Twelve Days of Oscars, Day 2: Editing and Original Score

Welcome back to my Twelve Days of Oscars! For Day 2, let's examine two categories that are very much post-production, and very much what give us the movies we actually watch, as opposed to the footage that was filmed for weeks/months.

Unlike yesterday's analysis, which featured two categories with the same five nominees, today we explore categories with overlapping but not identical nominees.

Editing: Baby Driver, Dunkirk, I, Tonya, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Original Score: Dunkirk, Phantom Thread, The Shape of Water, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

We'll talk about the overlappers first. The Shape of Water, you may know, received the most nominations  this year; during the announcement that early morning, it was a while before we got to a category in which it wasn't announced! As I've said elsewhere, that movie is not really for me. While I get the successful realization of artistry that it was, and can't point out any flaw or failure -- that is to say, if I were a teacher (unarmed, naturally) assigning "Make a movie realizing your individual vision" as homework and my student handed in that trippy thing, I'd have to give an A -- it's just weird and not-for-me weird, as opposed to so-up-my-alley weird. Now, what bearing does that have on whether I think it should win for Original Score? Well, mainly that I can't really remember the score. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But I don't know. Editing, though, you could make a strong case for. Lots of water, weird fish-man stuff, back and forth between the home and workplace scenes, a climactic chase sequence, all that good stuff. A solid job, editing wise.

The other overlappers are Dunkirk and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (I predict getting real tired of typing that last title soon). I don't particularly remember the score of Dunkirk moving me, but I remember it kind of doing its job well. As for Three Billboards.... (yup, definitely abbreviation time), as I recall it was good as background and not bad when it came to the foreground at certain dramatic times. But did I love it? Was it the best? I don't know.

I guess I should confess that this isn't a really new or strange feeling. There are lots of years when I'm not wowed by any particular score -- unlike the There Will Be Blood sorts of absolutely stunning scores which make me sad when they are ineligible to be nominated -- and that lack of being wowed might surprise some people who know that I like music and even have known a couple of peeps who do scoring work, but there you have it. I will say that I don't see it as a crucial part of the success nor of the what-the-hell-ness of Phantom Thread.

That's right; you heard it here first. Not a big fan of the Phantom Thread, despite it being the aforementioned There...Blood scorer Jonny Greenwood reteaming with those peeps. We'll talk more about my lack of Phantom Thread love in coming days. Today, I guess I'll say I'm not going to be surprised if it wins this category, although I'm thinking it's more likely The Shape of Water will sweep a bunch of categories, including this one. Star Wars: The Last Jedi might not really have a chance just because John Williams might get the been-there-done-that eye roll of voters.  I think of all the categories I've thought about or seen at least three of the contenders in, Original Score this year inspires the least passion in me. I can't pick.

How about Film Editing, then? Now, I think the degree of difficulty in editing I, Tonya should not be understated. It might seem simple, cutting back and forth between faux-interviews and action, but it was pieced together really well to move us through the story, hold our interest, present questions about contradictions at the right pace, and so forth. Three Billboards...  was actually much more linear of a story (the occasional crucial flashback notwithstanding). I already mentioned that the weird-ass The Shape of Water's editing was good work, and Dunkirk  was well put together, too - multiple settings/characters to manage converging to one storied meeting point. But we also have to think about our good friend Baby Driver, which I did give Sound Mixing props to yesterday. This was a matter of a lot of fast and furious editing in the action sequences, but also it was such a weird and moody film that it's pretty well crafted when it pulls itself off.

In short, there's no bad apple in this bunch, but I think I'm pulling for either I, Tonya  or Baby Driver to win Film Editing.

It's been a rough 24 hours, and I'm tired. Day 2 of the Twelve Days of Oscar is hard. What do you all think? The Shape of Water?  A different overlapper? Or one of my outlier picks? Who should win? Which of those films did you enjoy as a finished, scored, well put together final product?

Previous Days of Oscar:
Day 1: Sound Mixing and Sound Editing