Sonic Cinema

This year, Sonic Cinema has been busy, meaning I have been busy. Another year of DragonCon. Another year of voting in the Georgia Film Critics Association, this time with more screening, and screener, opportunities. Another year of podcasts, built almost entirely out of my massive attempt to look back at the 1999 movie year with friends and filmmakers. And another year of “A Movie a Week,” with a realization that I cannot continue the series in its current format; in 2020, I will be refocusing what it looks like, and rebranding it into something else. All that, on top of covering the Atlanta Film Festival as a member of the press, as well as being asked to record a critical commentary for a film’s DVD/Blu-Ray release, it was a busy, but hugely rewarding, 2019 for Sonic Cinema and me. In addition, I have been continuing with the Patreon, as well as wrote more for other websites beyond Sonic Cinema, and it’s been exciting to continue building the website.

That said, between a busy personal life, and constant full-time job, something had to give, and in this case, unfortunately, it was screeners sent from filmmakers. I got a few in, but as things started to get hectic, I was unable to keep up. Now that I have a firmer grasp on how this is going to work, and where I’d like the direction of my life to go, those will be phased back in. Thank you for your patience.

Now, let’s talk movies, alright? At the time of publishing this, I will have watched about 200 features and shorts I’m considering 2019 movies. I fully expect that to be the norm, especially if I expand my film festival coverage beyond Atlanta (eventually, I’d like to go to SxSW, Fantastic Fest and Sundance). It’s been a spectacular year for cinema, and not just as the Infinity and Skywalker saga ends. Indie cinema has some delivered some tremendous accomplishments, documentaries have been a consistent form of inspiration, and several filmmakers have challenged the ideas of conventional storytelling to create fantastic entertainment and art. It’s been a remarkable end of the decade.

Because the deadline for nominations for the Georgia Film Critics Association was December 28, I thought about going with my 10 Best list this year in this post. I could do a great 10 Best, but I want to continue to differentiate between the films that were great this year, and the ones that I enjoy the most. I’ll still save the former discussion for closer to the Oscars; this one is about highlighting the movies, performances and scores that had the most emotional impact on me over the past twelve months. Let’s get started!

Movies That Meant the Most to Me in 2019
=“Blinded By the Light” (Directed by Gurinder Chadha) & “Western Stars” (Directed by Thom Zinmy & Bruce Springsteen)- I’ve been a Bruce Springsteen fan as long as I can remember. This year, I was afforded two cinematic opportunities to indulge in my love of The Boss. The first was a joyous and emotional coming-of-age story about a young Pakistani boy in England whose worldview is transformed by his first time listening to Springsteen’s music, the second is a concert film/music video Springsteen made in support of his latest album, released in June. The first one, from “Bend it Like Beckham” director Chadha, is a film that was a lightning bolt of inspiration for me when I needed it this summer; the second one was a lovely treat as The Boss sets context for his newest musical stories on old tropes. Both are an important piece of the puzzle of getting down to my fandom of Springsteen.

=“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” (Directed by Dean DeBlois)- The best ending to a franchise narrative of 2019. My love of this story of the adventures of Hiccup and Toothless and they grow together into leaders is well-documented. Here, DeBlois sticks the landing with one of the most emotional endings of any blockbuster of the year, as it’s time for Toothless to find his place in the world, like Hiccup has in the time since his father died. This is one of the best trilogies of all-time.

=“The Farewell” (Directed by Lulu Wang)- My first feature screening at the Atlanta Film Festival was Wang’s beautiful, sad, very funny film about a young woman (played by the fantastic Awkwafina in one of the year’s best performances) who returns to China, along with her family, when her Nai Nai (the wonderful Shuzhen Zhao) is diagnosed with cancer. The catch is, the family does not tell her. Few films about life and death have been as endearingly powerful, and delightfully entertaining; Wang hits every note perfectly, which isn’t surprising given it is inspired by her life.

=“Ford v. Ferrari” (Directed by James Mangold)- This is probably my favorite of Mangold’s films. The “Walk the Line” and “Logan” director tells the story of when car designer Carroll Shelby was brought on by the Ford company to design a race car to beat Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and brought his eccentric driver friend, Ken Miles, to help him do so. The racing in this film is as dynamic and exciting as any ever done on film, but what resonated the most with this one is how Miles and Shelby, played by Christian Bale and Matt Damon, have an itch to prove themselves they find needs to be scratched throughout the process, and how this unique situation allows them to do so. This is one of the most unique and entertaining underdog sports movies the genre has ever come up with, and I enjoyed every second of it.

=“Avengers: Endgame” (Directed by Joe & Anthony Russo)- The Infinity Saga came to a thrilling end in the Russos’s three-hour time-travel adventure. The film moves like a bullet, and is filled with wonderful character moments, and maybe the most exciting use of music and image this year. (Think portals.) I cannot wait to see what is next for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

=“Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache” (Directed by Pamela B. Green)- How does one of the pioneers of silent cinema go missing from history? That is the fundamental question in Green’s great documentary on the mystery of Guy-Blache’s disappearance from the history books of cinema, as she shows us clips from her work that make us wonder why it was the case she was ignored at all. Any fan of documentaries on film history will not want to miss this one.

=“Aniara” (Directed by Pella Kagerman & Hugo Lilja)- I could not shake this film. An adaptation of a 1956 Swedish poem about a luxury spaceship thrown off-course, and the aftermath, this is the most visually-arresting piece of science fiction I’ve seen in many years, and the images are at the service of a narrative by Kagerman and Lilja that is engrossing, poetic, and haunting as the situation grows more and more dire for those on board. It is currently on Hulu, and I could not recommend checking it out more.

=“Afterlife” (Directed by Willem Bosch)- Bosch’s drama about life and death, and life again, is unforgettable once you watch it. The story of a girl who dies exactly one year after her mother commits suicide, and is then offered a choice of whether to stay in the afterlife, or return to the life she had as she lived it before, is thoughtful, and moving because of how much we come to know about the characters and their decisions. Another Atlanta Film Festival watch that packed a distinctive punch as it looked at people faced with death, and how they choose to live afterwards.

=“IT: Chapter Two” (Directed by Andy Muschietti) & “Doctor Sleep” (Directed by Mike Flanagan)- This fall brought two, epic Stephen King adaptations I could not wait for. Both of them are messy, illogical, and endlessly fascinating to watch as a result. The first is the second half of Muschietti’s adaptation of King’s 1986 epic, as the Losers come back to Derry as adults to take on Pennywise the Clown, and the juxtaposition going between the adult’s story and more of the children makes for a strange, but compelling attempt to wrestle at some of King’s weirdest material. The second film is adapted from King’s sequel to “The Shining,” and Flanagan does something wild in trying to be a genuine sequel to both the original book and Stanley Kubrick’s controversial adaptation. Both films deal with adults attempting to combat childhood demons, a subject King has done effectively over the years, even if film adaptations are not quite as sure-footed, as these two are.

=“Godzilla: King of the Monsters” (Directed by Michael Dougherty)- In the lead-up to Dougherty’s monster sequel to the 2014 American version of the Japanese cinema icon, I did a podcast looking at the history of the monster, and watched a number of movie iterations, and I’m kind of stoked to be a fan of the big, goofy guy and his rogues gallery. This one is heavier on the monster action, and has a great score by Bear McCreary utilizing the iconic theme to the 1954 film, but the human story kind of still leaves much to desired. It’s those first two parts of the equations that kept this one firmly in my memory banks, though, as one of the most entertaining movies of the year.

Before I get in to the rest of my favorites for this year, I wanted to say something in particular about “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”. This came awfully close to knocking Godzilla off of my list upon second viewing- there’s a lot about JJ Abrams’s conclusion to the Skywalker Saga I really love- but the film is too frustrating and impersonal in the way it tells its story as a whole to get to the upper reaches of my love. I still enjoy the Hell out of it, though, like I do so many “Star Wars” films before it.

I’ve seen nearly 200 movies thus far for this calendar year. I could go deep in with what I love, but I am going to break it down into 20 more I really love I would consider for the list above, and then everything else, which is some degree of good-great, but not really top tier for the purposes of the above list. We’ll include “The Rise of Skywalker” with the 20, so that leaves 19 films, which is an impressive amount of slots for the likes of: “Parasite”, Bong Joon ho’s amazing thriller about class and mysteries hiding underneath a luxurious South Korean home; “The Lighthouse”, Robert Eggers’s wicked psychological drama with Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe as lighthouse workers battling the elements, and other terrors, waiting for their time to leave; “The Biggest Little Farm”, a wonderful documentary about a couple, and the struggles and successes they have in creating a 200-acre far in California; “Us”, Jordan Peele’s weird thriller about a family confronting dark truths while on a family vacation; “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”, Quentin Tarantino’s lush, entertaining love letter to the Hollywood of the 1960s, with career work from Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt; “Knives Out”, Rian Johnson’s wickedly sharp murder mystery, and what many hope (myself included) is the first of several cases with Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc; “Midsommar”, Ari Aster’s sun-drenched tale of psychological horror in Sweden; “Captain Marvel”, with Brie Larson bringing depth and soul to Carol Danvers’s trauma as she tries to find out who she is; “The Fourth Kingdom”, a poetic and human documentary about the community at a recycling place in New York; “Alita: Battle Angel”, Robert Rodriguez’s action adventure bringing the adaptation of the manga James Cameron has been trying to do for over a decade to life, and doing it better than we expected; “Speed of Life”, a touching romantic drama about a couple whose life is thrown for a loop in space and time on the night David Bowie died; “John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum”, the third chapter of Keanu Reeves’s fantastic action franchise, which I just caught up with this year; “First Love”, a dynamic and bonkers action thriller from Takashi Miike that excited and entertained me like few others this year; “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”, Terry Gilliam’s long-cursed project, which finally found its finished form, and received terrific lead performances by Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce; “The Boogeywoman”, a terrific short film about a young woman’s first period, by way of David Lynchian nightmares; “In Defense of Wonder”, a short about a woman whose retreated to a farm house after experiencing trauma; “Dear, Dreamer”, a documentary short that looks at the power of writing, and connecting with an audience; “Evelyn x Evelyn”, a short about a couple dealing with grief, and how that multiplies the voices in our heads; and “Til Death Do Us Part”, an unusual thriller about a couple of serial killers from Brian Ackley.

Beyond that, you get a nice mix of well-known films, and ones you may not know as well, which I will list in alphabetical order: “63 Up”; “1917”; “Always in Season”; “Apollo 11”; “Booksmart”; “By the Grace of God”; “Cold Case Hammarskjold”; “Cunningham”; “Dolemite is My Name”; “Doll It Up”; “Dominant Species”; “End of the Century”; “Escape From North Korea”; “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile”; “Gatito”; “Glass”; “Gryphon Animo”; “Hail Satan?”; “Hang Up!”; “Happy Death Day 2U”; “Here There Be Monsters”; “High Life”; “Hustlers”; “In Full Bloom”; “The Irishman”; “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot”; “JoJo Rabbit”; “Joker”; “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”; “Leaving Neverland”; “The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part”; “Little Joe”; “Little Women”; “Love, Antosha”; “Marriage Story”; “The Masseuse”; “Midnight Traveler”; “Monos”; “Noelle”; “A Purgatory Story”; “Rocketman”; “Shazam!”; “Sister”; “The Slows”; “Spider-Man: Far From Home”; “Summer Night”; “Sword of Trust”; “Them That Follow”; “The Tomorrow Man”; “Toy Story 4”; “The Two Popes”; “Uncut Gems”; “Under the Silver Lake”; “Unicorn Store”; “Vinyl Destination”; “Waves”; and “Weathering With You”.

Movie Music to Be Moved by in 2019
This was an astounding year for film music. So many wild and imaginative scores, some great genre composing, and fantastic soundtrack compilations. I’m continuously impressed by the way composers have either pushed their sound into different directions based on the story being told. I always find myself impressed by how films tell their stories musically, nowadays.

No genre was better served by musical imagination than horror. Leading the way was Jordan Peele’s “Us”, and Michael Abels’s odd, unsettling orchestral score, which makes haunting use of “I’ve Got 5 on It” as a terrifying motif for this story of a family under siege by strange intruders. Going further down the creative rabbit holes of what horror can sound like were “The Lighthouse”, and how Mark Korven’s score works in concert with the film’s stunning sound design, and “Midsommar”, with a score by Bobby Krlic that makes the neverending sunshine in Ari Aster’s horror tale all the more anxious. Not quite as ambitious, but still entertaining, was Benjamin Wallfisch’s score for “IT: Chapter Two” and The Newton Brothers’s musical adaptations of Kubrick’s soundtrack choices from “The Shining” for Mike Flanagan’s sequel film, “Doctor Sleep”. And though not technically a horror film, “Parasite” has a score by Jung Jaeil that is as unnerving as anything else done for film music this year. Comic book films, especially within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, had great music, as well, with Alan Silvestri’s track, “Portals,” being the unquestioned highlight of “Avengers: Endgame” (and maybe the best individual film cue of the year); Pinar Toprak writing what is one of my favorite solo film scores of the MCU for “Captain Marvel”, and Michael Giacchino building off of his work for the popular web-slinger with “Spider-Man: Far From Home”.

Those are just two genres, and eight great scores. Topping my list as the best score of the year is Thomas Newman’s powerhouse work for Sam Mendes’s WWI drama, “1917”, while Quentin Tarantino did another masterful job of compiling music for his Old Hollywood drama, “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”. John Powell brought tears to my eyes as Hiccup and Toothless’s story came to an end in “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World”; Hildur Guonadottir created a haunting musical narrative for the Clown Prince of Crime in “Joker” (and bonus points for her equally-powerful music for HBO’s miniseries, “Chernobyl”); Giacchino did wonderful, quirky work for “JoJo Rabbit”; Robbie Robertson’s unique score anchors another tremendous compilation soundtrack in Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman”, and the old school noir sound of Disasterpiece’s music for “Under the Silver Lake” has been one of my favorite soundtracks of the year to revisit. If you checked out the films, you no doubt had the music for “Uncut Gems” (by Daniel Lopatin) and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” (by Emile Mosseri) leave an impression, as well. Returning to genre fare, John Williams’s rounded out his work on the Skywalker Saga with great fanfare and delight in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”, and I loved Bear McCreary’s music for “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”. (It’s also worth mentioning the stellar work “Black Panther” Oscar-winner Ludwig Goransson did on the first season of “The Mandalorian”. The “Star Wars” series is ready for some new, exciting voices to take over.) Finally, my love of The Boss found musical kinship in the way his music provides a life-changing experience for the main character in “Blinded by the Light”, with the concert documentary, “Western Stars”, being a satisfying cherry on top of it all for this year’s great soundtrack collection.

Favorite Performances in 2019
I feel like I could list a hundred choices here, and all of them would be worthy. There’s some wonderful performances to be experienced this year, and many of them will not be part of the Oscar race. That’s a shame, but it also speaks to how the ones that will be part of the Oscar talk are deserving of it. To pair it down, I will limit myself to 25 performances from this year that are well worth taking in: Awkwafina and Shuzhen Zhou (“The Farewell); Lupita Nyong’o (“Us”); Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt (“Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”); Taron Egerton (“Rocketman”); Song Kang Ho (“Parasite”); Eddie Murphy (“Dolemite is My Name”); Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Taylor Russell” (“Waves”); Jonathan Pryce (“The Two Popes” and “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”); Adam Driver (“Marriage Story” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”); Daisy Ridley (“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”); Scarlett Johansson (“Marriage Story”); Robert Downey Jr. (“Avengers: Endgame”); Brie Larson (“Captain Marvel”); Adam Sandler (“Uncut Gems”); Christian Bale (“Ford v. Ferrari”); Sanaa Giwa (“Afterlife”); Florence Pugh (“Midsommar”); Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe (“The Lighthouse”), and Zac Efron (“Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile”). This is a pretty good place to start when it comes to terrific performances, in a wide variety of roles, for this past movie year.

I normally close this out with a list of what I’m looking forward to most the next movie year, but honestly, that’s not much right now. And it’s always going to change as films become more well known as the year goes along. So for now, we wrap up 2019.

Viva La Resistance!

Brian Skutle
www.sonic-cinema.com