Music makes the world go ‘round, as they say, and it’s surely an integral part of the filmmaking process. There’s an art to film composition that’s lost on some, which is part of the reason why I put together this list of the top 10 film scores of the year every December. The best of the best deserve to be in heavy rotation outside the film for which they were written, and there are some great pieces of film music to sift through this year.
A crucial note: As this is posting in early December I have not seen Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker yet, and thus have not heard John Williams’ score. So I reserve the right to retroactively make this a Top 11 if that one turns out to be spectacular. For scheduling reasons, this list had to post at this point in time, preventing me from being able to consider Williams’ last-ever Star Wars score.
But with that out of the way, let’s get to it. Below are my top 10 film scores of 2019.
For more Best of 2019 content on Collider, click here.
10. Watchmen – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Yes, I know Watchmen is a TV series, but this is my list. I make the rules. And the rules state that when a score rules/slaps/owns as hard as Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ work on the phenomenal HBO series, it goes on the list. Truly incredibly work episode-by-episode, which not only began with phenomenal themes for characters like Sister Night, but also evolved as the show’s story has progressed over the course of its first season. There’s a dynamism to this score that sets it apart from most TV shows, and an eagerness to be bold and continue to mix things up rather than keep playing the same theme over and over again. I’m not saying Watchmen is a 9-hour movie, but I am saying its score is beautifully cinematic.
9. Under the Silver Lake – Disasterpiece
The last collaboration between Disasterpiece and director David Robert Mitchell, It Follows, made my Top 10 Scores list in 2017, and while Under the Silver Lake couldn’t be more different, it’s still a terrific piece of work. Disasterpiece’s score is pure gumshoe as Mitchell’s bizarre, rambling mystery plays out like a classic noir. The catch, of course, is that Andrew Garfield’s lead character is kind of a creep who’s looking for meaning in all the wrong places. But it’s that juxtaposition between the character’s wrongheaded intentions and what he sees as a heroic detective story that makes the film so compelling, and the score amplifies the noir aspects of the piece beautifully.
8. Ford v Ferrari – Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
Much like the film itself, the Ford v Ferrari score kicks ass. That is all.
7. Parasite – Jung Jaeil
Parasite contains multitudes. Bong Joon-ho’s masterpiece is hilarious, heartbreaking, and terrifying all at once. It’s a high-wire act of tone, which makes the task of creating a score all the more difficult. Jung Jaeil rises to the challenge with a score that evokes the class disparities chronicled within the film, the playfulness that underlines the first half of the movie, and then suddenly the grandiosity of the film’s many reveals. It’s a wonderfully dynamic score perfectly suited to one of the year’s best movies.
6. Little Women – Alexandre Desplat
Alexandre Desplat is responsible for some of the most lovely film music of the past decade, so it should come as no surprise that his score for the very lovely Little Women is, well, lovely. The music is at once full of promise and hope, but also despair and disappointment—reflecting the unique structure of Greta Gerwig’s film that juxtaposes the young and hopeful sections of the story with the characters in full-on adulthood, and all the emotional baggage that includes. Every time I think Desplat may have run out of ways of creating beautiful music, I’m surprised and delighted all over.
5. 1917 – Thomas Newman
To be quite honest, Thomas Newman is a bit hit or miss for me. I adore his work on films like Wall-E, but other times it just doesn’t quite click. With 1917, though, Newman knocks it out of the park, and it was no easy task. Sam Mendes’ World War I film plays out in real-time in one long continuous shot, so Newman does much heavy lifting to keep the pacing of the story up. The ebbs and flows of emotion, action, and surprises are all backed wonderfully by Newman’s propulsive score.
4. Knives Out – Nathan Johnson
Nathan Johnson needs to write more film scores. Just putting that out there. He’s now done four films with filmmaker Rian Johnson, and each score is completely different from the last—yet no less great. For the tremendously entertaining whodunit Knives Out, Nathan Johnson worked with a full orchestra for the first time, and yet there’s a distinct edge to the music that makes it stand out. It’s in the vein of traditional murder mysteries for sure, but it’s also quite sharp and cutting, perfectly accentuating the twisty story and merciless characters at hand.
3. Marriage Story – Randy Newman
Oh man this score makes me want to cry. Marriage Story is a devastatingly beautiful chronicle of a marriage dissolving, while also highlighting the love that brought Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson together—and the love that remains even as their relationship ends. Randy Newman may not have been the first composer who would have come to mind for such a project, but he’s exactly what Noah Baumbach’s classically crafted film needs. This is a movie in which every aspect of the craft is focused on character and POV, and thus Newman’s sweet, often poetic score beautifully accentuates the two characters at the center of this story. There’s a soulfulness to Newman’s music that just breaks your heart into a million pieces. Ugh there I go again…
2. Joker – Hildur Guðnadóttir
Say what you will about Joker, but on a craft level, it’s an impressive film. Director Todd Phillips’ gritty, violent take on the titular DC Comics villain chronicles the character’s slow descent into madness, and it’s accompanied beautifully by Hildur Guðnadóttir’s hypnotic, tragic score. There’s an inevitability to the music that mirrors the audience’s mindset when watching the film—we know Arthur will become Joker, and we know Joker is a bad dude, but the story is set up to create a path towards empathy with the character’s path to the dark side. I still don’t think it entirely succeeds as a movie on that front, but boy is the music hauntingly beautiful.
1. Us – Michael Abels
And yet my #1 slot goes to a score that hit me like a ton of bricks way back at the beginning of the year. Jordan Peele’s complex thriller Us really needs two viewings to fully take in all of its brilliance, but the greatness of Michael Abels’ spooky, cult-infused score is immediately apparent. Choir vocals give voice to the voiceless who break ground in Peele’s film, and the wicked playfulness of Abels’ music very much underlines the actions and nefarious motivations of the so-called “tethered.”
Honorable Mentions: Avengers: Endgame, Midsommar, Honey Boy, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, The Irishman, Ad Astra