Welcome to the 2022 SiftPop.com Sifties!
This year, the SiftPop writers came together to nominate five movies for Best Audio Experience. Since two of the major pieces that work together to create a complete cinematic experience are a film’s visuals and audio, we thought it would be important to highlight them for our Siftie awards.
2022 was a great year for sound at the movies. Between iconic scores reimagined, action epics with bombastic scores, and films about composers, there was a wide variety to appreciate. The SiftPop crew nominated five films for Best Audio Experience: Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, The Batman, RRR, and Everything Everywhere All at Once. Here’s how the voting played out:
Given that Tár tells the story of an imagined world-class conductor, the film’s music plays a central role in the audience’s overall experience. However, it is the expert sound design outside of the classical performance sequences which is easiest to overlook. Lydia Tár has a condition known as misophonia, making her sensitive to noises that others might ignore — the hum of a refrigerator, a dry cough, or a clicking pen. Tár envelops you with its subtly crafted sonic landscape as a means of enhancing our understanding of the film’s protagonist. Furthermore, composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score acts more as an agent of dread rather than music in the traditional sense. More than any other cinematic experience this year, the sound design in Tár humbly steals the show.
While you may not initially think of Everything Everywhere All At Once as the audio accomplishment that it is, there is plenty to recognize within it. While not as prevalent as other films in this category, the original music by Son Lux is well done, but where EEAAO‘s overall audio experience shines is in all of the little things. For a movie that contains so much that we have never seen before, there are plenty of audio ticks that make this experience so much better. Just as it is full of crazy visual effects, the audio matches perfectly to help guide us in this deeply complex world that we are thrown into.
RRR turned out to be one of the most, if not the most, exciting movie experiences of 2022, and that is in no small part due to its music. The score from M. M. Keeravani is at once high octane and bombastic, which is fitting for how epic the movie is, and tragic, which is perfect for how physically and emotionally brutal it can be. Keeravani also composed the film’s soundtrack, which at times nearly puts it into the category of a musical. The “Naatu Naatu” dance brought so much excitement to theaters across the world, “Dosti” is about as awesome as you can get for exposition, and “Komuram Bheemudo” is simultaneously heartbreaking and inspiring. And to cap it all off, “Sholay” in the credits is a fun and euphoric way to end the movie. Add in the expert sound design, and the sound is integral to the success of RRR.
A great Batman film is always made greater with its score. From the iconic ’60s score, the Danny Elfman theme, and the recent Dark Knight trilogy, Batman fans have been blessed with some of the most iconic superhero music of all time. With The Batman, composer Michael Giacchino got a chance to leave his stamp on the character, and he knocked it out of the park. The score perfectly compliments the dark and brooding tone director Matt Reeves was aiming for. A beautiful ode to the mystery, hope, and brutality the film displays, Giacchino delivers an epic score to match an epic film.
If you look at a movie’s credits for its music and you immediately see Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe, Lady Gaga, and Harold Faltermeyer, you know you’re in for a good time. Faltermeyer’s original Top Gun anthem headlines the sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, along with “Danger Zone,” but it’s the mixture of the music from all of these incredible artists with the masterful sound effects that make Maverick’s audio experience as great as it is. The effect of the action scenes just wouldn’t be as high if you didn’t feel jets rushing past you or the alarms inside the cockpit.
Make sure to check out the previous 2022 Sifties winners, and don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the winner of Best Visual Experience! You can also listen to the SiftPop writers’ top five movies of the year on the SiftPop Writers’ Room Podcast!