The Wyrmy Awards: Best Music in Film 2022
ISSUE #230
The Oscars are this weekend. I set my yearly watch to them—they mark the day I get to drag my soapbox from the dusty closet and speak out against the Best Original Song award.
Not on principle itself, of course. I love songs. Write them for movies! No—it's because it's a joke. Its history is a joke. The songs are almost always bad. The best it ever does for us is get the likes of Elliott Smith or Sufjan Stevens or Three Six Mafia onstage. A handful of beautiful moments, but that's it.
I get it. It's the Oscars—about half a dozen Best Picture winners in the past fifty years have even deserved it. By and large, the best movies aren't nominated at all. This is not news.
No, the soapbox is out because the category should be Best Use of Music in Film. That's the best part of music in the movies, after all—maybe the best part of movies as a medium! A song makes or breaks a cinematic moment, and their discerning deployment ought to be rewarded. It could be presented to the music supervisor and director, as well as the songwriters and performers, if they're with us. Why not? Bring Danzig to the stage!
That's why I made The Wyrmy Awards for Best Use of Music in Film—to highlight the best musical moments of the year in cinema. Who could forget the Barbarian cut to "Riki Tiki Tavi"? Or when the pounding pulse of "Where Eagles Dare" rings out in Jackass Forever? Don't you dare get me started on Tár!
Instead, enjoy my favorite film songs of the year, featuring Pearl, Sharp Stick, Jackass Forever, Armageddon Time, Decision to Leave, We're All Going to the World's Fair, The Fabelmans, Nope, Glass Onion, Resurrection, Barbarian, X, and Tár.
Oh, and because you asked—here's my ten for 2022:
10. The Fabelmans
9. Jackass Forever
8. EO
7. Tár
6. Resurrection
5. Decision to Leave
4. Nope
3. Three Thousand Years of Longing
2. We're All Going to the World's Fair
1. Armageddon Time
I’ve been watching through the films of Danny Boyle. Some examples: Trainspotting, Sunshine, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire. From early on, Boyle was rightfully recognized for his edgy and sophisticated musical taste—the Trainspotting soundtrack alone, from Iggy’s “Lust for Life” through Underworld’s “Born Slippy (Nuxx)”, helped define the tastes of a whole generation.