Full Husk Emptied"

    

(Christophe Beck - WaterTower)
This robust superhero score might well be Beck's best work of the year.
Favorite tracks: "Main Title Theme", "Philly Tree's Take", "Hero"

(Brian Tyler - Back Lot)
One of Tyler's most exuberant efforts, bolstered by clever interpolations of the game themes.
Favorite tracks: "King of the Koopas", "Lost and Crowned", "Fighting Tooth and Veil"

(Lorne Balfe - Lakeshore)
Balfe's pulsating music channels the feel of the classic video game.
Favorite tracks: "Falling Blocks", "Hard Drop", "TeeWee"

Other good scores:

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Christophe Beck), Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (Harry Gregson-Williams), Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Lorne Balfe), Haunted Mansion (Kris Bowers), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (John Williams), mon crime (Philippe Rombi), Napoleon (Martin Phipps), Rustin (Branford Marsalis), Slotherhouse (Sam Ewing), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Daniel Pemberton), The Tenderness (Fernando Velazquez), Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Jongnic Bontemps) and Zombie Town (Ryan Shore)

My favorite CDs of 2023:

Battle Beyond the Stars (James Horner - Intrada) - Horner (literally) lays the groundwork for future favorites with his score for the sci-fi western.

Hook (John Williams - La La Land) - The complete presentation of the underscore is welcome, but the real attraction is the songs written back when the project was to be a musical.

Mouse Hunt (Alan Silvestri - Varese Sarabande CD Club) - At long last, one of Silvestri’s finest - and most fun - scores receives the presentation it deserves.

The Munsters: the Television Music of Jack Marshall (La La Land) - Compilation spans Marshall's Universal scoring for the small screen, highlighted by the delightful music of the headliner show.

On Dangerous Ground/The Man Who Knew Too Much (Bernard Herrmann - Intrada) - The label's re-recording cleans up the former score and showcases the latter in all its glory.

Peter Pan (James Newton Howard - Intrada) - Howard’s sweeping and lovely music made for a perfect fit to the (sadly) forgotten adaptation.

Rat Race (Elmer Bernstein - La La Land) - Bernstein's rejected score for the chase comedy saw him throwing out the Airplane! playbook and going full-tilt wacky.

Sabrina (John Williams - La La Land) - The romantic comedy remake featured one of the Master’s finest works, supported by an elegant main theme.

Solo: a Star Wars Story (John Powell - Intrada) - Every note of Powell's exciting score is finally available on a physical album, which is reason enough to celebrate.

Venom (Michael Kamen - Quartet) - Kamen provided a wonderfully creepy score for the underrated killer snake thriller.

Other great CDs of 2023:

Hot Fuzz (David Arnold - La La Land)

Humanoids from the Deep (James Horner - Intrada)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Denny Zeitlin - Intrada)

MacArthur (Jerry Goldsmith - Intrada)

The Manions of America (Morton Stevens - Dragon's Domain)

Moment to Moment (Henry Mancini - La La Land)

Pleasantville (Randy Newman - Varese Sarabande CD Club)

Seance on a Wet Afternoon (John Barry - Quartet)

Shattered (Alan Silvestri - Intrada)

Sneakers (James Horner - La La Land)

Random thoughts:

- Hans Zimmer wrote a fine score for The Creator, but it was originally not to be. Writer/director Gareth Edwards’s plan was to have an AI generator replicate a Zimmer score, at least until cooler heads prevailed. As a film music fan for most of my life, I find this to be just offensive; depriving talented composers of work just to save a few bucks. Haven’t seen the film, but I suppose I can be grateful that it was a box office flop, which could certainly throw a wrench in Edwards’ future career and make sure that his psychotic ideas don’t infest other filmmakers.

- Given his amazing scores for Kenneth Branagh’s first two Poirot movies, I eagerly awaited Patrick Doyle’s music for A Haunting in Venice. However, his work on the music for the coronation of King Charles precluded this, leaving the job in the hands of…Hildur Gudnadottir. Her grim, one-note score seemed to wander in from another franchise, one that recoils at the concept of melody…or fun. There are tons of working European composers that could’ve done a better job. To wit: Craig Armstrong, David Arnold, Roque Banos, Bruno Coulais, Alexandre Desplat, Pino Donaggio, Anne Dudley, George Fenton, Alex Heffes, Tuomas Kantelinen, Rolfe Kent, Dario Marianelli, Rachel Portman, Edward Shearmur, Carlo Siliotto, Frederic Talgorn, Fernando Velazquez or Gabriel Yared. You mean to tell me that they were all washing their hair the night came to choose a new composer?

- I don’t know if it’s a case of two composers having the exact same brainwave or a demand of Jason Blum, but I couldn’t help but notice that the scores for Benjamin Wallfisch’s The Invisible Man and Anthony Willis’s M3GAN both feature incredibly harsh, electronic tones for technology going out of control, which I suppose makes it an appropriate affectation, but it is hard to listen to outside of the film.

- Much like the previous year, scores for horror movies were generally a disappointing lot with the exception of Sam Ewing’s colorful work for Slotherhouse, about sorority girls trying to stop a killer sloth. You live long enough, anything will happen, I guess.

- Fernando Velasquez’s score for The Tenderness was pretty good, but the thing that struck me most was the very first cue: “la isla desierta”. Seriously, give it a listen and tell me that Shirley Walker hasn’t come back from the grave:

How do you nominate Barbie without nominating Barbie?!

I had considered using a line from the title song of the movie Gold, but I had to say something.

- As of a few days ago, I saw five of the ten Best Picture nominees. My best ratio in years.

- Seriously, Margot Robbie gave a marvelous performance, the kind that (you would think) would guarantee an Oscar nomination. Weirdly, director Greta Gerwig was also snubbed. Someone tweeted this yesterday and they nailed it: "No nomination for (actress) Margot Robbie. No nomination for [director] Greta Gerwig. Ryan Gosling* gets an Oscar nomination. This is actually the whole plot of Barbie." Just imagine Sophie's Choice if it was nominated in every category but Best Actress.
* - Gosling was terrific, but the point remains.

- Other snubs: Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret., Supporting Actors Dominic Sessa (a stunning debut in The Holdovers), Glenn Howerton (the highlight of BlackBerry) and Charles Melton (didn't see May December, but as a "Riverdale" fan, the buzz had me jazzed), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (more deserving of a nod than Nimona) and Dumb Money.

- It's nice that the scores for the four best Indiana Jones movies have been Oscar-nominated.

- I didn't love American Fiction as much as I wanted to, but I'm still pleased it landed five nominations.

- First-time nominees: Emily Blunt, Danielle Brooks, Sterling K. Brown, Colman Domingo, America Ferrera, Lily Gladstone, Sandra Huller, Cillian Murphy, Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Jeffrey Wright.

- I don't really have much more to say. My Barbie complaint took the wind out of me. March 10th. Be there or be square.

The movies of 2023.

I saw 68 movies in 2023. I really don't want to reprise my 'the theatrical experience lives!' spiel from last year, but what can you do?

My favorite movies of 2022:

10. Elemental - Pixar’s first attempt at romantic comedy is as charming and eye-catching as you’d expect.

9. Asteroid City - Fascinating Wes Anderson take on an alien invasion, brought to life by a marvelous cast.

8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - Oddball animation and a spirited voice cast make this an engaging reboot.

7. The Holdovers - Splendid drama about broken people healing each other nicely evokes the era in which it is set.

6. Sisu - WWII thriller is one of the most exciting - and most gorgeous-looking - movies of the year.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy - Vol. 3 - James Gunn concludes his trilogy in grand style with surprising emotion.

4. M3GAN - The story of a girl’s new best friend is an entertaining yarn from Blumhouse.

3. Killers of the Flower Moon - Terrific adaptation of a little known chapter of American history is properly sprawling and powerfully acted.

2. Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - Fun fantasy adventure carries itself much like the actual game.

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Follow-up to Into the Spider-Verse may well be even better; runs the gamut from action to drama to comedy.

Runners-up:

Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.

Barbie

Blue Beetle

The Boy and the Heron

Dumb Money

Joy Ride

Missing

Oppenheimer

Still: a Michael J. Fox Movie

Thanksgiving

Underrated:

Haunted Mansion, The Marvels, Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken

Overrated:

John Wick: Chapter 4, Nimona

Streaming exclusives that should've been released in theaters:

Quiz Lady, Still: a Michael J. Fox Movie, They Cloned Tyrone

Theatrical movies that should've been relegated to streaming:

The Flash, Retribution, Silent Night, 65

My favorite things in movies - 2023:

Andrew Barth Feldman serenades Jennifer Lawrence - forcing her to rethink what she wants - in No Hard Feelings

Anthony Ramos quits his job in Dumb Money

The build up to the bomb’s detonation, and the detonation itself, in Oppenheimer

The cheeky nod to spiritual predecessor Searching in Missing

The curtain getting pulled back in Asteroid City

Dave Bautista in Knock at the Cabin. His finest performance yet in an exceptionally tense thriller officially confirms him not as a wrestler-turned-actor, but as an actor who happened to wrestle in his younger days.

The flame-rounds oner in John Wick: Chapter 4. The nearly three-hour running time is a classic example of filmmakers getting high on their own supply, but it was almost worth it to get such an exhilarating sequence.

Glenn Howerton in Blackberry

Hespera reads the letter in Shazam! Fury of the Gods

The in-person cameo in The Flash. Sad that this is something that had to be qualified, but…you know. In two and a half hours of pathetic, Emmerich’s Godzilla/Bay’s Transformers/‘cadence of a joke’ humor, it is the one thing in this movie that genuinely made me laugh.

Jack Black in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, especially his performance of the song, "Peaches".

Jason Momoa in Fast X. Even now, I am gobsmacked that he was allowed to get away with such a character - and such a performance! - in 20-freaking-23 and we get two more movies with this cat? Bring ‘em on!

Kjell Lagerroos's cinematography for Sisu

The narrator dog in Strays, especially one line in particular; if you seen the film, you know exactly the one

The opening sequence in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. So, young Harrison Ford was executed with CGI. That shit was exciting and anyone who disagrees is lying to themselves.

The power-switching montage in The Marvels

Pretty much anything said by George Lopez’s Uncle Rudy in Blue Beetle

The re-creations of 1931’s Dracula in Renfield

The resignation montage in Napoleon

The scenes between Denzel Washington's McCall and Dakota Fanning's Collins in The Equalizer 3, especially the reveal as to why he contacted her

The sense of humor in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, a strong element to an enjoyable movie, especially the line following the heroes' escape.

The surprise ending of Killers of the Flower Moon. It takes a real prankish sensibility to conclude your heavy historical drama on this note, and I quite liked it.

Tony Hale as Ben Franklin in Quiz Lady. Granted, the schtick is little more than a rip off of Janeane Garofalo's cameo in The Cable Guy ("There were no utensils in medieval times, hence, there are no utensils at Medieval Times. Would you like a refill on your Pepsi?"), but hey, I laugh at what I laugh at. 

The violin duel in Chevalier

“We’re in a franchise!” - Scream VI

“Who’s Black Sabbath?” - Thanksgiving 

Random thoughts:

- As I have noted several times on message boards, I’m well aware that we live in the Internet age where nothing could be kept a secret anymore, but this blew up in my face in the worst way. I had planned on seeing Thanksgiving the day before the actual holiday. I was pretty excited, but days before I was to see it - and, bear in mind, this is not even a couple days after it's been released in theaters - some jagoff on YouTube posted a video revealing who the killer was. I still enjoyed the film, but it was a bit less magical because of it. People like that ought to have their hands chopped off if they can’t even wait so much as seven goddamn days.

- Air was a decent look at how Nike and Michael Jordan turned each other into legends, if burdened with far too many 80s signifiers (it was almost like a rerun of “The Goldbergs”). However, they saved the worst for last: during Matt Damon’s climactic speech about what Jordan is capable of and there are flashes to the real-life tribulations that he’d go through. Jesus Christ! Way to undercut the guy that the whole freaking movie spent telling us was less a man than a god!

- So, yeah, that was totes Josh Gad‘s voice as Samara Weaving’s date at the beginning of Scream VI, yes?

- The last year or so has seen a number of YouTube trailers advertising fake Wes Anderson takes on a number of different plots. These trailers are executed with AI, apparently mocking Anderson’s style and his stable of actors. Now I’m more than a little unashamed to admit that I have gotten some laughs from these trailers, but it is the damnedest thing. This past summer, I saw a trailer for (ostensibly) a real movie, Jules (which played right before Asteroid City, if you can believe it!), that told the story of an alien who visits a small town and befriends an old man. For real, it totally felt like a Wes Anderson AI trailer for Asteroid City, but in real life. The only thing missing was the credit of “Owen Wilson as Jules”. (“Wow.”)

- Once upon a time, a movie based on a graphic novel was adapted into an animated feature by Blue Sky Studios, but then 20th Century Fox was bought by Disney, and the project was shelved. With roughly 25% of the project still yet to be completed, Netflix took over the production of the film and released it this past summer to great critical acclaim. That movie is called Nimona, which is now an Academy Award-nominated feature. I watched the film last December and, seriously, am I missing something here? I mean, the animation is good, and there are some strong thematic virtues, but then you have the protracted narrative (a moment occurs roughly an hour in that would seem to signal the natural endpoint of the story, but then, it just keeps going), the confused worldbuilding (so, the film is set in the near future, but there are also knights?), leftover Blue Sky humor (a secondary character dabs, because that is oh-so-timely and also, this is a movie produced in 2023 that used “Awkward.” as a punchline. I’m gonna say that again for the cheap seats: a movie produced in twenty-twenty-mother-fucking-three! used “Awkward.” as a punchline. Also, the title character is rather irritating for a good portion of it. I genuinely don’t see how this could be any sort of serious award competition for The Boy and the Heron or Spider-Verse and it’s high time that the film's die-hard fans realize that. 

- Blumhouse scored a home run at the beginning of last year with M3GAN, but as the year went on, things kinda went pear-shaped for them. In collaboration with Universal Pictures, the company spent $400 million on the rights to The Exorcist in the hopes of making a new trilogy. The first movie, The Exorcist: Believer made a little money, but was a critical failure. Three weeks later, they put out Five Nights at Freddy's, which ended up being the company's highest grosser, but creatively, it was very bankrupt. The trailers for their next couple projects, Night Swim and Imaginary, look wholly unpromising. I don’t want to say that the days of Get Out and The Invisible Man are far in the rear-view mirror, but I guess I just did. 

- The year in PG-13 F-bombs: Missing, The Flash and (surprisingly) Guardians of the Galaxy - Vol. 3

- “Say, do you wanna know why the aliens are here and what they want with Brynn (Kaitlyn Dever)? Well, you can fuck all the way off, ‘cause I’m not gonna tell you!” - Brian Duffield, writer/director of No One Will Save You…probably. Oh, and an extra ‘fuck you’ for stealing a plot point for a script that I was writing.

- If I had a nickel for every 2023 movie about an asshole teenager who uses time travel to go back and save their murdered mother, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. Also, if I had one for every 2023 genre piece that tried to be pointlessly artsy by stripping away all the dialogue…

- Another moment of Fast X that stood out to me - besides Jason Momoa - was the scene where Jack Reacher tells Captain Marvel that he hates barbecues. I feel like this should have its own page at TV Tropes where the villain says that they hate something the hero loves. My go-to example is A Good Day to Die Hard: "If there's one thing I really hate, it's Americans. Especially cowboys."....and I know that we didn't know he was a villain when he said that, but in a movie like this, revealing that he wasn't a villain would've been a major disappointment.

- What do Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Renfield have in common? Both movies were written by veterans of “Rick and Morty”…and judging by both movies, neither gentleman has completely flushed the show from their respective systems. I haven't seen Quantumania (and unless an extended cut of the film featuring at least 30 seconds of Michael Pena delightfulness drops on Disney Plus, I never goddamn will), but from what I've heard, the residents of the Quantum Realm may as well have been rejects from an episode of the show, and Ben Schwartz's character in Renfield struck me as the kind of one-note one-shot character who gets introduced and ends up either getting killed or horribly mutated. If I’m being perfectly honest, I’m amazed his character lasted as long as he did.

- Is it possible to love a movie despite not having the faintest of clues what the hell is going on for most of it? That was Dumb Money, for me. The cast was terrific, and the Social Network blueprint is bulletproof, but honestly, I was practically Lorraine Bracco‘s character in Hackers. If someone asked me to explain short selling at gunpoint, that is the last you would ever hear from my Black ass.

My Oscar ballot.

May as well get used to filling these out. I am going to get a script sold…just as soon as I start writing it. Anyway…

PICTURE

Asteroid City
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

ACTOR

Dave Bautista, Knock at the Cabin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Jason Schwartzman, Asteroid City
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction

ACTRESS

Abby Ryder Fortson, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Scarlet Johansson, Asteroid City
Jennifer Lawrence, No Hard Feelings
Margot Robbie, Barbie

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
Robert Downey, Jr., Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Glenn Howerton, Blackberry
Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Kathy Bates, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
America Ferrera, Barbie
Rachel McAdams, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.
Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

DIRECTOR

Wes Anderson, Asteroid City
Greta Gerwig, Barbie
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Alexander Payne, The Holdovers
Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Air
The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
The Holdovers
Sisu

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.
Barbie
Dumb Money
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Sisu
Wonka

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Asteroid City
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Wonka

EDITING

Asteroid City
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Sisu

COSTUME DESIGN

Barbie
Chevalier
Napoleon
They Cloned Tyrone
Wonka

ORIGINAL SCORE

American Fiction, Laura Karpman
Elemental, Thomas Newman
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, John Williams
Oppenheimer, Ludwig Goransson
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Daniel Pemberton

ORIGINAL SONG

"I'm Just Ken", Barbie
"Peaches", The Super Mario Bros. Movie
"Scrub Scrub", Wonka
"Sweet Tooth", Wonka
"What Was I Made For?", Barbie

SOUND
 
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer

MAKEUP

Guardians of the Galaxy - Vol. 3
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
Wonka

VISUAL EFFECTS

Blue Beetle
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Guardians of the Galaxy - Vol. 3
Haunted Mansion
Oppenheimer

ANIMATED FEATURE

The Boy and the Heron
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
Elemental
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

“This is for Tupac.”

At work today, as is my wont when I’m working on something, I looked for a podcast to listen to as I while away the time. I searched my database in my phone’s Notes app and I settled on Made for TV Mayhem.

A number of different podcasts came up. At the best of times, I struggle to pick one I can get into until I happen upon one called They Made Another One?!. This show goes into the sequels and remakes that have come out over the years. I could certainly see myself returning to this one week after week…or so I thought.

The episode I chose examined the pointless and unintentionally funny 2019 remake of Child’s Play. At least, it was supposed to. The episode ran an hour and fifty minutes and the show was roughly half over before they got to talking about the film. A lot of it was focused on dull tangents stemming from moments barely connected to the film, such as the quote above leading into a discussion between the three hosts about whether they preferred 2-Pac or Biggie and listing the players and (for some reason) their other credits flying off into talking about the movie The Ghost Goes West or debating whether Playmobil: the Movie fits the podcast’s criteria.

Though the skip button on my phone got a major workout, I toughed it out. Then came the moment that made me ragequit: one of them decrying black and white movies. Maybe, it was a joke, but if so, it wasn’t a very good one; there are too many jagoffs in the world today that genuinely espouse this sentiment. And on that note, if they were serious, what fucking business do they have talking about movies of any kind?!

I think someone needs to institute a new rule for movie podcasts: the host or hosts a) need to love movies and b) shouldn’t be fucking high when recording the episodes.