#melodie and angelo fit them too very much

[mrmosseater]

yeah you heard me right

[cjostrander]

Versailles: Self titled

: Hello everyone; i was thinking for today’s anniversary review i wanted to do something Japanese that i hadn’t really focused much on. I still have D’espairsray’s Mirror album to do but when you take the time to write a whole review and have it delete on you; finding the motivation to do it again is hard. Dir en Grey, Mucc, and The Gazette have reviews for anniversary status but they were either ridiculously long or not really intriguing enough to scratch off yet. Angelo’s Retina is on the list and will likely be done soon even if it’s a toss in album but I noticed Versailles has one up for review that is five years old. It is currently their latest by them; so it is actually a promo review as well; which is a nice treat. The band broke up for awhile after this release so that the singer Kamijo could embark on a solo career; but for some reason they decided to come back a few years later. I haven’t heard about anything new besides a greatest hits album; so it may just be for touring; but who knows. I’ve done their debut album Noble by the way and found it to actually be a very nice surprise for a symphonic metal band. If you like 80′s style thrash with the cultural taste of European symphonic metal; then this band will be a very good pick for you. I do suggest checking out their album Noble since that was a very solid album from them. Everything else i’m still fresh too. Let’s get started and see how this album stacks up!

Prelude: So we begin this album off with a brief minute and  a half instrumental opener; which is a bit uncommon for this band if you judge by the typical length of their tracks. Coming across a ten minute song wouldn’t be a surprise as you venture through their work. When you look at this one; unfortunately it is literally the same opener that they used on their debut album noble. It still retains that thematic and moving instrumental tension which will be solid for a first time listener; but if you pick up on its copy and paste format; then it shows off as very lazy on their behalf. It perhaps shows off either a sense of tension of lack of general interest on the band’s part during this recording; which could help explain why they took a few years off. That’s not totally understandable since their work is very complex and ambitious with yearly releases at the time. This luckily will not be scored due to its role as an interlude type piece; but that clear lazy touch doesn’t start things off on a positive note for long term fans. If you are new by all means still give it a shot since its still a very nice instrumental and classically fresh as well. 0/0

Rose (Single): The album will hit you with both singles early on and Kamijo enters with some tense sounding English verses; while the guitars provide a steady support. They then shift into a rather moving instrumental segment which will do a nice job of helping you to forget the early prelude track exists. The vocals take on a rather cheerful tone and return to their Japanese lyrics which will help to give his voice a rather soothing texture while still retaining the momentum that the instrumentals deliver. The drums provide more of a support role while the guitars hold the spotlight in terms of instrumental awe. The choir effects and subtle choir verse will do well to spice things up a little further before the solos arrive to really get things going. Those choir vocals definitely add further complexity as well while the solo adds in a strong sense of technicality with ease. Overall a pretty good piece that may be a bit familiar to their fanbase but still contains a decent show of strength for a new listener to get into. 8/10

Rhapshody of the Darkness (Single): This second and final single begins with a French aristocrat like organ/key segment which will play to their cosmetic themes quite nicely. Kamijo enters with a layered vocal delivery which displays a rather strong sense of power to get the ball moving. The strings do very well at emphasizing the classical traits in the song and Kamijo infuses emotional ballad elements that will do very well at getting the listener up an moving; while taking the time to really think about what’s going on in the song. The bass makes subtle appearance underneath the aggressive drum beats and quick guitar riffs. The backing vocals infuse a few growl vocals before the instrumentals take on a more aggressive tone for a bit. It fits nicely with the song title and helps to paint a rather ambitious picture before the instrumentals develop a back and forth approach between tense darkness and beautiful melodies where hope is the main element that breaks through the darkness in it. This one is actually a really good single piece and would be a good live piece to come across. It also brings more a stronger sense of substance than the previous song did even though its a half minute shorter. Definitely suggest checking out a music video if they have one! 9/10

Edge of the World: This one begins with very aggressive guitar riffs and powerful drum bashing; which has more of an industrial metal tinge to it. The vocals change themselves up quite nicely and actually remind me a bit of D’espairsray’s style. The guitars deliver some rather engaging breakdown segments that help to gear this song up quite effectively for a mosh pit to break out. This will help the band to appeal better to a standard metal fanbase while still remembering to infuse it with symphonic elements during the chorus. The chorus is rather beautiful and brings strings in for added support; that enables Kamijo to deliver a fitting combination of beautiful melodies and firm power for the listener to rather engaged by. The solo manages to come across rather nicely as well which leads into a rather thematic string segment; which would make for a rather nice music video as well. They definitely still have their ambitious elements in their songwriting still and didn’t let that lazy copy/paste moment during the prelude cause the album’s other songs to suffer. 9/10

Illusion: Keys and synth beats begin this song with a soothing pop like atmosphere. The guitars arrive to give it a rather pleasing atmosphere that may remind you of early Dir en Grey before they went further into their metal direction. The vocals arrive smooth and firm with a rather calming melody; which will do a decent job of keeping some freshness in the album; so that it doesn’t become too bloated for the listener to continue on. The guitars continue to do a good job of keeping a solid degree of energy and the bass rumbles along rather soothingly with a subtle jazz flair. This little flair works nicely with the keys and helps to ensure that the regular pace verses come across smoothly without losing any flow. Towards the end strings arrive to liven things up a little further and Kamijo uses them to further push his vocal power a bit more before returning to that peaceful chorus to conclude this song. This definitely has a slightly more straightforward feeling than the previous songs; but that is going to help out a lot as the album continues on; since their ambition can sometimes run the risk of going overboard at times. 8.5/10

Ayakashi: The bass and oriental riffs begin this one with a very cultured and religious vibe which resonates nicely with a firm rhythm guitar foundation. The drums join in and elevate things quite nicely before Kamijo arrives. He takes on a familiar delivery but when combined with backing vocal harmonies they give him the complexity that he needs to make this song really stand out on the album. They cleverly space out the oriental instrumentals to give the song a nice texture and keep the instrumentals feeling meaningful and free of repetition. This would be a rather nice piece to see being done live due to its fresher and more unique elements. This all helps to give it a more religious feeling that resonates rather complexly with their more drawn out material while being careful not to come off as their easygoing offering by far. Next song is going to be a long listen though so be prepared. 9/10

Created Beauty: This is the longest song by far surprisingly at 10 minutes long. It beats all the other five and six minutes songs easily i run time and will definitely be one that sticks out lengthwise; by time you finish this album. It starts off a bit soft with a melodic vocal presence; low bass rumbles; soothing keys and then ventures into a more climatic guitar build up. The strings stand out rather firmly and will be very pleasant to focus on as the guitars gradually wind themselves up with melodic power chords. It then shifts to a blissful piano segment where Kamijo really delivers his voice in a very beautiful way. It creates a very thought provoking sense of emotion and will shift the song towards a ballad direction the beginning may of lead you to believe. The slowness of it seems very purposeful and doesn’t appear to have the listener checking to see how far along this song actually is. It does well to know when to spice things up further slightly more commanding yet careful guitar riffs and prominent string melodies. This one flows by smoothly and while it maintains a fair level of consistency it is a good piece to sit and relax to during your listen. It refreshes the listener a nice bit and hopefully will allow the next four songs to pass by enjoyably. 9/10

Holy Grail Amoroso: Strings begin the song with a very romantic oriental flair. It is very complex and beautiful to the ear. I find this being a very smart follow up to the previous song because it builds on it very nicely without over killing the tone. The guitars and drums enter it after awhile infuse it with a further dose of romantic bliss; but with a little power hidden behind it. The keys float nicely in the background with the strings and the bass riffs rumble along rather soothingly for the listener to unwind to. This appears to be an instrumental track and it is actually a very nicely surprise with how solid of a listen it is. The timing passes by at a decent pace and you don’t find yourself wondering when it’s going to end. Really curious what the next couple songs bring. 9/10

Brave: Guitars and string bring back the teeth and ferocity on this one. The drums infuse a high dose of bashing that is a bit hidden by the prominent raw rhythm from the guitars. The vocals come across with melodic verses that find themselves overdone by the raw presence of the guitars at times. It keeps things moving at a quick and fluid pace; so hopefully the listener will be able to appreciate those elements in this song as it progresses. Personally i find this to be one of the weaker toss-in tracks; but hopefully its goal is to simply speed things up before stronger tracks arrive to close the album. The solos are still very nice highlights on this one so make sure to pay attention to them when they appear. 8/10

Truth: Guitars begin with a standard thrash format while the keys infuse it with a nice sense of melodic charm. It still feels a little repetitive in comparison to previous fast tempo work; but Kamijo arrives quickly and his vocals succeed in giving it a fresher texture over time. The drums keep a steady bash beat while the guitars as always; continue to dominate the instrumental field; only sharing when the classical instruments arrive. On this one the strings and keys spend a fair deal of their time in the background; so it seems to served an acceptable role of gradually winding down this album before the finale track arrives. The solos are nice as well so make sure to pay attention to it when it arrives. The softer vocal melodies do a good job of infusing emotion into the song which actually helps to freshen it up a bit for a rather pleasant closing. 8/10

Sympathia: This closing track is actually a reworked track off of their debut ep Lyrical Symphony and it actually served as the closer on that one too. I would suggest calling that another copy and past effect but maybe they were already planning to go on break (assuming for good at the time) and wanted to close their final album with something from their beginning work. Actually gives it a nice context when looked at in the manner and will hopefully strike a deep sense of inner meaning on the listener’s part. Keys begin it softly with a very enchanting sense of beauty and i’m sure the listener will approach it with a nice sense of enjoyment. The keys then give way to a climatic guitar and drum instrumental. The drums actually stick out a bit with their prominent cymbal bashing. Kamijo enters with a slow yet powerful vocal delivery and works hard to infuse it with a strong sense of beauty. The guitars gradually shift towards a more tense rhythm format as Kamijo ventures on. He eases up whenever the strings arrive to add in a classical softness and romantic sense of beauty. It contains a decent feeling of farewell that could make for a potential concert closer and certainly does that job closing this album. I haven’t heard the original version; so i can’t really compare but i’m sure this version has only added to the strength in it. 8.5/10

Overall album rating: 8.6/10

Damn almost scored a B+. This was a nice surprise to sit through today since i was expecting it to feel a lot more drawn out and bloated than Noble was. I suggest checking this one out and seeing how it works for you because it contains a high sense of substance and complexity. Luckily now that band will have a little more of a presence on my blog; so it makes this extra worthwhile today. This will probably be the last review for the month; so next month is going to be it for anniversary reviews on this year’s list. I will still try and scratch off as much as possible so don’t worry if i miss any or get lazy on you. Plenty of time to get them down the road.

*Reviewer’s Pick*

[bonerhitler]

Video Game Music Owns

Music in video games is often over looked. There is a certain school of thought that because it's mostly background music that means it's not “real” music. That it's all just pointless bleeps and bloops. Consequently, a lot of composers who create music for their games seem to have a similar thought process, or even worse the developers simply license a sound track full of chart toppers and leave it at that. This week my goal is to hopefully put into words the difference a good quality sound track can make for a game.

Atmosphere can make or break an experience. This is something seen time and time again in any visual medium, even infamous horror films can lose their edge by the simple act of hitting the mute button. Audio, especially fitting audio, makes it far easier to engage with what you're seeing, and consequently poorly done audio makes it far harder for a viewer to sink themselves into what they're watching. This is why dubbing where the voice lines don't match the original mouth movements can be so hard for some audiences to get into. Because they can't separate what they see and hear. Even modern television shows will occasionally have the audio track off by a fraction of a second and once you notice it, it's incredibly easy to lose immersion in the show or film.

So, what does that have to do with video games? Well, for a start the emotional tone of a scene can be heavily dependent on the music. So if something dramatic is happening but the game is still playing the same upbeat and happy song that's been playing non-stop since the first stage then most players will have a hard time feeling as emotionally invested in the scene. On the other hand this is the opening to Nier. The audio, the music that plays over the introductory sweep of the cold grey world, fits perfectly. The music is slow, it's sad and the tone sets the stage for the scene to come. Playing the same video on mute turns it into a slow, empty credit crawl with nothing to say for the content or context of what's going on.

Of course, that's all good and well for story driven games. But what about more gameplay takes the main focus and you don't really need to know the emotional state of level 1-4 because you're just there to beat the bad guys and progress on to 1-5? Of course music matters there too. A fast paced song, or something with a heavy beat can affect the player causing them to rush more than if the level had a calm or relaxing theme. Compare the following two level themes from Bomberman 64. Blue Resort takes place in a military occupied seaside town and the theme to it is properly relaxing and cool, it fits the quaint watery visuals of the town and sets a lax and enjoyable pace for the stage so the player can play as they want. Red Mountain meanwhile takes place inside a volcanic mine, lava spouts everywhere and constant dangers. The music features a persistent beat that encourages players to keep on the move. The very personality of the two stages comes across amazingly well in their themes alone, one calm and cool the other hot and relentless. If the two stage themes had been switched, the levels would felt off somehow, the audio at odds with the presentation the game gives us.

It's not just the levels themselves, either. Boss fights are often the single most memorable experience of a game. A good boss theme can amp the fight up no matter the genre. This is the track that plays while fighting Nelo Angelo in the first Devil May Cry. The fight its self is tense, you're fighting a character who is effectively a super charged version of your player character and his theme song is suitably energetic and heavy with a mixture of frantic organ and electric guitar. A tough boss like that needs a theme that gets you pumped up because it's a hard fight that will likely stall newer players so you don't want something that discourages people from trying again and again. On the almost opposite end of the spectrum we have the theme of Gwyn from Dark Souls. You enter the boss room and the melancholic piano starts up as the hollowed out shell of the former god picks up his smoldering sword and starts walking toward you. This isn't an intense fight, it's not a battle where you're expected to be pumped up to fight a bad guy as the hero. It's something else entirely and the tone of the music suggests that entirely. Switching these two could change the feeling of the fights entirely, and once again would be at odds with the gameplay. The frenetic energy of the Nelo Angelo theme wouldn't work at all with the shambling mess that is Gwyn, nor would the slow sadness of Gwyn's theme go at all with the fast paced do or die nature of the Nelo Angelo fight, where you're fighting a monster who is so similar to you but superior in so many ways.

As suggested, music in games is incredibly important not just for setting the tone and feeling of the game its self and its locations or stages, but for manipulating the players themselves. It also helps set the game's identity. This is the Super Mario World theme. There is no mistaking this, it's classic as far as games go.  The whole game had a relatively unique feel to its sound track you can identify at a single listen,  with many of its tracks utilizing a lot of light drums and horns with light and peppy rhythms. Even the boss battles fit right into the bright and happy mood of the game, the dramatic introduction doing very little to break the flow. On the other hand we have Kirby Superstar, released on the same console with an equally bright and cheerful tone but an entirely different feel behind its music. Superstar, and kirby as a whole, is incredibly energetic with its music and makes use of a lot of flutes and other light and high pitched instruments to create a feeling of excitement and happiness. But at the same time it dips into darker more intense themes at times, dropping the cheerful smile at once to bring up a boss theme with low guitar beats and rapid guitar riffs.

But here's a slight problem that crops up as technology and inspiration grows, at least an incredibly subjective problem. This is the theme from Kirby: Return to Dreamland, This is one of the tracks from Mario Galaxy 2. The individual identities of the games and series are starting to fade into the backdrop of orchestration, the melodies of the songs starting to sound very alike and it's a reoccurring problem the entirety of Return to Dreamland had. The music, and even many of the new character designs, felt far more like a mario game than a kirby game with the bits of music that sounded distinctly like something from the kirby franchise being limited to remixes and remakes of previous tracks and the rest being new-style marioish orchestration. Things have changed even within the same series for inexplicable reasons to change the whole feeling of the thing. This is the Dedede boss fight theme in Superstar Ultra, the remake of Superstar. That same game introduced a harder version of the fight titled Masked Dedede in which the king challenges Kirby to a rematch once and for all and the theme is suitable more intense for the harder, more dramatic fight. It's the same song at heart but faster paced and more alive. Then Triple Deluxe brings out its own remix of that theme. A new heavier bass beat and what seems like attempts to make it sound more like an orchestrated song causes the actual song to get lost, muffled under a bunch of synthetic horn bleeps and background humming. Of course, that's just my take on it, plenty of people like the more complex triple deluxe version of the song. But to me, it feels like it's trying to do too much at once.

[its-just-like-the-movies]

Personal Ballot for 2017: Score, Costume Design, Production Design, Visual Effects, and Makeup

Hi all! I’ve begun the slow but steady process of writing out paragraph-long entires for my favorites of 2017 in 20 categories. I pray it’ll all be up by this time in April, if not before then, and the long list without write-ups is definitely susceptible to changes (for instance, Get Out is very likely to take the slot in Score that I’ve given to writing about Dawson City: Frozen Time), but there’s no time like the present to write about last year’s movies. So, without further ado, here are my five nominees (plus a few runners-up) in these five categories.

Best Original Score

Dawson City: Frozen Time, Alex Somers - It’d be hard, if not unbearable, for any kind of film to evoke a sense of awe in the miracle of its own existence. Imagine most films trying to do this for their entire hour and forty minute run time and not trying to bash your head in. But Dawson City: Frozen time pulls it off gloriously, partially because the film builds such a convincing case that the survival of its subject - hundreds of rolls of silent film footage previously thought lost recovered in 1978 - is a genuinely impressive achievement borne mostly from dumb luck, but also because it does a great job flexing its central themes and melodies to suit the tone of its current scene. The score isn’t derived from period tunes, instead taking on ethereal and atmospheric qualities that never tilts into opera, guiding us through complex histories in Dawson City. Yes, there’s a lot of awe, but also panic and terror and discovery, keying in to the developments of the town through its relationship to cinema, helping us grasp the idea that immortality and survival itself is so precarious under circumstances like these. In large part, the work here reminded me of what Angelo Badalamenti’s score accomplished for Twin Peaks - using emotional and mood-appropriate chords to guide us through heady, unusual material

Dunkirk, Hans Zimmer - More wall-to-wall scoring, though almost the inverse goal of what Dawson City: Frozen Time is attempting to do. Here the primary objective is delineating between all manner of suspense and fear as Dunkirk’s characters try to survive amidst their own inhospitable conditions. And since those characters are so intentionally blank, his score basically acts like a piece of opera music, a series movements charting the story more than an accompaniment or accent on the film’s scenes. Hope is strung out as chances for escape seem more and more dire, but the score lets the men’s belief that they will be rescued hit as passionately as their fears that whatever latest hell has sprung out of the sky will surely kill them this time. It also has the sense to submerge itself, adding quieter tensions to downbeats as the characters wait for danger to return and search for means to avoid it. Zimmer runs a decathlon based in exhaustion and the very real possibility that these men will die without growing stale or overbearing, keeping the terror lodged in our guts like a bullet.

Good Time, Oneohtrix Point Never - So accomplished in its sonic textures and moods that calling it exhilarating feels like I’m just scratching the surface. With its reprisals of 80’s synth and electronica, Oneohtrix Point Never’s score maintains all kinds of tensions as the film’s narrative barrels forward. From the opening heist that’s doomed to go wrong (and does, spectacularly so) to scenes of the people orbiting Connie getting trampled as collateral damage, the score finds ways to maintain tension in downbeats while ratcheting it up when necessary, flexing and stretching its motifs to flesh out the psychology of the film’s characters. Buries itself deeply under the audience’s skin without falling prey to any of the pitfalls its musical style entails, and manages to be completely enthralling while fitting perfectly into Good Time’s grotty aesthetic.

The Lost City of Z, Christopher Spelman - Admittedly, I’m unfamiliar enough with the pieces Christopher Spelman cribbed from for his score here to have known off the bat that some of his operatic flourishes were actually operas. So, maybe not 100% original. But! It’s still pretty original, and smartly incorporates works from other composers that fully contribute to the already-operatic nature of his score for Z. Throughout, Spelman avoids accenting obvious rises or falls in the narrative in favor of applying a continuous sense of motion, suggesting simultaneous beginnings and endings without pointing where it could all be going. This simultaneity also allows for the score to play to multiple moods and ideas at once, like the melancholy inside a joyous reunion between husband and wife, or finding a great discovery pointing towards an unknown civilization you have no tools to investigate. Just as Percy’s relationship to the jungles, to glory, and to enlightenment all change in themselves and become more enmeshed in each other, Spelman’s score helps us track these shifting mental and emotional pathways in him and his companions.

Wonderstruck, Carter Burwell - Like everyone in Wonderstruck, Burwell has to communicate between two time periods using totally disparate musical eras while including melodies and tunes that can work for both protagonists. He also has the additional challenge of scoring Rose’s scenes like a silent film, complimenting Millicent Simmonds’s performance without overshadowing her own subtle work. And, without succumbing to period clichés or overplaying the “wonder” in Wonderstruck, Burrell delightfully meets the challenges of the film on both sides. He gives both the 20’s silent pastiche and 70’s funk modern accents, keeping in tune with what’s dangerous about this adventure as much as what’s exciting and exhilarating about it. Wonderstruck indeed.

Best Costume Design

I, Tonya, Jennifer Johnson - Who’s to say about degree of difficulty when having such publicly available/iconic outfits as reference for its real person lead character to wear, but that doesn’t mean Jennifer Johnson’s recreations of Tonya’s outfits are completely dazzling to look at. She’s completely in key with the gaudy charm behind Tonya’s costumes, making them convincingly homemade and lower-class rather than using nicer fabric to beef up their dazzle. That energy is given to the background skaters, though when Tonya starts getting “nicer” outfits she still lets the costume retain their unsightly flair. Supporting characters are dressed in broad, colorful strokes that invoke character details without tilting into caricature. Julianne Nicholson’s coach get lots of soft floral prints, while LaVona always seems to have different versions of the same fur-trimmed coat, blossoming into the pelt she’s wearing in her interview scenes. Tailored to accentuate Janney’s imposing height, their length and flatness makes her look even more physically imposing than she already is. The sweaters Jeff wears are more form fitting than the ones Shawn does, but they’re both cozy-looking and character appropriate. A color ensemble of looks that fits the colorful ensemble of characters.

The Lost City of Z, Sonia Grande - Can we just take a second and appreciate how gorgeously dressed Sienna Miller is at all times in this movie? Decked in full-body dresses, gloves, and glorious hats, her looks are eye-catching and elegant without calling attention to themselves or immobilizing her. All the outfits of the explorers look suitable to their environment and grow convincingly tattered as their expedition continues, and Grande  avoids exoticizing the Indian tribes while keeping them specific. More than that, the line about Percy only seeing the lack of medals on his uniform at the opening ball helps clue us in to how the film will insert character details through the baubles they’re wearing, such as the medals decked on the men’s breasts and the jungle-themes ascots Percy begins wearing after coming home from his second trip. Unshowy, unfussy period costuming that’s executed to a tee. Bonus points for the soldier’s uniforms, the fortune teller, and all the suits of the menfolk.

Personal Shopper, Jurgen Doerig - Gives Phantom Thread a real run for its money as the 2017 feature whose central character’s life revolves most around their film’s outfits. Maureen’s near-invisible boss sure is fashionable, with a taste for chic (sorry Reynolds) and, to put it lightly, suggestive outfits. We certainly get some idea of what Kyra is like through the dresses and accessories Maureen picks for her, and it’s almost a plot point that this woman is so unconcerned with her employees that she’d hire a personal shopper that’s also her size. But damn does Stewart wear those outfits well, using them to bolster Maureen’s self confidence as she enjoys the high of those incredible dresses, doing a better job expressing character via fashion show than Jackie. Just as amazing is the character’s own outfits, layers of sweaters and t-shirts underneath the same leather jacket, somehow a coherent look despite clearly being thrown on at the last minute, or at least chosen for function and comfort when sleeping in them over appearance. A sturdy collection of outfits that all reveal something different about the woman wearing them.

Phantom Thread, Mark Bridges - Look, all I’m saying is that I was a woman of means in 50’s London, I’d hire Reynolds Woodcock to make as much of my wardrobe as possible. Every outfit he designs for his clients is completely ravishing, but also somewhat regal and ornate, giving the House of Woodcock a rigid style that’s so far away from chic it’s understandably becoming outdated. It’s a portfolio anyone would be proud to hang their hat on, and Mark Bridges gives equal attention to what the three main players in this game are wearing. Cyril’s black-on-black-on-black looks are too modern in their elegant simplicity to have been made by her brother. He also makes repeat looks count for a lot, as when Alma goes to the New Year’s party - whose other attendees have their own, distinctive style - wearing that green and yellow dress Reynolds made so early in their amorphous relationship. The film simply wouldn’t work if Bridges wasn’t at the top of his game, and he hits a bullseye with every look.

Roman J. Israel, Esq., Francine Jamison-Tanchuck - From the start, Roman’s outfits are noticeably out of place next to the other lawyers we see, not just because the fabric is considerably cheaper but because they don’t seem quite tailored to his size. But they also seem pretty comfortable, and pieces like his magenta suit help him stand out next to the other members of the law firm he’s reluctantly sucked into. After acquiring a good bit of money through illicit means, his new and expensive outfits lose some of that individuality as he gets more in line with a cynical version of the law firm even as it changes itself to meet Roman’s idealism. As the head of that law firm Colin Farrell’s suits are tailored as fine as he is, even accentuating his fineness, while he and his associates go through the exercise of sporting “personalized” ties. The outfits of Carmen Ejogo’s activist leader are believably thrift store but as casually elegant and quietly worn as she is, and it’s exciting to examine the array of protesters meeting with her to see who’s wearing the same kinds of clothing or the imitative, expensive versions of it. Every costume pulls double duty, importing narrative significance and unexpected fashionability to story that didn’t seem to invite it on its face.

Best Production Design

Blade Runner 2049, Dennis Gasner - How can one call something unshowy even if so much of the film seems devoted to showing of its technical elements? My biggest complaint with Blade Runner 2049 is how so many scenes start at the earliest possible moment only to end as late as possible. In moments like K walking past those broken statues of giant, nude women, it seems as though the scenes have no point except to gawk at the physical environments and design elements that Dennis Gassner created. But damn if the sets aren’t something to marvel at. Not only that, but the flat, gray, angular style of these buildings and drawers and junk-sorting tables look as though they were designed with only function and space-saving in mind. Yes, the casino an important character has been hiding out at for decades is very much old and abandoned in the middle of nowhere, but it has round(!) tables, and the remains of some kind of charisma that would’ve made customers spark to the place if it was an active business. The roundness of there and Dr. Stelline’s lab stands out in contrast to practical flatness of everywhere else the film has taken us. Gassner finds a way to make 2049’s sets absolutely stunning, utterly serving the film’s story and the characters inhabiting those spaces without courting tropes of outright dystopia or any obvious visual charisma to make them easy eye-candy.

It, Claude Paré - Repeat watches of It have keyed me in to the criticism that the film suffers a real trade-off between scene-by-scene conceits being fully realized while larger ideas about growing up and more aggressive King themes aren’t so much left for the audience to fill in as much as avoided or vaguely implied. But even as the film petters out, the production design remains indelible and attentive in every scene. The kids’ rooms are  individualized with clutter and personal objects - love the circus wallpaper in Georgie’s room - and Pennywise’s lair feels like its own, unique haunted house, even into the sewers. Derry itself is believably 80’s, grounding the town and playing to its normalcy rather than a rotting host for an unspeakable evil it’s turning a blind eye too. But the real achievement here are the film’s props, from the MISSING CHILD posters piled on top of each other to the history book Ben reads at the library about the Easter tragedy, evoking a bloody and haunted history even as the town continues to ignore it, brutally emblematized in the endless tower of mementos in the sewer. Bonus points for the army of clown dolls and the dummy in the coffin Richie encounters.

mother!, Philip Messina - Right off the bat mother! wins points for creating a house that’s convincingly rustic while also balancing ornate flourishes. It’s big but internally coherent, and has a creepy basement without being a creepy house, though it certainly suits the spooky atmosphere and unraveling narrative Aronofsky is going for. But the real kicker comes in the second act, as the house grows and devolves into a place of worship and war in honor of Him and his poetry. The transformation of so many rooms into war zones and actual altars is utterly remarkable and unfussily done despite the immense work it must have taken. It even looks as well-made as it should given the short, dream logic time frame that all of this is occuring in within the film, as though a stage crew is swapping out sets with every new scene of a play, wrecking this carefully built world in only a matter of minutes. Perhaps the least showy and most immaculately constructed part of an aggressively combative film.

The Lost City of Z, Jean-Vincent Puzos - Yes, a lot of the action takes place in the lush jungles of the Amazonia. But those jungles are believably rendered at every step of the way, teeming with life without falling into exoticism. And the manufactured majesty of the “natural” doesn’t diminish the quality of the homes and communities we get to see. It’s fascinating to see the homes of the colonizers living in those jungles, sturdily made outposts with surreal flourishes and decadent wealth pouring from its most scourigible parts. There’s also the communities built by the Indians that Percy encounters, each clearly their own tribe, as well as the attention paid to wartime trenches and the grand mansions and meeting places of the Explorer’s Guild. The homes he returns to after every journey help illustrate his growing obsession with Zed and his shifting place in English society, going from an upscale house with vine-covered exteriors and leaf-print wallpaper in the bedroom to a cottage practically drowning in the trees surrounding it.

Wonderstruck, Mark Friedberg - Between his miraculous outings with Todd Haynes on Far From Heaven, Mildred Pierce, and now with Wonderstruck, plus his gargantuan work on Synecdoche, New York, can someone please get Mark Friedberg a Wikipedia page? Hell, his work on Wonderstruck alone should’ve qualified him for that, let alone any awards recognition at all. There’s more applause here for deeply specific bedrooms and homes, but there’s even greater praise for the attention he gives to shops and museum dioramas and the way he, along with every other technician, juggles making aesthetics 50 years apart internally cohesive while finding avenues for both timelines to speak to each other, even outside of shared locations. Friedberg may even have a greater challenge in including objects older than both time periods, like the book advertising the Cabinet of Wonders or the impersonal but captivating dioramas and galleries inside the museum of natural history. But damn does he pull it all off, ending the film with its richest achievement in the deeply personal map that this mysterious father of Ben’s created, a diorama that’s as much a diary, and a story told with non-diegetic sets.

Best Visual Effects

Blade Runner 2049, John Nelson and Co. - Easily the film that has been in every incarnation of this category since I first saw it, and the one I’ve had the hardest time starting a write-up about beyond asking “How did they do it?!?!?!”. But reader, I have to ask. The blending of CGI landscapes with the film’s already-impressive production design is smooth and unobtrusive. Joi, in all her incarnations, is a pretty incredible achievement. Fluctuating in transparency and functionality, moving in and out of spaces and characters, in skyscraper and human-sized incarnations, the character is fascinating to watch, the constant reminder that she’s an object making Ana de Armas’s warm, emotionally rich and humanizing performance all the more interesting. Dr. Ana’s Stelline’s manufactured memories coming together is practically a short film onto itself, and the ghostly singing holograms are as affecting as the decrepit casino Deckard himself haunts. Consistently breathtaking work that keeps finding new ways to surprise you.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Christopher Townsend and Co. - I’m still amazed by how fully I’ve come around to Marvel’s side after their 2017 output, but without a doubt I’m still most impressed by the visual style and deliciously saturated color palette that Guardians so perfectly manages. Without ever tipping over into Wonderland garishness, the film indulges in practically every color imaginable in creating its sets and environments and weapons. The hot, neon pink of Yondu’s whistling spear-thing is easily my favorite, as is the blueness of the sky and orangeness of the ground as Gamora sits outside after fighting with Peter, completely unaware of Nebula soaring behind her. Meanwhile, the creation of Ego’s planet and his palace is a truly massive achievement, as are the dioramas detailing his long, hilariously sexy travails across the universe. And they find a way to make Kurt Russell young again without creeping into the uncanny valley. Yes, there’s that one effect in the big climactic fight that weirdly makes it look like Ego and Peter are apparating at each other like in the Harry Potter films, but it’s only a slight bump in a film that’s otherwise full of visual wit and bursting to the brim with as much color as possible, practically daring you to look at it and not enjoy yourself.

It, Nicholas Brooks and Co. - It’s absolutely ridiculous that the campaign team for Warner Bros. couldn’t even muscle It into the VFX shortlist. If repeat watches have cooled me on Bill Skarsgård’s performance, the graphic impact of Pennywise still hits as hard as that first showing in a packed theater. The many ways that Pennywise contorts his limbs, changes size, takes on new and equally terrifying forms, are as terrifying to me as they are to the kids. Seeing him unwind from that fridge to scare Eddie is still one of the most indelible sights of the year, as is his Meshes of the Afternoon arm reaching out for Georgie. Bonus points for the detail given to the dead kids, particularly the headless Easter Egg casualty and Betty Ripsom.

mother!, Tamriko Bardadze and Co. - Compared to the scale some of these other teams are operating on, I keep thinking of mother!’s achievements as being somehow smaller. Effects like the burning wound on the floor where a man is killed, the blood from the dying man himself, the beating heart of the house, that pulsing, spindly Thing hiding in a toilet, all are brief but completely impactful. But then I think back to larger spectacles like the house beginning to rot when Lawrence’s character is at her most distressed, the occasionally barren and occasionally lush Outside we get only glimpses of. Then, even bigger spectacles, like every single way that her house is blown apart, and the charred but living and talking body of a character who has instigated its greatest destruction, and I have a hard time calling its achievements small in any way. Supporting, maybe, but as fully realized as it needs to be, and as mad as everything else that mother! is doing.

War for the Planet of the Apes, Joe Letteri and Co. - I’ll admit upfront there’s a ceiling to how much I can be in awe of a third incarnation of digitally remastered apes, the look of each film improving with technological advances even if I don’t see anything as inherently “new” here as some of my other nominees. But even with that caveat in place, there’s no question that the apes have never looked better. Compare the trailer for Rise in 2011 to what we get in War, and it’s even more obvious how much effort the VFX team has put into making Caesar and his tribe look as realistic as possible. Their faces have never been so expressive; their fur looks so real you could practically touch it, or at least imagine how it feels and smells as they hop between increasingly inhospitable ecosystems, caked in snow and mud and dirt and blood. Even if I’m not as wild about the series as its most ardent fans, their adoration is completely earned with the knowledge that this trilogy has gone out with its most auspicious technological achievement to date.

Best Makeup

Atomic Blonde, Paul Pattinson - A shout out first to the wonderful styling of the minor characters, from the punk hackers working under Bill Skarsgård (and Skarsgård himself) to the functional Russian antagonists, individualizing members on both sides where it counts while knowing who to keep relatively anonymous, even after repeat viewings. John Goodman and Eddie Marsan stand out among the suits dealing with this case, though all the mysterious officials wandering around the story are fantastically groomed. James McAvoy seems to have lost all morality along with his hair, legible as either “disastrous” or still pretty foxy, depending on who’s asking. Still what most interests me are the wigs that Charlize Theron and Sofia Boutella’s characters wear throughout the film, wigs that are undeniably wigs to the audience that are treated like actual haircuts in the film. Both of them, Charlize especially, wear the kind of wigs that spies would usually wear to disguise themselves as other people, something only highlighted in how the actual wigs Lorraine wears seem more plausible as real haircuts than her typical bleach-blonde cut. It’s the first real sign that everyone in Atomic Blonde is playing more roles than they let on, and that the film is willing to be far more ambitious than you’d expect from the setup.

The Death of Louis XIV, Antoine Mancini and Lluís Soriano - There are wigs, and then there’s the magnificence resting on Louis XIV’s head, some kind of lion’s mane passing for a cloud that, like the king, is ready to float off to the beyond at any moment. The gradation of his physical health is the spectacle the whole film is premised upon, and it wouldn’t work if the makeup team wasn’t doing their job so marvelously, oscillating between wilting wigs, full white wigs, or unbelievable and youthful brown wigs. His physical decline is more subtly rendered than my comments on his hairdo let on, and the gangrenous splotch on his leg is appropriate unsettling. Equal attention is given not just to Louis but also to his aides, consorts, and doctors, delineating who is and isn’t bothering to maintain appearances while tending to their king. The Sun God is disintegrating before their eyes, everyone doing their damndest to keep him alive, and still some people have the time to put on makeup and maintain their wigs? Every look is utterly in tune with Serra’s unusual tone and wildly ambitious aesthetic, across a whole host of characters.

The Lost City of Z, Juanita Santamaria - Boy are Charlie Hunnam and Sienna Miller put together with period appropriate glamour that could easily pass for movie-star shine. Robert Pattinson’s facial hair is wildly unkempt but still well-trimmed and completely convincing, far more than whatever died on Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo’s faces in Foxcatcher. Even better is watching the wear and tear of the jungle taking hold of these men’s bodies, smearing them with dirt and sweat, as well as the infections ravaging their bodies, appropriately painful-looking and and revolting without overdoing it The various menfolk of the Adventurers guild are properly groomed and shaved, and the multiple native tribes are given individualizing looks that avoid broad caricature or blurring them all into one large, amorphous tribe. And all of them are gracefully aged as the film progresses, which is frankly as tough an object to find in most movies as a lost civilization.

Phantom Thread, No Credited Head - There’s been a lot of well-earned praise about how gorgeous Phantom Thread is, from its costumes to its cinematography to that ornate, endless house. But how about a round of applause for how stunning those actors look? Daniel Day-Lewis and Lesley Manville are immaculately assembled, from their hair (his naturally graying, hers a wonderfully dyed dark brown) to his eyebrows to her lipstick, all without covering up the age and weariness on their faces. Both look a little gaunt around the edges. Vicky Krieps gets that no-makeup makeup look too, with no attempts to make her look more conventionally or exotically pretty, keeping her gorgeous and comparatively plain next to the other models and muses of Reynolds’s that we see. The background players are given their fair share of attention too, but there’s no denying the main attractions here.

Wonder, Arjen Tutien - Much in the same way that Wonder is a tougher film than I expected but still a remarkably sweet one, I admire the way that the rendering of Tremblay’s disfigurement neither overdoes the surgical scars and deformities nor softens them to the point of being “cute” or “cool”. There’s plenty of room for Tremblay to give a performance underneath all that makeup without simultaneously flaunting the fact that Tremblay is acting under all that makeup the way Darkest Hour so frequently does. The makeup team also does right by the rest of the cast, especially in giving Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson careworn, normal-parent looks better than most films with superstars in those roles manage to pull off. It neither condescends to the normalcy of the characters nor sneaking in ways to remind us that hey, isn’t Julia Roberts friggin’ beautiful. Maybe not as ambitious as Darkest Hour or It, but it’s more consistent across a host of characters while perfectly managing a tricky central character than both films are without showing off or dropping the ball, nailing its assigned tasks to a perfect tee.