Category: Best Sound

Posted on 2022-04-09 | No Comments |

West Side Story (2021)

When this remake of West Side Story was announced, I wondered what purpose it could possibly serve. The 1961 version has received high acclaim since it was made and seems better situated to exemplify the preceding decade. After watching this film, my misgivings weren’t allayed. In this take on Romeo and Juliet, Rachel Zegler, whose brother David Alvarez is a leader among the Sharks, spontaneously falls in love with Ansel Elgort, a former member of rival gang the Jets. While the film doesn’t establish their ages, the actors look as if there is about a fifteen year difference. It also doesn’t help that Elgort is rather weak in the role, particularly when he’s singing with the much talented Zegler. Overall there are some bad (constantly overpowering the view of the actors with light sources), neutral (changing the tomboy character to a trans man and the Jewish doc to Rita Moreno), and some great changes (little bits of added backstory and casting Latinx actors who intersperse more Spanish into their dialogue) but as a whole don’t give enough difference in vision to explain why anyone wanted to make this version happen.

Oscar Win: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Oscar Nominations: Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Achievement in Production Design; Best Sound; Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Achievement in Cinematography; Best Achievement in Directing

Posted on 2022-03-22 | No Comments |

Hawaii (1966)

In this big-budget epic based on the James Michener novel, Max von Syndow is a Christian zealot who drags his young wife to Hawaii to educate the heathens after an appeal by one of their converted princes. It takes the film a long time to even get to this point in the story and it’s quite a drag before they get to the islands. From there, it’s endlessly frustrating watching von Syndow’s fanaticism beat against everyone else he meets, especially the native population and his wife, even when they are on his side. The performances are rather good with strong appearances from Richard Harris, Gene Hackman, and Jocelyne LaGarde.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Cinematography, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Sound; Best Effects, Special Visual Effects; Best Music, Original Song; Best Music, Original Music Score

Posted on 2022-03-18 | No Comments |

The Power of the Dog (2021)

In 1920s Montana, ranchers Jesse Plemons meets and marries widowed inn owner Kirsten Dunst, much to the chagrin of his abusive brother Benedict Cumberbatch. During the summer, Dunst’s son Kodi Smit-McPhee visits the ranch and also endures Cumberbatch’s abuse but overtime finds common ground with the rancher. Not being a fan of Jane Campion nor really of Westerns, I didn’t have high expectations of going in, but I came away quite impressed. There’s a long interwoven tale here of shifting power dynamics, sexuality, and gender roles that slowly reveals itself and doesn’t become clear until its final moments, and maybe not even then. The performances are strong across the board and play against each other in incredible ways.

Oscar Win: Best Achievement in Directing

Oscar Nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (2); Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Achievement in Production Design; Best Sound; Best Achievement in Cinematography; Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)

Posted on 2022-03-17 | No Comments |

The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)

This musical follows the life of Molly Brown, a Colorado socialite best known for her assistance during the evacuation of the Titanic. Debbie Reynolds plays the spunky title character. In the first scenes, she comes across as an over-the-top, goofy, backwoods yokel, similar to Betty Hutton’s hammy portrayal in Annie Get Gun. Luckily the story quickly moves on for the character and presents her steely, determination to getting what she wants out of life. The gorgeous costumes and Reynolds’s energetic portrayal are the best parts of the films. The writing and the music on the other hand leave a bit to be desired. The big event is only given a few minutes toward the end, with Molly’s bravery presented as a quick montage of her rallying her lifeboat-mates. There are more scenes of the character on the ship in 1997’s Titanic than in this one.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Cinematography, Color; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Sound; Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment

Posted on 2022-03-15 | No Comments |

Die Hard (1988) – Rewatch

Beginning a Die Hard marathon, I had to start with a rewatch of the original. During Christmastime, NYPD cop Bruce Willis has recently arrived in Los Angeles in an attempt to reconcile with his estranged wife Bonnie Bedelia. He shows up at his wife’s office holiday party only to have his plans waylaid by a group of hostage-taking German terrorists, led by Alan Rickman. It’s not a surprise that this inspires yearly arguments over whether it counts as a Christmas film or not; people are just looking for an excuse to watch this classic again. It’s filled with plenty of action and humor. Unlike his recent roles, Willis does more than just squint at the camera and seems to actually be enjoying himself. Though I find his German accent a bit suspect, Rickman otherwise completely kills it as an absolutely iconic bad guy.

Oscar Nominations: Best Sound; Best Film Editing; Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing; Best Effects, Visual Effects

Posted on 2022-03-05 | No Comments |

Funny Lady (1975)

In this sequel to Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand’s Fanny Brice’s career continues to thrive while she has moved on, somewhat, from con artist Omar Sharif and finds new love in theatrical producer James Caan. I know Funny Girl is an iconic Streisand work, but it had failed to impress me and this does so even less. It’s like a rehash of the earlier work, but everything’s worse. The theatrical scenes are much weaker here as is the relationship and (lack of) chemistry with Caan. The film is both too long and drawn out while quickly jumping through the events in the relationship. It seems like Fanny Brice deserves better than to have her life told mainly from the view of her relationships.

Oscar Nominations: Best Cinematography; Best Costume Design; Best Sound; Best Music, Original Song; Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation

Posted on 2022-03-04 | No Comments |

Butterflies are Free (1972)

When blind musician Edward Albert meets his new neighbor, free-spirited Goldie Hawn, the two hit it off almost immediately. He’s impressed by her independence and she admires his adaptability. Complicating their newfound relationship is her inability to stick around when things get tough and his overbearing mother who is apprehensive about giving him more freedom. The two leads are appealing in their roles and play off of each other well. It’s a bit stagey as the action takes place almost entirely in his San Francisco apartment, but the large open space, decorated by the previous hippie tenants, provides plenty of area to keep it from getting stale.

Oscar Win: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Oscar Nominations: Best Cinematography; Best Sound

Posted on 2022-02-22 | No Comments |

Too Many Husbands (1940)

When the presumed dead Fred MacMurray returns home after being missing for a year, he is surprised to discover his best friend and business partner Melvyn Douglas and his wife Jean Arthur have married each other in his absence. Someone accidentally finding themselves with two spouses is hardly a unique story at this point and there are some weirdly questionable points in this particular iteration. It is delightful to see Jean reap the benefits of the situation as both of her husbands have neglected her for either adventure or work during her history with them. It’s unfortunate that everyone, including her own father, are pushy and insistent that she has to make a life-determining decision as soon as possible.

Oscar Nomination: Best Sound, Recording

Posted on 2022-02-21 | No Comments |

2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)

I am admittedly not a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey nor Stanley Kubrick, so my expectations here weren’t very high. As a sequel to that film, this takes place nine years later with a joint Soviet-US mission to investigate HAL’s malfunction despite tensions being extremely high between the two countries back on earth. It’s not as visually impressive nor grand in scope as 2001. In fact, it’s pretty standard science fiction fare with a more explicit narrative that makes clear some of the events from the earlier film. For all that, I found it much more entertaining than the Kubrick’s alleged masterpiece. .

Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Costume Design; Best Sound; Best Effects, Visual Effects; Best Makeup

Posted on 2022-02-19 | No Comments |

Dune (2021)

In this adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel, Duke Oscar Issac and Lady Rebecca Ferguson travel with their special son Timothée Chalamet to a far away desert planet to learn about spice production. There’s quite a bit of political intrigue going on behind the scenes and Timothée has a bunch of dreams about Zendaya. Even with its bleak desert setting, it’s an incredibly gorgeous film with extremely high production values and some good world building, but it’s obvious that it was made as a set up for a sequel or two as the story is almost all setup with no conclusion.

Oscar Wins: Best Sound; Best Achievement in Visual Effects; Best Achievement in Production Design; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score); Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Achievement in Cinematography

Oscar Nominations: Best Achievement in Production Design; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score); Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling; Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Adapted Screenplay