I doubt it got any serious traction as a potential Academy Award nomination this year because of the type of film it is, but imo the Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross score for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is probably their best work, and is as good as anything Reznor's put out since The Fragile (or maybe Ghosts I-IV). [side note: is the beat from NIN's "March of the Pigs" sampled in "Attack on a Titan" ...?]
It's far more interesting than The Killer, Gone Girl, or The Social Network (won Oscar), and especially Soul (also won Oscar). The movie provided a wealth of different scenarios; it wasn't a one-note thematic narrative like The Killer—it's a dystopian action-comedy cartoon with sadness and drama. The song titles themselves are hilarious ("Grand Theft Ice Cream Truck," "Better than Mark Ruffalo," "Puke Girl").
I hate that the Oscars basically shortlist the same 5-10 films over and over across all categories (e.g., Oppenheimer—you honestly think it deserved 13 nominations? It really wasn't that perfect of a film. Poor Things, and Killers of the Flower Moon are also nominated for score.), regardless of whether they're truly deserving, instead of appreciating more variety. You'd think that members of the Academy watched a good number of films, but I have my doubts.
The film itself was pretty decent, too; I watched it with my son at the theatre (one of only 2 films I've seen at a theatre in the last 5 years or so—the other was No Time To Die). It features a vibrant punk style of animation (similar to Across the Spider-Verse in that sense).
Those are my thoughts for this morning.
