Best of 2016 (Part One)

So many movies are released every year that it's nearly impossible to see them all within the confines of January 1 - December 31. So I usually give myself until the Oscars to see everything. After all, that's when the year in film truly ends, right?

Anyway, I'll post my Top Ten (or whatever it is this year) tomorrow, on Oscar day. But for now, let's look at all the other things Oscar will be awarding tomorrow. Starting with the tech categories...

BEST MAKE-UP & HAIRSTYLING

 Closet Monster

The Dressmaker (WINNER)

Florence Foster Jenkins

The Handmaiden

Sing Street

Florence Foster Jenkins is the showiest of these, what with all the period styles and sick makeup for Meryl, but there's careful attention paid to the differences in class and how people of different social strata present themselves. Sing Street gets to the performative, shifting nature of identity that occurs in adolescence in fun ways. The Handmaiden is mostly here for the wonderful hair creations that sit atop Lady Hideko's head - each one some new gorgeous marvel. Closet Monster and The Dressmaker both have makeup as central to the story. Closet Monster's looks appropriate for a talented teen, but The Dressmaker wins for how it underscores the film's central themes about the power of outer transformation.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

 Captain Fantastic

The Dressmaker (WINNER)

The Handmaiden

La La Land

The Nice Guys

Those '70s duds in The Nice Guys! Those perfectly out-of-time homemade creations in Captain Fantastic! Those highly covetable contemporary duds in La La Land! Those insane robes and gowns in The Handmaiden! But none of these come close to the over-the-top fashions of The Dressmaker. When your film is about a fashion designer, you better have the duds to match, and Tilly's creations are nothing short of showstopping, to a one. And the "regular" clothes fit perfectly with each character, too.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Florence Foster Jenkins

The Handmaiden (WINNER)

 La La Land

The Witch

Zootopia

Animated films never get their due in this category, but they have people devoted to just the look and feel of the piece just like live action films do. And Zootopia is chock full of smart, funny, genius design choices, from the different areas of the titular metropolis to the myriad clever inventions that allow for animals of quite literally all shapes and sizes to coexist. Florence Foster Jenkins takes Florence's eccentricities and runs with them, creating a space that feels warm and cozy despite the fact that you can't touch anything... and then there's that bathtub full of potato salad! There are so many great spaces in La La Land, but that kaleidoscopic final sequence takes it to another level. The homestead in The Witch feels perfectly handmade with blood, sweat, and tears... and feels perfectly creepy once the sun sets. But the gorgeous design of The Handmaiden is truly unforgettable. That lifesize puppet, those handsome rows of books and scrolls, that creepy cellar lair... those images will never leave my mind.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

A Monster Calls

Arrival

Doctor Strange

The Jungle Book (WINNER)

The Mermaid

The title character of A Monster Calls is really quite the creation, not to mention those breathtaking animated sequences. The spaceships and aliens of Arrival look shiveringly otherworldly - unlike anything from outer space we've ever seen before. Those trippy "multiverse" sequences of Doctor Strange are the single best thing Marvel has done in years. And the eye-popping 3D of The Mermaid is perfectly in sync with the film's wacky tone. But not only was The Jungle Book the most beautiful 3D rendering I've seen in some time, but I had no clue that all those animals were entirely computer generated.

BEST SOUND DESIGN

(While I do understand the difference between Sound Mixing - volume and soundscaping - and Sound Editing - creation of sounds - I feel like I don't know enough to separate them)

10 Cloverfield Lane

Arrival (WINNER)

Krisha

The Mermaid

The Witch

There's a LOT of sound in The Mermaid, and it all sounds organic, which is difficult when you have to think about things like, "what does it sound like when a octopus-man chops off his own tentacle and cooks it on a hibachi grill," and make it funny. The sound design of 10 Cloverfield Lane is just as instrumental as the set design in creating the feeling of claustrophobia, and that's before we get to the genre-bending final ten minutes. The atmosphere of The Witch is chilling. The mixing of all the many conversations happening in Krisha would make Altman proud, but then there's other, more subjective elements added to the mix, putting you right in this woman's shoes in a visceral way. But once we get into the spaceships of Arrival, we're in a whole other dimension, in large part thanks to the thrillingly otherworldly sound design.

BEST SCORE

Arrival

Closet Monster

Jackie

La La Land

Sing Street (WINNER)

The counter-intuitive scores for Arrival and Jackie are essential in creating the atmosphere of their films in strikingly different ways. The lush 80s-styled music in Closet Monster is appropriately bright and melancholic in equal measure. It's not just the songs that are great in La La Land and Sing Street, but the underscoring as well. But the songs in Sing Street are just brilliant - great songs that still feel like the product of a group of talented teenagers imitating their MTV idols.

BEST SONG

"Audition (The Fools Who Dream)"

"Brown Shoes"

"City of Stars"

"Drive It Like You Stole It" (WINNER)

"Try Everything"

The melody of "City of Stars" is hauntingly melancholic despite its hopeful lyrics. "Try Everything" is a perfect anthem for Judy Hopps and as an introduction to the city of Zootopia itself. "Brown Shoes" is a perfect adolescent middle finger to the establishment, with a killer chorus to match. It was tough to choose between "Audition", which is beautiful and perfectly structured, and "Drive It Like You Stole It", but the latter takes it for fitting in perfectly with the film and for the staying power of that sticky melody. Nearly a year later I'm still singing it all the time.

BEST EDITING

The Handmaiden (WINNER)

Jackie

La La Land

Manchester By The Sea

Toni Erdmann

Editing is underrated as a comedic tool, and it is used sharply in Toni Erdmann, cutting right through the otherwise shaggy rhythms of the film like a dagger. The editing in Jackie puts us right in our protagonist's shoes, creating a swirl of memories and emotions that we don't always see, but feel. Editing is also knowing when NOT to cut, and there's no better example of that this year than La La Land's musical numbers, including that breathtaking dance among the stars. Manchester is edited with almost clinical precision, knowing exactly when to cut to close-up and when to leave a scene. But The Handmaiden is a herculean effort, having to not only tell a story in three parts, but having to do so with overlapping scenes that we have to view as somehow different the second time we see them. The editing plays right into the emotions of the film, whether as a thriller, a romance, or an erotic drama.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Handmaiden

La La Land

The Light Between Oceans

Moonlight (WINNER)

The Witch

The all-natural light of The Witch is stunning and creates some supremely spooky tableaux. The camera movement of La La Land is swoon-worthy, as is the way it looks just like the Technicolor musicals of yore. The lighting and framing of images in The Handmaiden makes so many of them unforgettable. The Light Between Oceans is pure sun-kissed, windswept, and in some cases tear-stained beauty. Moonlight, though, is one of the most purely beautiful-looking films I've ever seen.