Ranking the Oscar Nominees: Best Film Editing

Baby Driver – Paul Machliss and Jonathan Amos

Machliss and Amos have previously teamed up with Wright on Scott Pilgrim v.s. the World, while Machliss on his own has been a staple of Wright's early television work, as well as stuff like The I.T. Crowd and Black Books, while Amos also worked on the excellent Paddington 2 this year.

Dunkirk – Lee Smith

A frequent collaborator of Nolan's who'd previously been nominated for The Dark Knight, as well as for Master and Commander, and a long storied career going back to the 80s, who's worked on excellent renowned films like the aforementioned, Fearless, The Truman Show, etc.

I, Tonya – Tatiana S. Riegel

A longtime assistant to Tarantino's late great editor Sally Menke, Riegel started off her career working in an assistant's role on films like JFK, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, the editor on the likes of Fright Night and The Way, Way Back, and garnered her first Oscar nomination collaborating with Craig Gillespie, whom she'd also worked with on the underrated Lars and the Real Girl.

The Shape of Water – Sidney Wolinsky

Having won an Emmy for his outstanding work on Boardwalk Empire - a series where at its best was heavily reliant upon its editing - and worked mostly within the medium of cinema, this is Wolinsky's first Oscar nomination.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Jon Gregory

This is Gregory's first Oscar nomination, having previously worked with Martin McDonagh on In Bruges as well as being acclaimed for his work on the likes of The Proposition, a highly underrated revisionist 'Western' set in Australia.

Ranking the nominees:

3. The Shape of Water/Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri/Baby Driver 

Now my reasons for being unable to rank these three may be due to the fact that in many ways, editing is an art which is designed to be unnoticed, where it amplifies the film without drawing attention to itself, but rather drawing attention to the elements of its design. These three films are all very well-edited.

The Shape of Water in the more classical sense of just telling a story in a very smooth, efficient and flowing way, particularly as it juggles several subplots together and a rather on-the-nose and unsubtle screenplay, and its montages of romance between Elisa and the fishman are exceptional. I do think several scenes involving Michael Shannon's Strickland drag on for a bit, which never happens for any of the other subplots, but it's never bad editing, and each scene serves its purpose.

Three Billboards is the most low-key in its editing, but that should not be sniffed at. Worth particular notice are the scenes involving fire, the scenes where characters verbally spar with one another are always subtly accentuated by the editing between reaction shots, and the whole story moves along very smoothly despite having many different subplots to juggle, particularly in the final act where one of the supporting characters almost becomes a lead in himself.

As for Baby Driver I've expressed my great admiration for the sound work on the film before, both editing and mixing. This is a very well-edited film, and sequences like the opening car chase, getting a cup of coffee, the montages, the confrontation at the diner between Baby and Buddy, and again every action sequence, are some of the best-edited sequences of the year. I do however, have reservations with it, in that while it's never bad, there's places where it just drags, and while I'm inclined to put most of the blame on the screenplay, the editing does lose some of its 'punch' at certain points. For example, the whole buildup to the warehouse shootout feels like it could have been trimmed down, there are dialogue-heavy scenes where it feels like just a bit more of the Cornetto trilogy snappiness would have been appreciated, and I think the final twenty minutes or so which are not occupied by cars crashing and bullets firing have a bit of a lull which hurts the film overall. It's a very well edited film, but for me simply not on the level of say, Hot Fuzz, or Scott Pilgrim v.s. the World.

2. I, Tonya

One of the best edited films of this decade, and though I've heard critiques which say it's an imitation of Thelma Schoonmaker, and more specifically The Wolf of Wall Street, I'd actually consider the editing itself, though an emulation of that sort of technique, tops Wolf because unlike that film, I felt like the momentum and crisp editing carries on into the more sombre third act. Riegel's work here is great as, though she uses techniques which we've all seen before - split scene, swift cuts to reaction shots exposing a character's hypocrisy and lies, fast paced montages, cutting between the audience and the athletes to escalate tension - and uses them in a way that makes the rhythm of the film's anti-inspirational tones flow along so beautifully. The the ice skating sequences, the editing is not only dynamic, but actually does wonders in covering up the CGI which is understandably a bit patchy given the only two people in the world who can do the 'triple axle' jump now weren't available to do it. The use of voice-over always feels impeccably merged into the scenes, and never once loses the 'rhythm' of the crazy real-life story its telling.

1. Dunkirk

Dunkirk's editing earns the top spot alone by how it manages to combine three stories with different perspective in different time frames in a way that never loses the tension and urgency of the situation, while cohering what, when, and how everything is going on from these three perspectives into a singular narrative. The fact you never lose sense of the time period these three segments are taking part in while also never losing sense of the overall 'plot' is remarkable, even more so when you take into account the bare-bones script Nolan is working with. The 'ticking clock' motif of the film's soundtrack and sound work is implemented perfectly with the performances of the ensemble, elevating the film into masterful territory in the final act where everything 'comes together' so to speak. It's one of the film's most impressive elements, in fact I'd say it's the most impressive element given how easily it could've ended up being a mess in the wrong hands.

And that's it for the Oscar categories I can cover. From Best Documentary I've seen Icarus which is pretty strong and interesting a documentary on the cycling profession, the Kobe Bryant short from the Best Animated Short, and out of the Best Foreing Language Film category The Square and Loveless, the former which I loved in parts and overall found decent enough, and the latter which was well-made but quite a strenuous watch.

Next up, I'll be doing my own personal award lineups for all the categories I've covered, which will be entitled the Reel and Roll Awards this year.