Reel and Roll Awards (1): Best Film Music of 2017

Reel and Roll's BEST ORIGINAL SCORE 

• Thought my favourite score of the year was easily between Jonny Greenwood's classical brilliance in Phantom Thread and Hans Zimmer's pulse-pulsating work on Dunkirk, this was a very strong year on the whole - also nominated for an Oscar was Alexandre Desplat's beautiful The Shape of Water score. For my thoughts on the 2017 Oscar Nominees for Best Score, click here

• Experimental electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never composed a pitch-perfect synth score to Good Time that daringly took on the 80s influences of films like After Hours and Risky Business and their themes of young men in trouble, and adds a distinct modern-day touch to it which is rather splendid, while Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Walfisch combined on their own evocation of the Blade Runner universe's synth score, with an added urgency and scale to the music which fit the tones of the film perfectly.  

• On the more 'classical' side of things, Loving Vincent and Hostiles featured scores by Clint Mansell and Max Richter which poignantly create the atmospheres for their respective films, and generate an emotional heft perhaps even greater than the films themselves. Click here to find out more about the mysterious use of the yaybahar in Richter's score from none other than Mark Kermode.

• Daniel Hart's daring score for A Ghost Story might not have hit the mark at every single point with me, but in the scenes it works, it really works well, while Mark Mothersbaugh's music to Thor Ragnarok features perhaps the most memorable of the MCU's original scores to date, though its musical highlights would probably be the use of 'Immigrant Song'. 

1. Phantom Thread
2. Dunkirk
3. The Shape of Water
4. Good Time
5. Loving Vincent
6. Blade Runner 2049
7. Hostiles
8. A Ghost Story
9. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
10. Thor Ragnarok

Note: I still need to see Wonderstruck.

Reel and Roll's BEST ORIGINAL SONG

For my thoughts on the 2017 Oscar Nominees for Best Original Song (including 'Remember Me', 'Mystery of Love' and 'This is Me'), click here

• Well my favourite song of the year in film was by far 'Remember Me' from Coco (written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez). Performed alternately by Benjamin Bratt as a smarmy, extravagant musical number, García Bernal, Gabriella Flores and Libertad García Fonzi as a lovely little lullaby, and by Gonzalez & Ana Ofelia Murguía in a way which makes the film's ending profoundly memorable. Oh yeah, and the credits version by Natalia Lafourcade and Miguel which is terrific too. It's arguably the best Pixar song, and in fact would be worthy of comparison to the great Disney songs just by how well implemented it is in the film. I'd also just like to give a shout out to 'Un Poco Loca' written by Germaine Franco, Adrian Molina, which is another excellent song from Coco. Capturing that same spirit of Mexican culture and celebration of family in a catchy little tune. 

• 'This is Me' from The Greatest Showman may have been a great song used in a bad film, but that doesn't discount the inherent greatness of the song itself as a crowd-pleasing showboating tune. 

• Of course, one can't forget the fantastic double-whammy from Call Me By Your Name by Sufjan Stevens, 'Mystery of Love' which was nominated for the Oscar, and my personal favourite of the soundtrack, 'Visions of Gideon'. The more I think about it, the use of music might be my favourite part of the film - another memorable part involves Armie Hammer dancing to The Psychedelic Fur's 'Love My Way' - and this scene, where Elio sits in front of the fireplace absorbing the events of the film in one long glance, is the best scene in the film: devestating, poignant, with just a touch of hope through the beauty of the music. 

• While I'm not a huge fan of the lead-up to the ending of the film, the two sequences that conclude Good Time are fantastic, the first sequence due to Robert Pattinson's performance, the second sequence due to Ben Safdie's performance, the Safdie brothers' direction, and the use of 'The Pure and the Damned' by Iggy Pop and Oneohtrix Point Never. Just a great choice to use such a slow, soothing, yet haunting song to conclude a hyper-kinetic film. Other great songs used to end films in the credits include Sara Bareilles' 'If I Dare' from Battle of the Sexes and Patrick Doyle's 'Never Forget' from Murder on the Orient Express. 

• As just a fun rap song with a Bat twist, 'Who's the (Bat) Man' from The Lego Batman Movie (Patrick Stump) is a jolly good time, using Will Arnett's superb Batman voice to optimal effect. 'I Get Overwhelmed' by Dark Rooms for A Ghost Story, on the opposite side of the scale, is an extremely inventive and effective take on the 'ghostly' tune. While I may not have loved the film as a whole, the way music was utilized in it is quite remarkable. 

1. 'Remember Me' - Coco
2. 'Visions of Gideon' - Call Me By Your Name
3. 'I Get Overwhelmed' - A Ghost Story 
4. 'Mystery of Love' - Call Me By Your Name 
5. 'This is Me' - The Greatest Showman 
6. 'The Pure and the Damned' - Good Time
7. 'Un Poco Loca' - Coco
8. 'Who's the (Bat) Man' - The Lego Batman 
9. 'If I Dare' - Battle of the Sexes 
10. 'Never Forget' - Murder on the Orient Express

Reel and Roll's BEST SOUNDTRACK 

• Though I wasn't in love with the film overall, Baby Driver is still a good film, and its soundtrack is perhaps the best of 2017 in film in a technical sense. Every song on Baby's playlist, from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's 'Bellbottoms' in the opening chase scene, to Queen's 'Brighton Rock' in the action-packed finale, and my personal favourites of The Button Down Brass's 'Tequila' to accompany a shootout, and a standoff to Barry White's 'Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up'. In fact, the only song choice I didn't entirely take to was funnily enough, 'Baby Driver' by Simon & Garfunkel, which is strange because they're easily my favourite artists on the soundtrack.

• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri technically has a few implausibilities in its music choices, for example does Officer Dixon really have Renée Fleming's 'Last Rose of Summer' on his playlist, well I guess appearances are deceiving, and anyway I don't care since the use of music in Three Billboards is one of my favourite aspects of the film. Like In Bruges Martin McDonagh knows just when to use a song to amplify an already emotionally potent scene, or generate laughs like through Abba's 'Chiquitita', shock through Mosters of Folk's 'His Master's Voice', and the alternate covers of 'Buckskin Stallion Blues' that bookend the film beautifully (WARNING: NSFW scene). 

• Lucky, The Other Side of Hope and Maudie, as with everything else about these films, have some pretty underrated soundtracks. The Other Side of Hope making use of such a kooky, eclectic blend of Finnish music to create the offbeat yet grounded tone of the film, and Maudie such beautiful tunes from the likes of Lisa Hannigan and Mary Margaret O'Hara to convey that sense of the film's beauty being like a painting. Lucky makes use of many classic Mexican tunes, Liberace, the harmonica, and one sequence which I'll discuss at a later point, to create a vibrantly contemplative atmosphere in the film that's quite extraordinary.

• In The Disaster Artist's case just using popular culture tunes works beautifully, I don't know whose idea it was to use 'Rhythm of the Night' as Tommy's theme - I don't seem to recall Greg Sestero mentioning it in his autobiography, though I might be mistaken - but it was a brilliant decision, as are many of the musical choices in the film. 

• I, Tonya's use of Heart's 'Barracuda' to announce the entry of the villainous mother, or Dire Strait's 'Romeo and Juliet' to begin a romance, may seem a bit 'obvious', but that's entirely the point of the film as an anti-inspirational biopic that turns everything on its head. Every song choice is perfect for the film's time period, setting, and vibe. It shares the use of Fleetwood Mac's 'The Chain' with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 which though more uneven in its musical choices, which aren't as organically implemented, when it works, like its use of Jay and the American's 'Come a Little Bit Closer', it's pretty great.

• The Square's use of existing music is fantastic, from the memorable utilization of 'Genesis' by Justice while our characters are out to perform their own uniquely stupid brand of 'justice', the use of Bach to create some rather mesmerizing scenes in the titular museum. The combination of music is always effective in its juxtaposition of the modern and the classical. 

• Trainspotting 2's use of music may not be nearly as remarkable as its precursor, and does feel slightly derivative at points. However, the highlights of its soundtrack, from a terribly offensive and hilarious song about Catholics, Queen's 'Radio Gaga', reprises of the iconic tunes used in the first film, and the use of Wolf Alice in its conclusion, are all fantastic and make the film work as well as it does. 

1. Baby Driver
2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
3. Lucky
4. I, Tonya
5. The Disaster Artist  
6. Blade Runner 2049 
7. The Other Side of Hope
8. Trainspotting 2
9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
10. The Square  

And just as an honorary nominee, the use of John Denver in 2017 films:

In Alien Covenant, apparently some good ol' 'Take Me Home Country Roads' is sufficient to compel a bunch of silly humans to be devoured by aliens.

Logan Lucky had an absolutely wonderful use of it as an emotional climax to the film after the 'heist' part of it had concluded, and effectively makes sense of how it ends.

Kingsman 2 is a dreadful film and the conception of this scene makes no sense (he really didn't need to die), but I found it rousing nothentheless because it's a great song, brilliantly sung by Mark Strong.

Free Fire's most memorable scene involves 'Annie's Song' accompanying a succession of pretty vile, violent and hilarious murders.

And Okja had my absolute favourite use of John Denver in 2017 in the scene where we discover who the ALF really are.

So for my John Denver ranking,

1. Okja
2. Free Fire
3. Logan Lucky
4. Kingsman 2
5. Alien Covenant