Grabbers (Christian Henson) Rise of the Guardians (Alexandre Desplat) Star Wars: The Force Awakens (John Williams) Wolf Totem (James Horner)
Grabbers is such a neat score, and for me, it came out of nowhere and made my ears perk up. Before Grabbers, the last time I was surprised by the likability of a score was "The Informant!" by Marvin Hamlisch. The movie also exceeds expectations.
Rise of the Guardians just has so much going on. Lots of themes and complexity. You can really here Desplat's talent and the score elevates the movie.
I confess I was disappointed with Star Wars after my very first listen. Although very accomplished, the soundtrack lacked (or so it seemed) easily identifiable themes. Of course, that is not true, and repeated listens have unveiled so many joys.
Wolf Totem is stunning at times. I want to listen to it more, but it packs such a painful emotional wallop.
I suppose Williams would eek out a victory here, but they are all pretty great.
So that would be films released from August-2012 untill now?
I've made annual 'Top 10' podcasts since 2013. So for those years, I can just consult my lists. They would be:
2013: WINNIE MANDELA (Laurent Eyquem) <-- fine score, but not sure I would have picked that today. I prefer PAIN & GAIN more, for example (which only came in 6th in 2013) 2014: THE UNKNOWN KNOWN (Danny Elfman) 2015: THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY (Cat's Eyes) 2016: NERVE (Rob Simonsen)
As for 2012 (August onwards), I'd need to look into that. Contenders are LIFE OF PI (Mychael Danna), PUSHER (Orbital), THE MASTER (Jonny Greenwood). Perhaps LIFE OF PI.
Now if I were only to pick ONE of these, I'd maybe go for THE UNKNOWN KNOWN. But it's a tough choice.
