2019’s Golden Globe and BAFTA winners for Best Music/Original Score failed to make the final cut for the 91st Academy Awards, giving five unproven scores the chance at glory. While I may not be an awards-season aficionado, the least I can do is give a brief introduction to each score nominated.
- Black Panther by Ludwig Göransson
- BlacKkKlansman by Terence Blanchard
- If Beale Street Could Talk by Nicholas Britell
- Isle of Dogs by Alexandre Desplat
- Mary Poppins Returns by Marc Shaiman
ANALYSIS
Both Ludwig Goransson’s Black Panther and Alexandre Desplat’s Isle of Dogs incorporate significant elements of non-Western sounds into their scores. Goransson merges African music, particularly tribal drumming and chanting, with hip-hop and more mainstream film-scoring symphonics to create a varied score representative of Wakanda and the world beyond. Meanwhile, Desplat creates his score almost entirely from traditional Japanese instruments and singing to immerse us into the futuristic, dystopic anti-dog – and very lighthearted – Japan.
I’ve already touched on the score’s issues here and here, but still: Mary Poppins Returns will inevitably draw unfavorable comparisons to Mary Poppins, which contains some of Disney’s greatest songs. But, even without the comparison, Shaiman’s music struggles to make its whimsical and fun score into something more memorable.
After nearly thirty years of film scoring, Terence Blanchard finally has his first Oscar nomination. It’s well deserved, too, as BlacKkKlansman is a slick and surprisingly catchy mix of jazz and orchestral music, helping to recreate a stylized version of the 70s.
Britell’s score for If Beale Street Could Talk is arguably the best of the year, a brilliantly beautiful journey between sorrow and love. Almost immediately Britell’s score makes clear that it is something special, overwhelming the viewer in an emotional triumph.
RESULT
Although Goransson’s score received a lot of buzz throughout the year, I didn’t fully buy into the hype. Shame on me!