KK

I'm about a half hour in, the Fincher scores have far more personality imo. Don't think this kind of score is really in Giacchino's wheelhouse.

Just terrible. That these artists don't get to be recognized in front of their industry peers, mentors, idols...that's literally branding them as "second-tier" folk.

So does that mean the red carpet isn’t being broadcast live? Since the audience will have to be inside an hour before the ceremony broadcast begins… Or are these categories having their own “private” ceremony?

I have zero issue with the racial diversity of this Amazon show, and would dismiss most of the fuss the media is clamouring about as typical Twitter fanboy trolls. There is more than enough space in Tolkien's work to do that kind of thing and still retain his spirit. The great classics tend to have that lasting power, so long as the "purists" don't get so myopic about it. My reservations around what little I've seen are purely on aesthetic and cinematic merit.

Much like the paradox of filmmaking itself! Dancing on the edges between art and commerce...

The "low-brow tentpoles" are raking in billions of dollars. Do they really need their Oscars on top of that? We're already taking away screenings from the little guys (cough Spider-man cough), let them at least have the awards...when the stars align, they can really give life and momentum to the films, filmmakers and independent studios (i.e. Parasite). I'm really glad that a film like Drive My Car, which I admired but didn't love, is now actually part of a larger demographic conversation thanks to the surprise nominations its nabbed.

Of what I've seen, here are my lists: Best Films of 2021: 1) A Night of Not Knowing 2) Licorice Pizza 3) Memoria 4) The Green Knight 5) The Souvenir: Part II 6) Titane 7) The Worst Person in the World 8) Drive My Car 9) Dune 10) The Power of the Dog Films that I still have to see: Red Rocket, Flee, Petite Maman, West Side Story, Benedetta 2021 Scores I Enjoyed: Spencer by Jonny Greenwood The Power of the Dog by Jonny Greenwood The Green Knight by Daniel Hart The Underground Railroad by Nicholas Britell Loki by Natalie Holt

I agree with Disco Stu.

Appalling, corporate bullshit. They tried to do this a few years ago and failed...I hope we get enough backlash to reverse this.

Haven't heard Spencer yet?

Agreed. Glad to see very well-known shady practices aired out in the public...but it very much still lets the biggest perpretators of the system off the hook. Kind of a "this whole game sucks...but we can't do anything about it" situation. At least a more concentrated attack on streaming giants (cough cough) and its abysmal treatment of composer royalties and copyright would be more useful. Inevitable indeed. Classical music and literature have the benefit of having years afforded to them for development and the financial support from patrons to support this process. Film music suffers from crunching that timeline to a mere matter of weeks, and actively in service of a multi-million dollar corporate machine. It is very very tough for massive blockbusters to allow the kind singular creative "auteurship" for its composers. That's the kind of thing you have to look to smaller, more independent features for. And yes, credit, and primarily names on cue sheets need to happen more often...because that's how co-composers, ghostwriters, etc can make a living. And even when folks like Zimmer and Giacchino do that for their co-composers, it's still their names and brands that get showered with "genius", deification, and the endless barrage of high-profile work. It is a hard ladder to climb up, being an A-list composer's assistant...requires many years of patience, and varying levels of success.

Thanks Karelm! Super honoured by the comparison.

Thank you! There was some occasionally shaky readings of some subtle but wonky polyrhythms, but for a short sight-reading session, I think they really did a great job. Very fine musicians indeed.

Really digging the harmony @D_nev! Haven't shared here in some time! I've been part of a composers lab at the Canadian Film Centre for the last couple of months, and we got to do a small orchestral recording session (in COVID days no less!) with a 14-piece ensemble. Here's a fun little cue that came out of that: Impeccable writing, as always Karelm!

It’s also not so much about stylistically sounding like classic Star Wars for me as it is about maximizing that level of robust orchestral writing. Which Powell got the closest to. Where else are you going to get the opportunity for that these days if not Star Wars?

The other problem is...Baz Luhrmann. I'm not familiar with the Lasseter story, but it does remind me of how Aziz Ansari was (almost) cancelled for a bit because someone called him out on what was essentially a "bad date".

Didn't Fincher come outright and say he's done with Mindhunter? And I agree, Tales was probably a one-off, and not a very interesting one at that, imo.

No one, maybe. But Powell was certainly much closer to the mark than Britell, in terms of musicality at least.

I like Britell. But I don't think he really has the orchestral/compositional chops to live up to the musical athleticism of a traditional Star Wars score...but we know this will be far from traditional. So colour me curious. If anything, I'll probably enjoy it more than the Ludwig stuff.

Bhaha. That's an embarassing PR mistake.

Good news indeed! I'm still betting that Shore won't be tackling this solo, but any new Tolkien music by his pen is a treat.

Agreed. But I wish its inherent design was more inspired or striking. And that it didn't look so plastic.

Well, to me, it did feel like a great city in decay:

Nailed it on the head there. Zero personality. This is also Numenor we're talking about...the greatest civilization of Men, in their Golden Age. The thatched roofs of Edoras look more impressive! Or at least distinctive.

I don't know...this one feels pretty Hobbit/Game of Thrones-ish (there's even a mountain in the back! ;)). Maybe because I feel like its undermined by the giant statue...which feels like a fantasy cliché at this point. It also, as Jay put it, doesn't feel "lived in". Which is what makes the Argonath statues so special in Fellowship: And with The Hobbit, or at least An Unexpected Journey, they felt more wondrous in its production design, despite the digital gloss: That Numenor shot feels like a limp after-thought to some of Jackson's visual ideas (even though it all goes to total shit by the third film).