Countdown to the Oscars: Best Original Score

Eddie Redmayne stars as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.

Each day as we make our way to the Academy Awards ceremony Feb. 22, Last Cinema Standing will take an in-depth look at each of the categories, sorting out the highs, the lows, and everything in between. Check back right here for analysis, predictions, and gripes as we inch toward the Dolby Theater and that world-famous red carpet.

Best Original Score

The nominees are:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Interstellar

Mr. Turner

The Theory of Everything

First off, the single best score of the year was deemed ineligible, making this category a bit of a paper lion. The music branch has some of the most antiquated and arbitrary rules of any group in the Academy, and whatever spurious logic was used to disqualify Antonio Sanchez’s brilliant percussion-based score for Birdman needs to be seriously re-evaluated.

You can click here, here, or here for more on the ruling and reaction, but it essentially boils down to this: The music branch did not feel there was enough original music on the soundtrack for the score to qualify. They pulled the same trick in 2007, deeming Johnny Greenwood’s magnificent work on There Will Be Blood to be ineligible. Excuse me for thinking “best” should mean “best” and not “most.”

It is disappointing, to say the least, that the most interesting and innovative work of the year has been left on the outside, looking in. What we are left with is a field of five more or less traditional scores from four very talented composers. When it comes to Original Score, how the music fits in with the overall film is paramount, but it does not hurt if the score is nice to listen to on its own, which brings us to our frontrunner.

The Theory of Everything – Composers tend to have a field day when the film in question is about a mathematician. I suppose this has to do with how closely music composition correlates to mathematics. James Horner’s wondrous score for A Beautiful Mind stands out in my memory. This year, we have two more such examples in Jóhann Jóhannsson’s score for The Theory of Everything and double nominee Alexandre Desplat for The Imitation Game.

Both are great pieces of work, but the music that stuck in my thoughts as I left the theater belonged to The Theory of Everything. Despite arguments to the contrary, The Theory of Everything is not a conventional biopic. Its emotions run deep, and Jóhannsson must convey subtle character growth in whispers rather than shouts.

These are not big characters – though Stephen Hawking’s (Eddie Redmayne) influence is undeniably gargantuan – and the bombast of a traditional score would not work. Jóhannsson strikes a wonderful balance between delicacy and propulsion while creating a melody that is as pretty to listen to on its own as it is integral to the appreciation of the film in which it appears.

The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum’s Alan Turing biopic, on the other hand, is a more traditional Hollywood-style take on a famous historical figure, but Desplat is anything but a traditional composer. An eight-time nominee who is also nominated for his score for The Grand Budapest Hotel this year, Desplat is more than capable of elevating dicey material with the kind of off-kilter compositions that make listeners stand up and take notice.

Based around a single repeating piano motif, which mirrors the calculating mind of Turing and the machinations of his invention, Desplat builds layer upon layer of haunting strings over the keys until we feel the full weight of the dire circumstances in which these characters find themselves. However, despite Desplat’s gifts, he is somewhat hampered by the film, which does not offer much room for deviation from more traditional scoring elements.

The Grand Budapest Hotel – We should be thankful then that Desplat has also gifted us with one of his weirdest and most wonderful works this year, as well. Allow me to pause a second just to point out the sheer volume of quality work Desplat has produced recently. Just this year, in addition to The Imitation Game and The Grand Budapest Hotel, he lent his talents to Godzilla, The Monuments Men, and Unbroken. Before that, he composed the scores for films as disparate as Philomena, The Tree of Life, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. By the way, if you are looking to get your film nominated for Best picture, it is not a bad idea to get Desplat on board.

As Wes Anderson’s go-to composer of late, Desplat has been allowed to let his freak flag fly, so to speak. As we have seen, Anderson’s films are crafts playgrounds, and everyone who wants to play has a lot of latitude to do so. Against the comparatively more traditional The Imitation Game, this is closer to the kind of work we might expect from Desplat – creative instrumentations, contrapuntal mood shifts, and a sense of energy that builds from the inside out. In the three films Desplat has done for Anderson – Moonrise Kingdom, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and this – he has proven to be an ideal composer for the director’s whimsical adventures. Here’s hoping they have a few more collaborations ahead of them.

Interstellar – For a certain generation of movie fans, Hans Zimmer has written the score to their lives with one iconic composition after another. In 1995, he worked on The Lion King, maybe the most famous Disney cartoon musical of the company’s modern era. The fans grew up a bit, and Zimmer was there to provide the music to The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Then, in 2006, he hooked up for the first of five collaborations and counting with director Christopher Nolan. If The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises were not enough, Zimmer is the creator of the zeitgeist-capturing, impossible-to-type BWAAHH sound from Inception.

For his troubles, Zimmer has earned 10 Academy Award nominations and won his only Oscar for The Lion King. Like Desplat for Anderson, Zimmer has proven the perfect composer for Nolan, who creates pieces of massive scale but full of intricate details. Zimmer has the perfect combination of ambition and skill to match Nolan beat for beat. To say Interstellar is another score in this vein will sound dismissive, but it is meant as a compliment. I hope Nolan keeps making films forever, just for the chance to hear more of Zimmer’s pulsing, pounding scores.

Mr. Turner – Undoubtedly the most surprising nominee in this category, composer Gary Yershon has just three feature film scores to his credit, all for Mr. Turner director Mike Leigh. Of the three biographical films nominated for Original Score this year, Mr. Turner is the strangest. It is not an inspirational tale of a laudable historical figure but rather a quiet contemplation of the life of an artist as the modern world evolves around him and without him.

Yershon’s subtle, creeping string work accomplishes the dual feat of providing an appropriately melancholy tone to the film and signaling the advance of technology on this serene landscape. When the first train comes roaring through the countryside, we have already been prepped for its intrusion by the constantly nagging whine of strings hanging in the background of some of Yershon’s more traditional compositions. It is daring, interesting work, but it comes in probably the least popular film on this list and, thus, makes for the least likely winner.

The final analysis

This probably comes down to Jóhannsson for The Theory of Everything and Desplat for The Grand Budapest Hotel. As well liked as Anderson’s fantastical romp is, Marsh’s film has its supporters, and I would not be surprised to see The Theory of Everything come away with as many as three awards on the big night. Of course, it could go home empty-handed. You never can tell with these things, but in the dual interests of spreading the love and awarding a movie they clearly liked, voters will probably go with Jóhannsson on this one, leaving Desplat the bridesmaid once again (or twice again, as it were).

Will win: The Theory of Everything

Should win: Interstellar

Wish it had been here: Birdman

And, because it deserves to be heard, check out some of the score to Birdman:

Countdown to the Oscars: Best Production Design

In The Grand Budapest Hotel, the hotel itself is as much a character as any of its guests.

Each day as we make our way to the Academy Awards ceremony Feb. 22, Last Cinema Standing will take an in-depth look at each of the categories, sorting out the highs, the lows, and everything in between. Check back right here for analysis, predictions, and gripes as we inch toward the Dolby Theater and that world-famous red carpet.

Best Production Design

The nominees are:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Interstellar

Into the Woods

Mr. Turner

The great advantage film actors have over their stage brethren is that they get to ply their craft in a fully realized world. When a character walks offstage, we instinctively know the actor is still there, waiting in the wings or backstage in the green room, but when a character leaves the room in a film, he is entering a whole other world of possibilities. It is the job of the production designers, art directors, and set decorators to create these worlds, and the best have the ability to transport audiences into the universes they create.

As someone who grew up around carpenters, handymen, and generally skilled builders but never had an aptitude for the work myself, I have a great deal of respect for the people who put together film sets. It is no easy feat, as on any given day, they may be called upon to conceive of a train station, construct a boudoir, or dress an entire warzone. The next day, the task list could be completely different, but these chameleons of craft are always ready for the next challenge.

Similar to costume design, the Academy favors flashy period work and grand scale when voting in this category. In fact, the last non-period, non-fantasy film to win this award was All the President’s Men in 1976, though that depends on whether you consider Warren Beatty’s 1978 winner Heaven Can Wait a fantasy film, but the point remains the same. It has been more than three decades since a film set in the present day has won this award. That streak is certain to continue this year as all five nominees are either period, fantasy, or both.

The Grand Budapest Hotel – Okay, I have spent the last few days calling most of The Grand Budapest Hotel overrated, and I will admit to being a bit crabby about it. The film just does not work for me. However, the production design is another matter. The titular hotel is a character in the film, and as the title would suggest, it sure is grand.

While the film intentionally trades on classic storybook tropes, production designer Adam Stockhausen and set decorator Anna Pinnock mesh that style with elements of classical melodramas such as Gone with the Wind or All That Heaven Allows, creating an intimate series of interiors that exist within a clearly epic outer environment. In this constantly snowing country, the reds, pinks, and purples of the Grand Budapest Hotel provide a warming embrace, a place to shield yourself from the cold, not to mention the velvety textures of every inch of every surface in the inn.

Beyond that, there is some gorgeous miniature work the blends seamlessly with the heightened reality of the universe director Wes Anderson creates. You have never seen and will never see a chase on skis like the one in this film. It all works because the artifice is made plain by Stockhausen and Pinnock. They do not try to convince us that any of this exists in our world. Instead, they try to bring us into theirs. Stockhausen was nominated last year for 12 Years a Slave, while Pinnock is a five-time nominee, including a dual nomination this year that includes her work on Into the Woods.

Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh’s excellent JMW Turner biopic is a bit of an odd duck this awards season. It made my top 10, and in fact, it made a lot of critics’ top 10s. It is a great film, but it is a really hard film to love. I understand that, so I was not holding out much hope for Academy Awards recognition. Four nominations in key crafts categories were more than I could have asked for, but you know – if you give a mouse a cookie. I wish Timothy Spall could have found traction in Best Actor, Leigh in Original Screenplay or Director, and obviously the film in Best Picture. Oh, well.

Production designer Suzie Davis and set decorator Charlotte Watts are both first-time nominees, and they will probably have to be content with the nomination, but make no mistake – their work is fabulous. It is not easy to work within the dingy atmosphere Leigh sets Mr. Turner in, but Davis and Watts bring out the natural beauty of the world and splash color sparingly but effectively where they can.

The bevy of paintings covering the walls of almost all the interiors would be enough to impress, but the organized chaos of Turner’s workspace and the plush serenity of his seaside escape are a study in contrast, bringing out both sides of the enigmatic painter at the center of the story. Add to that the brilliant period details in all corners of the film, and you have a deserving winner in any other year.

Into the Woods – Much of what makes Into the Woods the movie it is boils down to the woods. Production designer Dennis Gassner, a five-time nominee and the only previous winner in the group, and set decorator Pinnock do an excellent job of creating a dark, foreboding place in which to set this off-kilter story. Branches twist and turn and grab and pull, creating an immersive, tactile sensation for the viewer. One can imagine walking through and collecting the little cuts and scratches that accompany a walk through the forest.

The whole design has a “fairytales after dark” feel to it, which perfectly matches the tone of the film. When Prince Charming travels into the village to find Cinderella, it feels as though we are stepping into the storybooks of our collective childhood but long after their prime. Years of neglect have left the streets and homes in disrepair. For an audience that was maybe craving a sweet shot of nostalgia, the world Pinnock and Gassner create is a harsh dose of reality but still cloaked in the memories of a fairytale world.

The Imitation Game – For a movie that underwhelmed in so many regards, one thing in The Imitation Game stood out clearly from its first appearance on screen: the Turing Machine. Like the hotel in The Grand Budapest Hotel, the Turing Machine becomes a character in the film, such that it even has a name, Christopher. For inventor Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), it is the closest relationship he has, much closer than with any of his flesh and blood coworkers. 

It falls to production designer Maria Djurkovic and set decorator Tatiana Macdonald, both first-time nominees, to make that relationship believable. They succeed brilliantly, fudging the history a bit to create an impressive machine that moves, thinks, and even seems to feel – a fine metaphor for the film’s depiction of Turing. In addition, Macdonald does a great job filling the workspaces of the characters with meaningful clutter. This is definitely the look of an office in which we imagine math geniuses might work.

Interstellar – Prestige space films tend to be nominated in this category because the art directors’ branch just cannot seem to help itself when it comes to the big flashing displays and important-looking knobs that make up the consuls of movie space shuttles. It seems to me an odd tendency. I think we are at a point of cultural awareness where we all know what the insides of spaceships look like. When Stanley Kubrick’s crew rebuilt the cockpit of an Air Force bomber from a magazine picture for Dr. Strangelove, it was innovative, exciting, and cool. This is a bit old hat by now.

More generally, the whole color palette of the film seems to range from sleepy to blah, as it often does in Christopher Nolan’s films. Production designer Nathan Crowley has done six Nolan films now and has earned nominations for half of them, including this one, while set decorator Gary Fettis has had a strong run of collaborations with Clint Eastwood recently, including this year’s American Sniper. As anyone working at this level, Crowley and Fettis are clearly talented craftsmen, but Nolan does them no favors in Interstellar, and their work simply is not allowed to shine through.

The final analysis

Despite solid work in most respects from the rest of the nominees, when it comes to the win, there is The Grand Budapest Hotel, and there is everything else. Even Anderson’s detractors – among whom I count myself – can agree the production design of his films is always lush, vibrant, and full of life. That has never been truer than it is here. If any another pair walks up on stage on Oscar night, it will be downright shocking. Probably only Into the Woods could mount any sort of challenge, but really, there is no challenger.

Will win: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Should win: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wish it had been here: Birdman

Countdown to the Oscars: Best Costume Design

Katherine Waterston, pictured in an instantly iconic dress, stars in Inherent Vice.

Each day as we make our way to the Academy Awards ceremony Feb. 22, Last Cinema Standing will take an in-depth look at each of the categories, sorting out the highs, the lows, and everything in between. Check back right here for analysis, predictions, and gripes as we inch toward the Dolby Theater and that world-famous red carpet.

Best Costume Design

The nominees are:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Inherent Vice

Into the Woods

Maleficent

Mr. Turner

When it comes to the Academy voting on the below-the-line categories, “best” often equates to “most.” Nowhere is that more true than in the Best Costume Design category. Big, flashy period epics with loads of extras dressed up in era-appropriate attire tend to win this award. The more costumes a film has and the fancier they are, the better that film’s chances of winning.

Add to that the fact that the costume designers comprise a fairly insular branch that often nominates and rewards the same people, and you have a recipe for sometimes bland and uninspiring nominations. Case in point, in this group, there are four previous winners, including two designers with three Oscars each, and a triple nominee. This is not to say this year’s nominees are not deserving, only that it is sometimes hard for new talent on less heralded films to sneak into the ceremony.

As pertains to this year, every nominee is for a period film, which is a disappointment, to say the least. You would think if anyone could recognize the amazing, character-defining costume work in modern-set films such as Frank, Nightcrawler, and Gone Girl, it would be the costume designers. Not so, and year after year, they fall for flashy, fancy, fantasy work. That said, one of my favorite nominations of the year came in this category, so we will start there.

Inherent Vice – The closest thing to modern in this year’s lineup, costume designer Mark Bridge’s 1970s-inspired outfits for this stoner detective story are thread perfect. Set in Southern California in the early ’70s, right as the hippie movement is dying out and hardline conservatism is coming into fashion, Bridge’s costumes evoke both the breezy, laid-back feel of the locale and the clashing ideals of two diametrically opposed political factions.

For Joaquin Phoenix’s private eye Doc Sportello, Bridges keeps things light and airy, giving the character button-up shirts that are too big and never buttoned all the way up, wrinkled khakis and long shorts, and a hat that would be more in fashion at the beach or the dog track than during a kidnapping investigation. On the flipside of that is Josh Brolin’s policeman Bigfoot Bjornsen. He is the law. He is order. He sports a suit and tie at all times, even in his home. The collar is starched, and the top button is always buttoned.

If you are looking for iconography, there is the femme fatale Shasta Hepworth, played by Katherine Waterston, whose tight-fitting orange dress could be a statement unto itself. That woman, in that dress, walking through that door, can only spell trouble for Doc. We know the story, we know the history, and thanks to one article of clothing, we know the character.

The Grand Budapest Hotel – Costume designer Milena Canonero’s work here checks off pretty much every box of the Academy’s likes: fantastical period designs in a widely loved Best Picture nominee. Canonero has won three Oscars in her career – for Marie Antoinette, Chariots of Fire, and Barry Lyndon – and she looks to be well on her way to collecting a fourth, which would place her in rare air. Only three other designers have won at least four Academy Awards and none with as few nominations as Canonero, who is a nine-time nominee.

Just like the film itself, her work on The Grand Budapest Hotel is acutely mannered and highly stylized. Nothing in this movie could be mistaken for real. Rather, the designs serve as impressionist symbols meant to evoke a mood, not a reality. Characters with similar aims always match. The bad guys all wear black, the good guys wear pinks and purples, and the dreary arm of the law is clad in gray. On their own, the designs are quite impressive, and in the context of the film, they slide seamlessly into the world director Wes Anderson creates.

Mr. Turner – Sliding to the other end of the scale, we have the relentlessly real and almost oppressively drab designs of Mr. Turner. Costume designer Jacqueline Durrand, a four-time nominee and winner for Anna Karenina, creates a Dickensian world of dust and dirt in which nothing is clean and nothing ever looks new. Black and brown dominate the color palate of the film as a whole, and Durrand’s designs fit that world like a white velvet glove.

As a member of high society and the cultural elite, JMW Turner (Timohty Spall) would have been expected to dress to the nines for nearly every occasion, be it a gallery opening, lunch with friends, or even a vacation. The costumes are all big coats, tight vests, and top hats. Despite being a bit dark and dank overall, the works feels right within the atmosphere of the film, and Durrand’s handsome work certainly belongs with this group of nominees.

Into the Woods – Speaking of dark and dank, I present Disney’s Into the Woods, a reimagining of several different fairytales set in a dreary universe that is more classic Grimm than Disney princess. Colleen Atwood has more Academy Award nominations than any living costume designer with 11, and like Canonero, she has won three times. Atwood is an absolute treasure, and many of her designs have proven instantly iconic such as her work on Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and Edward Scissorhands. Compared against the rest of her career, this is minor work from Atwood.

There is nothing wrong with Atwood’s designs on the film, per se. It is just that for a story about princes and princesses set in a magical fantasy realm of giants and anthropomorphic wolves, the costumes are a little bland and uninspiring. The problem is that director Rob Marshall created such a boring world in which to play. Atwood is an imaginative and inventive designer, but Into the Woods lacks either of those qualities, and as such, her efforts are hampered.

Maleficent – Anna Sheppard is a three-time nominee in this category but is also the only non-winner in this group. It looks likely to stay that way. Other than the iconic horns on Angelina Jolie’s title character, there is nothing that truly stands out as spectacular about the costume design of Maleficent. Again, the costumers’ branch seems to have fallen hard for the combination of period and fantasy and nominated a just-okay example of the form.

Sheppard’s work is good. The character styles are well thought out and intricate, the designs are fun, and the iconography is intact. I just wish the costumers could look beyond this kind of big, showy work that looks good at first glance but does not really exist beyond the surface of the character, a weird request, to be sure, of costume design.

The final analysis

For all the reasons outlined above, Canonero should win this is a walk, but Atwood is a legend in the industry, and I am probably in the minority when it comes to my opinion of the world of Into the Woods. I wish Inherent Vice were in the conversation, but against the more fantastical work of the other contenders, it would be hard for it to stand out. The smart money says Canonero will benefit from all the below-the-line love coming to The Grand Budapest Hotel and will likely win her fourth award.

Will win: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Should win: Inherent Vice

Wish it had been here: Frank