Completed Category: Film Editing

 Another category that I completed upon watching The Holdovers is Film Editing. 

These are some really interesting films in how they construct a story and construct a feeling in the audience. One thing to consider is that they also all received Best Picture nominations, and all but Killers...Moon also received Screenplay nominations, so one question to ponder is how much they will split up those wins, whether one can take home three of those, and so on. 

ANATOMY OF A FALL:  This movie is a talk-y movie mixed with a few stunning, beautiful scenes of the mountain locale and a back and forth to and from the setting where the title Fall happened. It builds tension, curiosity, frustration, and sadness, among other emotions, along with a growing despair that it's so hard to find the truth.  Josh Larsen of Filmspotting writes, Working with editor Laurent Sénéchal, [director Justine] Triet increases the sophistication of the film in terms of point of view as it goes on. This is such a good point. We start in close to one character, then get another, and another added in, and our perspective and questions expand, and the editor puts it together to build layers in the story.  This film has wowed awards season so far. Will any Oscars follow? 

THE HOLDOVERS: This is a movie of small moments that are big. Editor Kevin Tent talks about being guided by the actors when assembling footage, and also mentions that he has a "schmalz alarm" that helps get rid of anything manipulative. In the same interview he says, "I'm a big believer in 'When in doubt, cut it out.'"  Not everyone is good at that!  

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: Thelma Schoonmaker is probably the most famous of these editors, and famously works with Marty - that's Martin Scorcese - on his films.  Sometimes people think Editing is about length, and then they like to make jokes about long movies (such as this one) without understanding the assembly and all the decisions that are part of editing, way beyond just trimming a 4-hour film down to 3 hours and 26 minutes. Thelma, like many of us, read the book and then she and Marty crafted a story built around the love relationship. She says the real-life Mollie told an FBI agent "I love him" when asked why on earth stay with this husband, and that informed their decisions as filmmakers to take the approach they did. With so much action all over the place, a through-line had to be constructed more than almost any other nominee... 

OPPENHEIMER:  ... yeah. Except then there's this one.  All over the place and then some, this film puts together a seemingly endless array of people, places, dialogue, philosophy, and spectacle. Editor Jennifer Lame is quoted saying "there's nothing more exciting than 'people talking in rooms.'" I think this person was born to edit a film like Oppenheimer! 

POOR THINGS:  This film is such a brutal experience for me to watch - I really dislike this experience. And I would in fact have liked this one to be shorter because so much of it was excruciating and terrible. But as far as surgically assembling this monster (heh heh...) goes, did you know that the editor is ALSO named Yorgos? It's true. Yorgos Mavropsaridis says, "“What is happening?” We keep that in mind, and in the editing, it’s not like the images of the situations succeed one another. It’s more that they’re overlapping. And there is a point when you need to answer this question."  Indeed. I did certainly ask "What is happening?" in the early minutes of this film. The question soon progressed to, "When can we make this stop happening?"  

Order I want them to win: 
Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Poor Things

Order I think they will have a chance to win: 
Oppenheimer, Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers

Which editor do you think did a bang-up job putting together a bunch of images?