5.“Skeleton Tree” – “One More Time With Feeling”
You could put a battle in 2016 for the most devastating movie, and while there are some obvious contenders — “Manchester By The Sea” coming to mind first — Andrew Dominik’s “One More Time With Feeling,” his documentary about dear friend Nick Cave struggling to record an album after the tragic death of his teenage son, might just win the bout. Brimming with melancholy, yet stoic in its dignity, “One More Time With Feeling” — a 3D documentary no less — immerses you in the state of mourning Cave is in, but also the band, aching for their friend and leader. Every musical moment in ‘OMTWF,’ aside from being impeccably shot, is just heartbreaking, but the biggest gut punch is probably the final song, “Skeleton Tree,” an elegiac version of a dirge played earlier in the film. A painful, expressive hymn, it encapsulates the entire movie, all of Cave’s sorrow and that crawl-back-out-from-the-darkness need to somehow forge ahead with life after the most devastating of experiences. *Note*: The scene from the movie is not online, but the album version is taken from this exact recording.
4. “No Dames” – “Hail, Caesar!”
It feels like “Hail, Caesar!” is being rather forgotten in a lot of year-end lists, which is almost unthinkable for a Coen Brothers movie, especially one that’s, well, really good. Perhaps it’s because many critics screened it virtually a year ago, or perhaps it’s because it looked on the surface like an “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”-style crowd pleaser and turned out to be a “Barton Fink”-ish meditation on the essential meaningless of existence. Nevertheless, those who were put off by the latter surely still thrilled to “No Dames,” the song in the musical-within-a-movie being shot by Gene Kelly-ish song-and-dance man Burt Gurney (Channing Tatum). The song, penned by “Dreamgirls” team Henry Krieger and Willie Reale, is the most unashamedly homoerotic faux-Golden Age of Hollywood musical since “Daddy’s Boy” in “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” and gives the Coens a chance to stretch their musical muscles in delightful fashion, and Tatum another opportunity to show off his moves, which are considerable (and here extend to tap). How soon can he make that “Guys & Dolls” remake, and can the Coens direct it?
3. “On The Nature Of Daylight” – “Arrival”
We weren’t quite sure whether to include this instrumental piece by Max Richter in this list — it essentially works as score, to all intents and purposes, and we’ve tended not to use particular cuts from scores in this feature. But given that it’s by a different composer to the rest of the film (enough so to get it disqualifed from Academy consideration), and that it’s a well-known-enough track that’s been used elsewhere, including in “Shutter Island,” we figured it made sense to. After all, few musical selections this year were as indelible as this, which bookends the film, but comes into real force when it repeats at the very end. Richter’s simple strings feel like they’re stitching the narrative together, as you come to learn that truth about the flashback’s you’ve seen through the film, and their impact on the larger narrative. What initially seemed like an austere film driven by the brain, not the heart, suddenly bursts its emotional dam, and a huge part of that must come down to Richter’s gorgeous, simple piece.
2.“City Of Stars” – “La La Land”
As the defining musical of 2016, — hell, the last decade if not more — finding a great song in Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land” is like trying to hit the piñata right in front of you with the blindfold off. Its riches are legion. “Someone in the Crowd” is a terrific paean to the vibrant era of MGM musicals, and the Emma Stone-sung “The Fools Who Dream” aches with emotion, and take your pick, they’re all moving and often resplendent. But let’s take the Ryan Gosling/Stone duet of “City Of Stars” which has a bit of everything: the existential loneliness that haunts the movie and perhaps threatens to ruin the dreams and ambitions of its protagonists — “Am I ever going to make it? Is this pain all for nothing?” the song sings in subtext. And for a movie about dreamers and the sacrifices they make to achieve those goals, “City Of Stars” has the self-doubt, the melancholy of rejection, but also the tentative hope that blooms into something. Marvelous in shape, perhaps what’s most heavenly about the song is how it snakes through all its emotion towards a joyful, triumphant bliss. “La La Land” is a persuasive, uber-charming experience, and something like “City Of Stars” just seals the deal with its magical wonderment.
1. “The Greatest Love Of All” – “Toni Erdmann”
In putting together many of these lists, there’ve been huge, vicious debates in Playlist HQ as to what should take the top slot. Not so, here, though: This stand-out sequence in “Toni Erdmann” was a unanimous choice of winner. Towards the end of Maren Ade’s glorious comedy, Ines (Sandra Hüller) is already reaching the end of her tether with her eccentric prankster father (Peter Simonischek) when he drags her to an Easter Egg-painting party and tells everybody that he’s the German ambassador and that she’s his secretary. And then he forces her to sing Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love Of All” in front of everybody while he plays on a piano. It’s amazingly funny, but also remarkably complex too: We see Ines’ frustration and humiliation boiling over, and their spiky relationship at its spikiest, but we also see what she clearly takes from her dad, little hints of a performative soul who’s long been locked up in an idea of respectability and adulthood. It’s simply unforgettable.
As ever, there’s more we could have included if this list was endless — this was a strong year for musical beats at the movies. Among those that nearly made the cut were the use of “Camelot” in “Jackie,” the use of Woody Guthrie in “Things To Come” (possibly, with its pairing with a cat, evoking “Inside Llewyn Davis” while it’s at it), the dance scene in “Blue Jay,” the use of “El Amor” in “Viva,” “Sweet Child O’ Mine” in “Captain Fantastic,” Miley Cyrus’ “Party In The USA” in horror sequel “The Purge: Election Year,” and a number of other of the songs in “Moana,” including “How Far I’ll Go.”
“One More Time With Feeling” also had a host of stunning songs, while “Hardcore Henry” had some effective use of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.” The playing scenes in “Miles Ahead” and the final rap in “Morris From America” were also contenders as well. Anything else you think we should have considered? Let us know in the comments.
—with Rodrigo Perez and Jessica Kiang
