Countdown to the Oscars: Best Sound

We’re counting down the days until the Academy Awards! We’ll be here, breaking down each of the 23 categories, talking a bit of history, and trying to figure out who is going to win all those gold statues. So check back throughout the next three weeks for Last Cinema Standing’s Countdown to the Oscars.

Best Sound

The nominees are:

All Quiet on the Western Front

Avatar: The Way of Water

The Batman

Elvis

Top Gun: Maverick

Here we are in year three of the experiment in combining the formerly two sound awards (Editing and Mixing) into a single award for Best Sound. Last year, I outlined the ways in which the Sound Editing award often favored action/war pictures while Sound Mixing had more room for musicals and movies about music. I also suggested the future of the award would look a lot more like the old Sound Editing Oscar than Sound Mixing. The predicted triumph of Dune last year lent credence to this theory. The five nominees in the category this year point even further in that direction.

What we have are four action/war films and one quasi-musical. Unless the action films split the vote, I don’t see the musical winning. As this trend develops in the coming years, one would hope the takeaway will be that we need to split these categories once more and recognize the fact that Editing and Mixing are, in fact, two distinct disciplines. Alas, that seems unlikely, so get used to the slate of nominees looking quite similar to this year after year.

Top Gun: Maverick – In 1986, Top Gun was nominated for both sound awards (Sound, which meant mixing, and Sound Effects Editing, which meant Editing). It lost Sound to Platoon and Sound Effects Editing to James Cameron’s very own Aliens. The difference then: That Top Gun movie was not a Best Picture nominee that saved movie theaters. This one is. The sound, of course, is awesome, tailor-made for the big screen and the booming speakers of an IMAX or Dolby theater. I bought my dad a surround sound system for Christmas this year, and the first movie he wanted to watch: Top Gun: Maverick. Can’t say I blame him.

All Quiet on the Western Front – The other half of the action/war picture dominance: a great war movie. Just in the past decade alone, 1917, Dunkirk, Hacksaw Ridge, and American Sniper have won sound awards at the Oscars. The movie this most closely resembles is probably Saving Private Ryan, which won both sound awards in 1998. Appropriately, the sound here is entirely immersive. The bullets fly by, the bombs explode as if right next to you, and the score blares over it all in a disturbing, perfectly painful way. It’s great stuff.

Elvis – This is the musical in the bunch, and as mentioned up top, it is more a feat of mixing than editing, but the feat is truly admirable. The way the diegetic sound comes in and out, alternately highlighting and underplaying the emotions on the screen is pitch perfect. I have written a lot in this series about how overblown a lot of this movie’s crafts are – and laid most of the blame at the feet of the director – but the sound is one area that feels carefully attuned to the picture that is being made.

Avatar: The Way of Water – Leaving aside anything else, this film has some of the most impressive foley work – that’s the creation of the sound effects – of any film in recent memory. There is little as difficult as getting accurate-to-life water effects in film, both visually and sonically, and this movie covers both in spades, each aided by the other. Interestingly, the original film lost both sound awards in 2009 to eventual Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker (another recent war film winning in this category for those keeping score at home).

The Batman – Sound engineer Andy Nelson is a double nominee this year for Elvis and The Batman, bringing his lifetime nomination total to 24 and putting him in a tie with Woody Allen for 10th most nominations of all time. He has been Steven Spielgerg’s go-to re-recording mixer since Hook in 1991, winning an Oscar for Saving Private Ryan. He also won a statue for Les Miserables, and in addition to working on Elvis and The Batman this year, he also did The Fabelmans (of course) and Babylon. Just a cool dude all around.

The final analysis

For me, this is a toss-up. It all depends on whether this Academy is as enamored of All Quiet on the Western Front as the British Academy was. Considering the Brits gave All Quiet their best film award, I’m guessing not. I’m also guessing the Americans will want to reward all that money Top Gun: Maverick made with something, and this is the most likely place for it. So, flip a coin if you like and you’ll probably have just as good a shot at predicting this as I do, but I’m going with Maverick.

Will win: Top Gun: Maverick

Should win: All Quiet on the Western Front

Should have been here: TÁR

A note about my favorite snub: Every nominee in the category this year, in one way or another, is big and loud and bombastic, and that’s par for the course. But, TÁR is so much about sound that it surprises me the Sound Branch didn’t go for it. All the subtle little touches that went into Todd Field’s film create a truly haunting sonic landscape.

Next time: Original Score

Countdown to the Oscars: Best Makeup and Hairstyling

We’re counting down the days until the Academy Awards! We’ll be here, breaking down each of the 23 categories, talking a bit of history, and trying to figure out who is going to win all those gold statues. So check back throughout the next three weeks for Last Cinema Standing’s Countdown to the Oscars.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

The nominees are:

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Batman

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Elvis

The Whale

Remember 2015 and 2016 when Love Larson and Eva von Bahr were nominated in back-to-back years for their work on a pair of popular Swedish hits that most Americans had never heard of? That was cool. Remember Ali Abbasi’s weird little Swedish gem Border in 2018? Also cool. How about last year and the love shown to the long-awaited sequel Coming 2 America? That was neat and out of left field. 

All of this is to point out that this year’s crop of Makeup and Hairstyling nominees feels a little safe, a little traditional. Every one of these films is nominated for at least three awards this year, and two are Best Picture nominees. There is nothing that feels spontaneous or quirky, like in 2020, when Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio snuck into the lineup. No matter. Just an observation.

As it stands, these nominees reflect a growing trend within the Makeup and Hairstyling Branch of the Academy to favor showy character prosthetics that contribute to a leading or supporting performance in some major way. The Batman, Elvis, and The Whale are all a part of this trend. Four of the past five winners fit this bill, as well, with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom the exception in 2020. Otherwise, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Bombshell, Vice, and The Darkest Hour all feature main characters buried under layers of prosthetics. So, let’s start there.

The Whale – The makeup is everything in Darren Aronofsky’s weepy drama. Okay, there is Brendan Fraser giving the performance of a lifetime. But, that performance does not exist without the prosthetic work, which is aided by a lot of CGI. Fraser is not a small man, but the work to transform him into a believable 600-pound man is, pardon the pun, gargantuan. Fraser’s character appears fully nude multiple times in the film, meaning the full-body prosthetics must hold up under scrutiny. More than that, the facial pieces have to bear the weight of Aronofsky’s many closeups without compromising Fraser’s performance. Your mileage may vary, but if the movie works for you, the makeup deserves a lot of credit.

Elvis – From a character makeup standpoint, Baz Luhrman’s wild biopic is The Whale times two. First, there is Austin Butler’s Elvis, which requires a number of subtle facial prosthetics, as well as tremendous attention to detail with the singer’s famously coiffed hair. Second, there is Tom Hanks’ fat suit, as well as the curiously oversized nose prosthetic. There is also a ton of work put into recreating the period-accurate hairstyles of the large crowds in attendance for many of the Elvis shows in the movie. Add all of this together, and for a movie I didn’t like, the work is quite admirable and this nomination well deserved.

The Batman – There is a joke to be made here about Robert Pattinson’s Batman being the first caped crusader to don eyeliner, but we’ll save it for another time. No, much like Batman Returns’ nomination in this category 30 years ago, this is all about the Penguin. This past year, as part of an anniversary screening of Returns, I actually got to see a live demonstration of the makeup, prosthetics, and hair piece it took to transform Danny DeVito into Oswald Cobblepot. It was cool to see and emphasized the work that goes into making these fantasy characters truly spark to life. Here – and I know this is cliche to say – Colin Farrell is unrecognizable as the Penguin. It’s a remarkable transformation that deserves much praise.

All Quiet on the Western Front – Perhaps the most iconic image to come out of this film is that of star Felix Kammerer’s ashen face, caked in mud, delivering that thousand-yard stare. So much of the movie is about the main character’s transformation from eager, fresh-faced youth to that broken, battered man, and the makeup really helps give the audience a sense of where we are in that story. Really, this is the story of all the men maimed and scarred by the war. We see their bruises, their wounds, and their missing limbs, and the cost of the war is made real and tangible. The makeup is haunting and shattering all throughout the film.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – The original Black Panther film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. This one is nominated for five, but only two in the same category as the first feature (Original Song and Costume Design). Makeup and Hairstyling is one of the places the 2018 film missed out, though there were only three nominees in the category that year. The film was part of the final seven-film bake-off, so it stands to reason that with five nominees, it would have been in. The tattoo work alone on the Wakandans and the Talokan people is wonderfully impressive stuff, and similar to The Batman, it is a major lift to bring these fantastical characters into a reality we recognize.

The final analysis

I keep going back and forth between The Whale and Elvis. Based on recent history, either would be a logical winner, and there is very little to separate them. But let’s try.

Going back to 2011, four of the 11 Makeup and Hairstyling winners have been for films that also won a lead performance Oscar (The Iron Lady, Dallas Buyers Club, The Darkest Hour, and The Eyes of Tammy Faye just last year). If we think Butler is going to win Best Actor, then Elvis is a reasonable bet here. In addition, from 2000 to 2018, in every instance when a Best Picture nominee was cited in this category, a Best Picture nominee won the award. This would also point to Elvis (or All Quiet on the Western Front).

However, this is where it gets fun. The past three years have painted a different picture. In 2019, Bombshell beat out Joker and 1917. In 2020, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom beat out Mank. And last year, Tammy Faye beat out Dune. So, Picture is no longer the slam-dunk indicator we would once have considered it. In addition, looking at 2019 again, Bombshell featured a Best Actress-nominated performance from Charlize Theron, but it beat out Renee Zelwegger’s Best Actress-winning performance in Judy in this category. So, even if Butler does triumph in Actor, the Fraser film is not out of the running here.

We also cannot ignore the Academy’s willingness to go with the fun, showy blockbuster in this category, which in this case I believe would be The Batman over Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. More than likely, those two films will split votes, preventing a victory on par with Star Trek, Mad Max: Fury Road, or Suicide Squad. War films do not tend to do particularly well here, and even Saving Private Ryan lost to Elizabeth in this category, so unless All Quiet on the Western Front is going to sweep (like it did at the BAFTAs), it’s probably out of the running.

All of which brings us back to: The Whale or Elvis? If you’re placing a bet, go with Elvis. It is the more beloved film, it is the Best Picture nominee, and it features your likely Best Actor winner. That is the smart way to play this game. But, I just cannot get past the fact that The Whale does not exist without the makeup, and it’s right there, front and center the entire time. What are we doing here if not trying to have a little fun? So, you be smart. I’m going out on the limb.

Will win: The Whale

Should win: The Batman

Should have been here: Babylon

A word on my favorite snub: Damien Chazelle’s Babylon is a rise-and-fall movie that covers years of its characters’ lives and eventually decades. The subtle aging, along with the more extravagant hair and makeup looks that abound – particularly for Margot Robbie’s character – would have been a wonderful complement to the more conventional slate of nominees this year.

Next time: Costume Design

Countdown to the Oscars: Best Visual Effects

We’re counting down the days until the Academy Awards! We’ll be here, breaking down each of the 23 categories, talking a bit of history, and trying to figure out who is going to win all those gold statues. So check back throughout the next three weeks for Last Cinema Standing’s Countdown to the Oscars.

Best Visual Effects

The nominees are:

All Quiet on the Western Front

Avatar: The Way of Water

The Batman

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Top Gun: Maverick

Every year, we start this countdown with this category. At this point, it’s a tradition. I suppose the craven reason is because this is the category with the most films a majority of people will recognize. That becomes less and less the case as we get deeper and deeper into the Oscars race. However, a funny thing happened on the way to the Dolby this year: The Academy Awards got popular again. Best Picture this year includes four unequivocal hits, including two of the biggest movies of all time. The producers of the show, as well as executives at ABC, must be ecstatic.

For us, this means we will be discussing a lot of movies people have heard of, and it means the often blockbuster-heavy Visual Effects lineup is also unusually Best Picture heavy. Three of the five films nominated for Visual Effects are in the Best Picture race, something that has only happened two other times in Academy history. The first was in 1940, when there were 14 nominees and the category meant something very different. The other is a year we always talk about: 2015, when sci-fi indie Ex-Machina shocked the room and beat out the epics.

That was one of the more shocking moments in recent Oscars history – a wholly deserved win for an excellent film, but shocking nonetheless. The most likely scenario is that the three Best Picture nominees that year (The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, and The Martian) all split the vote, allowing the smaller-scale film to sneak up the middle and take the award. 

This year, there is no such “small” film in the race. These are all massive epics of the sort the Academy usually rewards. In addition, the reason we talk about 2015 so much is because it is such a baffling outlier in this category. Apart from that one time, going back to 1977, when the modern history of this category really took shape, if there is a Best Picture nominee in the lineup, it wins. If there are multiple Best Picture nominees, one of them wins. I would not expect this year to break that tradition, particularly not with the king of effects-based filmmaking in the hunt.

Avatar: The Way of Water – In the 13 years between the original Avatar and its sequel, visual effects have taken a tremendous leap as an artform. Much of that leap can be attributed to the work James Cameron and his Oscar-winning effects team pioneered on that first film. Now, they are back with the next great innovation in computer effects. The film is a visual extravaganza, and while I cannot say the high frame rate or 3D effects are always effective, both look better than any other film that has ever tried the medium.

Top Gun: Maverick – The effects in Joseph Kosinski’s high-flying action picture are very good, but more than anything, this film’s appearance among these nominees is just the latest, almost undeniable argument that the Academy needs a stunt performance Oscar. These days, Tom Cruise films are sold on the fact that he does all of his own stunts, each more death-defying than the last. One of the huge selling points of this film specifically is that the jets are really in the air – real pilots, real speed. Yes, the visual effects make a massive contribution to Maverick’s success, but what the Academy truly wants to reward are the stunts. Maybe someday.

All Quiet on the Western Front – Though the only film in this quintet that would not be considered a huge blockbuster, Edward Berger’s film is still a massive war epic, made all the more impressive by the fact that it was accomplished on a mere $20 million budget. Unfortunately, most of the world did not get to see this Netflix release on the big screen, where its size and scope would be most intensely felt. However, whether in the theater or at home, Berger and his effects team lay the cold reality of war right at your feet in ways we have rarely seen.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – This is one of the more curious nominees in recent years. This is not because it is not deserving but because its Best Picture-nominated predecessor was not cited in this category. Perhaps, Ryan Coogler and his team’s accomplishment in bringing the underwater nation of Talokan to life was too great to ignore. From an effects standpoint, those sequences certainly stand out as some of the most gorgeously rendered in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the nomination is well earned.

The Batman – After years of dreariness and grime, Matt Reeves’ The Batman was a breath of fresh air in the chronicles of the Caped Crusader, a return to the visual inventiveness of the Christopher Nolan or Tim Burton series. Despite being rendered primarily in computers, Gotham City feels real again in a way it has not since The Dark Knight in 2008. There is a visceral quality to the film’s action sequences that gives them more punch than anything in the recent Justice League films.

The final analysis

It’s Avatar: The Way of Water. We can hem and haw and come up with reasons for other winners in this category, but it would be disingenuous. It’s Avatar. Apart from its hamfisted but good-hearted environmental message, this franchise’s entire raison d’être is to push the medium forward into uncharted territory, to show us what brilliant effects properly deployed by a master of the form can truly do. The Academy knows this and will reward it accordingly.

Once again going back to 1977, when Star Wars ushered in the era of the modern special effects film, no filmmaker has directed more movies to the Visual Effects Academy Award than James Cameron. He has five on his resumé: Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Titanic, and Avatar. A sixth will put him two ahead of the next two directors on the list, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, who each have four. Cameron is the undisputed king of the box office, but as his track record proves, he is also the king of visual effects.

Will win: Avatar: The Way of Water

Should win: Avatar: The Way of Water

Should have been here: Bardo

A word on my favorite snub: Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Bardo exists in the dream state between the real and the imagined. It presents heightened reality that is at once familiar and unsettlingly foreign. Like the nominees here, Bardo is an epic, but it is an epic of emotion rather than whiz-bang action. It would be nice to see more of these movies in the category on a regular basis.

Next time: Makeup and Hairstyling