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The 13th Annual JWFan Awards - The Best Scores and Films of 2020!


Jay

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Interesting!  Have you guys watched Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made?  I was curious about that one too

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1 LOVECRAFT COUNTRY - Laura Karpman/ Raphael Saadiq
2 QUEENS GAMBIT - Carlos Rafael Rivera
3 DA 5 BLOODS - Terrence Blanchard (best JW/Copland imitation ever)
4 BIRDS OF PREY - Daniel Pemberton
5 THE PERSONAL ADVENTURES OF DAVID COPPERFIELD - Willis
6 CALL OF THE WILRD - JP 
7 Wonder Woman 84 - HZ (to be precise, the first half of it)
8 NEWS OF THE WORLD - JNH (just because I dig the guy, not because it's particularly great)
9 AMMONITE - O'Halloran/Bertelmann (barely)
10 ANTEBELLUM - Wonder/Arthur
11 BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ - Dascha Dauenhauer
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BEST SCORES OF 2020:

 

1) The Personal Adventures of David Copperfield by Christopher Willis

2) We Are Who We Are by Devonté Hynes

3) The Pathless by Austin Wintory

4) Last and First Men by Jóhann Jóhannsson

5) Call of the Wild by John Powell

6) Wonder Woman '84 by Hans Zimmer

7) Homecoming by Emile Mosseri

8) Da 5 Bloods by Terrence Blanchard

9) Ghost of Tsushima by Ilan Eshkeri and Shigeru Umebayashi *(mostly the Umebayashi suites)*

10) The Secret Garden by Dario Marianelli

 

 

BEST FILMS OF 2020: (in alphabetical order)

 

First Cow - Kelly Reichardt

I'm Thinking of Ending Things - Charlie Kauffman

Last and First Men - Jóhann Jóhannsson

Lovers Rock - Steve McQueen

Nomadland - Chloe Zhao

Minari - Lee Isaac Chung

Pieces of a Woman  - Kornél Mundruczó

Soul - Pete Docter

Sound of Metal - Darius Marder

The Nest - Sean Durkin

 

 

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Best scores:

  1. The Call of the Wild (John Powell)
  2. Wonder Woman 1984* (Hans Zimmer)
  3. News of the World (James Newton Howard)
  4. The Last Vermeer (Johan Soderqvist)
  5. The Midnight Sky (Alexandre Desplat)
  6. Enola Holmes (Daniel Pemberton)

*Positions 1 and 2 may change depending of the hour.

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1 hour ago, publicist said:
2 QUEENS GAMBIT - Carlos Rafael Rivera

 

I'm curious about what you hear in this, outside of the solid main theme, that is.

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18 hours ago, KK said:

BEST FILMS OF 2020:

 

Great bunch of films (not counting Last and First Men or Soul since I haven't seen them). Those I've seen would all be contenders for my own top ten of the year except, I think, for Pieces of a Woman.

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Hoo boy, I'll give it a shot...

 

FAVOURITE SCORES OF 2020

1. The Mandalorian: Season Two by Ludwig Goransson

2. The Call of the Wild by John Powell

3. Da 5 Bloods by Terence Blanchard

4. The Personal History of David Copperfield by Christopher Willis

5. Homecoming: Season Two by Emile Mosseri

6. News of the World by James Newton Howard

7. Wonder Woman 1984 by Hans Zimmer (just the first few tracks)

8. Kajillionaire by Emile Mosseri

9. Mank by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (bits and pieces)

10. Tenet by Ludwig Goransson (bits and pieces)

11. The Secret Garden by Dario Marianelli

12. The Kid Detective by Jay McCarrol

13. Bad Education by Michael Abels

14. The Midnight Sky by Alexandre Desplat (just the title track)

15. The Witches by Alan Silvestri (just the end credits)

 

FAVOURITE SCORE RELEASES OF 2020

Solo: A Star Wars Story (Deluxe Edition)

How to Train Your Dragon (Varese Sarabande)

 

I also nabbed CE3K and Saving Private Ryan during LLL's pandemic sale. I'm not able to purchase nearly as many of these sets as I'd like, but the ones I do own I cherish dearly, and these are no exception.

 

FAVOURITE FILMS OF 2020

First of all, great selection @KK, and I'm curious to see what @Glóin the Dark's list looks like :D.

 

I've seen around 40 films from the last year, and of those I found something to like in 22 of them. Most of these are clear cut 2020 releases but there are a few that are technically 2019 because of festival premiers even though they still had a wide release in the past year. In any case, here's what I've enjoyed thus far, in rough order.

 

Babyteeth (Shannon Murphy) - Off-beat but sensitive drama, one of the most colourful films I've seen this year. Ben Mendelsohn is super! 

Mank (David Fincher) - I probably overestimate this one but my dad and I saw it together and really liked it so that made it a little more special.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman) - Great cast and a crazy dance number that ended up being one of my favourite scenes of the year.

Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg) - Mads Mikklesen. That's all you need to know.

Soul (Pete Docter) - An easy pass for Pixar, yet I still really enjoyed it.

The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell) - Completely engrossing thriller. Moss is so good at this stuff!

The Kid Detective (Evan Morgan) - Darkly comedic Canadian-produced neo-noir that took me by complete surprise. This Adam Brody fella has got something. 

Palm Springs (Max Barbakow) - Vibrant Groundhog Day riff with a great cast.

Red, White and Blue (Steve McQueen) - My personal favourite of the Small Axe films. John Boyega is excellent!

Dick Johnson is Dead (Kirsten Johnson) - Unique, highly stylized doc about coping with the decay of dementia and the inevitability of death. So very sweet!

Corpus Christi (Jan Komasa) - Nominated at last year's Oscars but I'm not really sure when it was properly released. So many wow moments. 

Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee) - A bit of a messy collage of influences rolled into a Spike Lee joint, but there are still three or four scenes that blew me away (the land mine, Delroy Lindo's monologue(s), Stormin' Norman)

On the Rocks (Sofia Coppola) - Bill Murray is still the coolest cat in town! Appreciated the pace.

Sound of Metal (Darius Marder) - Hearing loss approached with sensitivity; great sound design and performances.

Bad Education (Cory Finley) - Great cast with Hugh Jackman at his most charismatic.

Education (Steve McQueen) - My second favourite of the Small Axe films.

Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen) - I've never seen anything quite like this one and I was quite impressed! 

The Hater (Jan Komasa) - Like a contorted Nightcrawler taken up to 11. How social media can be manipulated to serve hateful agendas and incite violence. Komasa is clearly a vibrant and capable director, but I'm afraid his current repertoire gets me excited for his future work more than anything else.

The Call of the Wild (Chris Sanders) - Loyal to the text when it needs to be. I could care less if the dog is CG when the approach has this much heart and earnestness (although Disney+'s superior Togo made it work in live action, so it is possible). Ford is such a steady anchor for something like this. Fine family entertainment.

Let Them All Talk (Steven Soderbergh) - If "easy listening" music were a film. 

Greyhound (Aaron Schneider) - Sturdy naval procedural helmed by the one and only Tom Hanks. I take it!

The Assistant (Kitty Green) - Maybe would work better as a short film? A lot of it is focused on getting a sense of the psychological office monotony Julia Garner's character thanklessly has to put up with, so it risks becoming a little tedious in and of itself. Still, very confidently directed with a great (but sadly lone) scene with Matthew MacFadyen, who should be getting way more work than he does. 

 

I was not as impressed with Onward (Dan Scanlon), Mangrove (Steve McQueen), Tenet (Christopher Nolan), The Devil All the Time (Antonio Campos), Pieces of a Woman (Kornel Mundruczo), Kajillionaire (Miranda July), The Midnight Sky (George Clooney), Alex Wheatle (Steve McQueen), The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin), Bacurau (Kleber Mendonca Filho & Juliano Dornelles), The Personal History of David Copperfield (Armando Iannucci), Saint Frances (Alex Thompson),  Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa), and The Man Standing Next (Woo Min-ho). 

 

FAVOURITE TV SEASONS OF 2020

I only saw the second season of The Mandalorian and I really enjoyed it! Otherwise, I checked off Community, The Office and the first three seasons of Arrested Development for the first time this past year, with the former being my favourite.

 

...

 

As for highlights and disappointments, it'd be hard to articulate what those exactly looked like for me this past year, so I'll just say that I'm healthy and doing well, and find myself especially grateful for many, many things. Cheers!

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9 minutes ago, Jay said:

I was curious about Kajillionaire.  What about it didn't work for you?

It takes an off-kilter approach that, to me, just didn't pan out in a meaningful way. The substance is fine but the style prevented me from really latching on to it at any point. I'm not familiar with the rest of Miranda July's filmography but I get the sense that it's a case of "Look how quirky I am", which I generally don't like. Richard Jenkins is good though and I really like Mosseri's score. 

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Seeing Me and You and Everyone We Know years back is how I know to skip any movie she makes.  Not remotely my cuppa tea.

 

14 minutes ago, The Illustrious Jerry said:

I get the sense that it's a case of "Look how quirky I am", which I generally don't like

 

Yes this is how her movies are.  I've had people recommend her movies to me because they know I like Wes Anderson and I just can't begin to explain how different they are.  If I'm feeling snarky, I'd explain that one is hipster bullshit and the other is good hipster bullshit :lol:

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21 hours ago, KK said:

I'm curious about what you hear in this, outside of the solid main theme, that is.

 

It's a very solid entry, specially if you saw the series. It's watered-down Glass-via-Horner, but from a talented dude. And let's face it, these days that's enough, or rather, more than enough for a Top 10 list.

 

Antebellum had imho the most interesting almost-Shostakovich-ian austere approach, if we talk about musical styles. 

 

 

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3 hours ago, publicist said:

Antebellum had imho the most interesting almost-Shostakovich-ian austere approach, if we talk about musical styles. 

 

Interesting. I'll check it out. That and your Lovecraft Country ranking has my curiosity piqued.

7 hours ago, Glóin the Dark said:

 

Great bunch of films (not counting Last and First Men or Soul since I haven't seen them). Those I've seen would all be contenders for my own top ten of the year except, I think, for Pieces of a Woman.

 

To be honest, Pieces of a Woman probably doesn't hold up very well to scrutiny. It's interchangeable on the list with Palm Springs, but I do remember it having an effect on me, which is a rare enough feat with me and a lot of newer films.

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A bit late to the party, but my favorite original scores from the 2020-2021 awards season:

 

TOP EIGHT:

 

1. I'm Thinking Of Ending Things - Jay Wadley

2. Mank - Trent Reznor And Atticus Ross

3. Wolfwalkers - Bruno Coulais

4. Wendy - Benh Zeitlin And Dan Romer

5. Soul - Trent Reznor And Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste

6. The Call Of The Wild - John Powell

7. Shirley - Tamar-kali

8. The Witches - Alan Silvestri

 

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

 

- Bad Hair - Kris Bowers

The Assistant - Tamar-kali

Tenet - Ludwig Goransson

- Da 5 Bloods - Terence Blanchard

 

MOST ANTICIPATED LISTENS/WATCHES

- Minari - Emile Mosseri

Freaky - Bear McCreary

News Of The World - James Newton Howard

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On 1/26/2021 at 11:37 PM, KK said:

To be honest, Pieces of a Woman probably doesn't hold up very well to scrutiny. It's interchangeable on the list with Palm Springs, but I do remember it having an effect on me, which is a rare enough feat with me and a lot of newer films.

 

There's a lot to admire about it. If my viewing had been interrupted around two thirds of the way through, I would have expected it to be a strong contender for the top ten. The rather awful climatic scene doesn't negate the good qualities of the film for me; it just puts it behind too many other excellent contenders to make the shortlist.

 

On 1/26/2021 at 6:22 PM, The Illustrious Jerry said:

FAVOURITE FILMS OF 2020

 

Another good bunch. Nice to see Babyteeth there! It didn't make it onto many of the 2020 lists that I've seen.

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Recently saw the Georgian 2020 festival favourite Beginning on MUBI. There's some very strong work in there.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Not that anyone has been waiting for it, but Montages finally published the annual lists, including mine. Some stats first: I saw 308 films in 2020, out of which 111 were new films from the year (as always, Norwegian release dates, not international). The number is a bit lower than usual, but that's obviously due to the pandemic.

 

The top 20 (plus honourable mentions) can be viewed here. I've already run it through Google Translate for you, which makes the text occasionally hilariously bad, but at least more understandable than its original Norwegian:

 

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://montages.no/2021/02/thor-joachim-hagas-topp-20-2020/

 

The complete list of all new 2020 films can be viewed here:

 

https://mubi.com/lists/2020-films-ranked

 

And for those of you who don't click links, here's the top 20:

 

1. A HIDDEN LIFE

2. Parasite

3. Color Out of Space / Soul

4. 1917

5. Om det uendelige [About Endlessness]

6. The Hunt

7. Relic

8. Undine

9. Et glass til [Another Round]

10. Breaking Surface

 

X: For Sama

X: Last and First Men

 

11. On the Rocks

12. Sala samobójców. Hejter [The Hater]

13. The Gentlemen

14. Love and Monsters

15. Kunstneren og tyven [The Painter and the Thief]

16. Host

17. Selvportrett [Self Portrait] 

18. Light of My Life

19. First Cow

20. Only the Devil Lives Without Hope

 

Honourable mentions: Monos, Uncut Gems, Young Ahmed, Underwater, Alone, She Dies Tomorrow, An Officer and a Spy, Tenet, Greenland, Let Them All Talk, Gunda, You Should Have Left, Voces, Saint Maud, Extraction, The Outpost, Mank, Onward, Freaky, The Midnight Sky

 

Best new TV shows: The Mandalorian, Devs, Raised by Wolves, Star Trek: Picard, Into the Night

 

Buzz films that didn't do much for me: Little Women, The Farewell, Richard Jewell, iHuman, Lyset fra sjokoladefabrikken, JoJo Rabbit, Da 5 Bloods, Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm, Waves, The Lighthouse, Zombi Child

 

Worst: Wasp Network, Centigrade, The Grudge, The Platform, La Belva, 2067, Mulan, Altered Carbon: Resleeved, Siberia, The Last Days of American Crime, Proximity

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6 hours ago, Thor said:

111

 

That makes 2020 the first, and likely last, year from which I've seen more films than you! I think I'm at around 130. The comparison isn't a direct one, though, since I've been using the international release dates rather than Norwegian ones.

 

On 2/4/2021 at 12:59 AM, KK said:

...Beginning...

 

This is next on my list of 2020 films to see.

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That's impressive, Gloin!  Did I miss your list earlier in the thread, or didn't you post one?

 

The absence of film festivals was really felt last year. I only attended two, both before the world's lockdown (and a few digital ones, but only with half an eye open). I'm usually somewhere between 150-250 new films every year.

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28 minutes ago, Thor said:

Did I miss your list earlier in the thread...?

 

No, I'm still working on it. There are about twenty promising films that I've yet to see, and I want to get through at least a few of them before making a list. I'd also like to have seen the contenders for the top 10 at least twice, so some rewatches are on the cards.

 

Several of the films on your list would be 2019 films using my criterion and there are several others that I haven't seen. My favourite by far of your top 20 is First Cow, currently in second place on my tentative list.

  

28 minutes ago, Thor said:

The absence of film festivals was really felt last year.

 

Yeah. The pandemic is the reason that you saw fewer films than usual and is probably the main reason that I saw more than usual!

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11 minutes ago, Glóin the Dark said:

Several of the films on your list would be 2019 films using my criterion and there are several others that I haven't seen. My favourite by far of your top 20 is First Cow, currently in second place on my tentative list.

 

Yes, great film! I wasn't that thrilled with Reichardt's NIGHT MOVES or CERTAIN WOMEN, so this was back to the level of MEEK'S CUTOFF and WENDY AND LUCY, as far as I'm concerned.

 

Looking forward to seeing your list. I always look forward to it, because you usually include stuff beyond the standard Hollywood fare.

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7 minutes ago, Thor said:

I wasn't that thrilled with Reichardt's NIGHT MOVES or CERTAIN WOMEN, so this was back to the level of MEEK'S CUTOFF and WENDY AND LUCY, as far as I'm concerned.

 

Indeed! Though I'm so much of a Reichardt fan that I even quite like Night Moves, the black sheep of the family, despite it going off the rails near the end.

 

12 minutes ago, Thor said:

I always look forward to it...

 

In that case, I apologise for 2019, whose list I'm still...er...working on. This year I'm resolved to beat the Oscars to it. The problem, every year, is that a lot of the most interesting-looking films are non-English language ones which don't become available (to me) until well after the end of the year in question.

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  • 1 year later...

Good list Gloin! Though I'm surprised to see Saint Maud ranked all the way at the top. I thought it was really well made and directed, but ultimately leans on the derivative end, as many of these kind of  contemporary art horror films do.

 

Nice to see The Disciple on there as well!

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On 19/02/2021 at 3:50 PM, Glóin the Dark said:

The comparison isn't a direct one, though, since I've been using the international release dates rather than Norwegian ones.

 

Well, you should use the Norwegian release date. :nono:

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