Reel and Roll: Reel and Roll Awards: Best Sound Design 2019

Well it doesn't take much guesswork to figure out what the two best sounding films of the year were in my books: The Lighthouse is just as much a sensory experience for the ears as it is for the eyes as each rollicking wave, clattering cutlery, piercing scream and GODDAMN FART resonates with such visceral power, while 1917 is phenomenal war film work that is essential to keeping the audience within that continuous mission mindset. Other notable efforts: Ford v Ferrari has brilliant work in each race sequence and well adjusted depending on how 'close' to the race the audience is following, Midsommar and Us have some great horror sounds as expected, the former being particularly grusesome (some iffy ADR work for Will Poulter's character but that's hardly the fault of the sound design team having to do them in the first place), and even though I didn't care for the film on the whole Ad Astra is another great instalment into the space film genre as far as sound is concerned, with the the whole Mars sequence being a highlight in that regard. Apollo 11 has some astonishing work just in terms of the sound design team syncing the audio to the visuals, generating sound to prexisting footage in a seamless fashion; and just for random shout outs to films like Parasite and Little Women and The Irishman where the sound mix is essential in creating the huge impact each film had on me, Uncut Gems managing to make its Robert Altman-esque dialogue mix work so well in contributing to the film's anxiety-infused atmosphere, the grand monster sounds of Godzilla, the stellar silence/natural sounds mix of Monos and John Wick 3: Parabellum which for all its faults is still a very well choreographed action extravaganza, and that extends to every bullet, bone-crunching blow and blade swish.

Best Sound Editing