Best of 2014: Sounds and Cuts

If you were as upset about the lack of Edge of Tomorrow in Tuesday's Visual Effects lineup as I was, then you're gonna want to take a look at the latest batch of nominees I've written up. Spoiler alert: more Under the Skin love, as well! The nominees for Best Film Editing: (after the jump)

• American Sniper (Joel Cox, Gary Roach), for achieving depth of character, setting, POV and predicament by accumulating details from Kyle's tours, returns, past into a visceral whole.

• Edge of Tomorrow (James Herbert, Laura Jennings), for impeccable, cohesive handling of its structural conceit, imbuing sequences with wit, humor, and tension while tactfully guiding Cruise's arc.

• National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman), because at three hours, the film glides with formal effervescence; lectures and meetings intermingling with showcased arts' invigorating power.

• Under the Skin (Paul Watts), for cracking the tough nut that a series of abstract repetitions brings while also carving a narrative, within them and Johansson.

• Unrelated (Helle le Fevre), for pointed, economical orchestrations of measured interactions and sensorial awareness of environment, evoking an array of moods and insights.

Honorable Mentions: This category was an all-out brawl to settle on. So apologies to: Beyond the Lights, Blue Ruin, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Homesman, Ilo Ilo, The Immigrant, The Last of the Unjust, Love is Strange, The Missing Picture, Norte, the End of History, and Only Lovers Left Alive. You were all fighting for a spot on this list.

I also liked the editing in the two other Joanna Hogg movies that finally saw release in 2014, Archipelago and Exhibition, both showcasing her eye for psychology and behavior, though not quite at the level of Unrelated.

And the nominees for Best Sound Design are...

• American Sniper (Bob Asman, et al.), because the sounds emitted from the battle sequences, civilians, and score are unsettling, distressingly sober, and squarely unglorified.

• Begin Again (Lewis Goldstein, et al.), because, barring Ruffalo's imagined, inebriated mixing of the first song, the film nails the majority of its musical and local notes from that point.

• Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Peter Brown, Aargon Glascock, Martin Hernandez, et al.), for synthesizing the theatrical energies, Riggan's badgering alter-ego, the scope and aura of the city, and the all-drum score so memorably.

• Edge of Tomorrow (Dominic Gibbs, et al.), because it avoids obvious cues from its score and villains, building sound-based tension and peril specific to the darker side of its world.

• Under the Skin (Johnnie Burn, et al.), because the motorbikes are odd and haunting, automobile interiors familiar yet alienating, ocean waves foreboding and world-shattering.

Honorable Mentions: Blue Ruin, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Guest, Only Lovers Left Alive, and Stranger by the Lake