As the movie industry recovered from the global pandemic
in 2021, projects long delayed finally experienced their debut. The
anticipation from film score fans for the return of major features on
the big screen did not yield a bevy of outstanding music, however. In
fact, while music for television and video games thrived in 2021, the
collective quality of output for film scores remained frustratingly
poor. As a result, the year saw the weakest contenders for these awards
than any since 2008.
Among the few standout film scores of 2021 were an outsized
representation from larger Hollywood productions, the usual array of
obscure international options of lesser quality. That the year was a
clear step back from a lackluster 2020 is disappointing, to say the
least, and the top scores from the prior year would have topped 2021
easily had they been postponed a year. Only two scores in 2021 managed
to achieve a five-star rating, and both of them barely reached that
mark.
The adventure and fantasy genres dominate the Filmtracks awards in 2021,
drama and comedy struggling to compete after overperforming in 2020. No
single composer pulls away from the pack, Panu Aaltio, James Newton
Howard, and Benjamin Wallfisch each receiving four nominations while
Lorne Balfe, Germaine Franco, Rob Simonsen, and Anne-Kathrin Dern each
receive two. A wide variety of other composers earn their first ever
recognition in Filmtracks' awards, the breadth of "Top Film Cue"
nominees extremely varied.
The battle for Filmtracks' top award came down to the
year's only two five-star scores, Franco's
Encanto and Simonsen's
Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and yet neither score would prevail in a
year with typical, superior competition. In such years, they would
challenge each other to achieve a fourth or fifth-place nomination. The
remaining nominees offer fleetingly magnificent listening experiences
that are hindered by nagging flaws, some of them significant for
segments of the listening community.
As such, none of these scores will be recorded as an enduring classic,
despite the overwhelming popularity of the songs from
Encanto.
Franco's admirably melodic and smartly flavored score for that animated
film falls behind Simonsen's
Ghostbusters: Afterlife due to the
latter's intellectual brilliance. Few sequel scores so totally embody
the sound of a previous composer, and Simonsen somehow managed to raise
Elmer Bernstein from the dead and infuse a little Alan Silvestri action
into a score that astonishes with its masterful precision even if it
doesn't overwhelm with originality. Their nominations in this category
are career firsts for Franco and Simonsen.
Joining the top two contenders for the "Top Film Score" award are
Howard's robustly hyperactive
Jungle Cruise, which could have
prevailed in this category if not for one catastrophically inappropriate
cue, Aaltio's brief but infectiously and unyieldingly lovable
Finders
of the Lost Yacht (Pertsa & Kilu), and Wallfisch's underrated and
expansive
Mortal Kombat, a score far more klever than the film
deserved. Jockeying for a nomination but falling to the runner-up
position is Aaltio's monumental but fragmented
Tale of the Sleeping
Giants.
The honorable mentions for 2021 include Dern's tender sequel score for
The Claus Family 2, Joel P. West's substantial mainstream debut
for
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Simon Franglen's
similarly styled and equally impressive
The Curse of Turandot,
and the rollicking romp of
The King's Man by Matthew Margeson and
Dominic Lewis. Barely missing the top ten are Steve Jablonky's
appreciably stylish
Red Notice and Oscar M. Leanizbarrutia's
resolutely potent
Claret.
As usual, mainstream awards around the world
failed to recognize the best composer achievements in 2021, content
instead to fawn over public relations phenom Hans Zimmer and other
undeserving favorites. Achieving none of that press but exceeding all is
Aaltio, whose extraordinarily diverse output for
Finders of the Lost
Yacht,
Tale of the Sleeping Giants, and
The Potato
Venture proves not only his dominance of quality film music in
Finland but worldwide. The caliber of his writing continues to improve
with each year. He edges Balfe for this award, the busy composer's
Black Widow,
The Tomorrow War,
Rumble, and
Silent Night also exhibiting continued career refinement.
Another three composers had years worthy of recognition, including
Howard for his continued fantasy mastery in
Jungle Cruise and
Raya and the Last Dragon, Wallfisch for his highly unlikely,
strong tandem of
Mortal Kombat and
The Starling, and Dern
for her perpetually overachieving output in
The Claus Family 2
and
Help, I Shrunk My Friends. Honorable mentions also go to
Christopher Gordon for resurrecting his talent to the forefront with
Buckley's Chance and
June Again and Marco Beltrami for his
extensive work in 2021, led by the
Fear Street trilogy,
Venom:
Let There Be Carnage, and
A Quiet Place: Part II.
The "Top Film Cue" category is restricted to twenty
nominees, with the number of runner-ups and honorable mentions remaining
the same as prior years with ten and fifteen, respectively. The breadth
of the nominees in this year is wide, the selections representing twenty
different scores from numerous genres. The top scores of the year failed
to place more than a single cue each in this category, with the nominees
instead existing in many cases within otherwise average scores.
Leading the year in 2021 are Steven Price's impressively culminating
"You Have to Let Me Go" from
Last Night in Soho, Oscar M.
Leanizbarrutia's lovely thematic summary of "Tema Principal" from
Claret, Franco's exuberantly celebratory "Antonio's Voice" from
Encanto, and Aaltio's ambitiously adventuresome "Homemade Flight"
from
Finders of the Lost Yacht (Pertsa & Kilu). But these great
cues could not surpass Howard's top-notch highlights in "Jungle Cruise
Suite" from
Jungle Cruise, a summary of many of that score's
best moments.
In the ranks directly behind these top cues are Wallfisch's
heartbreakingly engaging "Hanzo Hasashi" from
Mortal Kombat and
his redemptive, dramatic "Fly Free" from
The Starling, followed
by Simonsen's powerfully emotional "Showdown" from
Ghostbusters:
Afterlife, Nicholas Britell's hypnotically enticing "The Baroque
Ball" from
Cruella, and Balfe's propulsive, inspirational "Natasha
Soars" from
Black Widow. Also highlights of the year are Howard's
victoriously climactic "Return" from
Raya and the Last Dragon,
Gordon's immensely dramatic "Riddles" from
Buckley's Chance, and
Steve Jablonsky's stylishly cool "Masquerade Ball" from
Red
Notice.
Rounding out the nominees for 2021 are the film version of Matthew
Margeson and Dominic Lewis's powerhouse "Crying Conrad/Lionheart" from
The King's Man, Aaltio's immensely majestic "Bird Island" from
Tale of the Sleeping Giants, Joel P. West's massively rendered
thematic suite in "Xu Shang-Chi" from
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the
Ten, Maurizio Malagnini's cheery conclusion in "Grand Finale" from
the overrated but still admirable
Coppelia, Garrett Crosby's
operatic and immense "From the Bridge" from
Camellia Sisters,
Jeymes Samuel's soulful beauty of "The Harder They Fall Choir" from
The Harder They Fall, and, sneaking in at the end, Dern's
suspenseful holiday-laced climax in "Fire and Smoke" from
The Claus
Family 2.
A little more conventional are the ten runner-ups for this category in
2021. They include additional cues from the year's best scores,
including Franco's spirited "Mirabel's Cumbia" from
Encanto,
Aaltio's triumphant "I Will Always Follow You" from
Finders of the
Lost Yacht (Pertsa & Kilu), and Simonsen's retrospective action in
"Trap Him" from
Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Joining them are
Beltrami's tantalizing "Venom and Blues" from
Venom: Let There Be
Carnage, Harry Gregson-Williams' prevailing "The Aftermath" from
The Last Duel, Franglen's diversely exotic "Turandot and Calaf
Sword Training" from
The Curse of Turandot, Balfe's rambunctious
"A New Plan" from
Rumble, Ramin Djawadi's pretty "Across the
Oceans of Time" from
Eternals, Debbie Wiseman's sensitive "People
Always Say That at the End" from
To Olivia, and Aaltio's
religiously-inclined "Archangel" from
The Potato Venture.
In contention but eliminated earlier in the selection process were the
following cues receiving honorable mentions (listed alphabetically by
film title): Bartosz Chajdecki's solemnly heartbreaking "Hope" from
The Champion of Auschwitz, Jermaine Stegall's rousing tribute to
his predecessor in "Main Titles" from
Coming 2 America, Britell's
partying "Don't Look Up - Main Title Suite" from
Don't Look Up,
Beltrami and Marcus Trumpp's resolute "Sarah's Fate" from
Fear Street: Part
Three 1666, Frank Ilfman's stirring "The Big Gundown" from
Gunpowder Milkshake, Dern's mysterious "The Tale" from
Help, I
Shrunk My Friends, and Howard's adventuresome "A Steamer to Brazil"
and awe-inspiring "Petal Negotiations" from
Jungle Cruise.
Also contending but eliminated were Wallfisch's powerful "Origins" from
Mortal Kombat, Nathan Johnson's ominous "Storm's a
Comin'" from
Nightmare Alley, Balfe's reverent "Stille
Nacht" from
Silent Night, Amie Doherty and Robin Pecknold's rowdy
"Meeting Spirit & Main Title" from
Spirit Untamed, Aaltio's
exquisite "Fall Colors" from
Tale of the Sleeping Giants, Balfe's
guilty-pleasure conclusion in "Homecoming" from
The Tomorrow War,
and Danny Elfman's morbidly introverted but alluring "The End" from
The Woman in the Window.
