Critic's Notebook

6:00 AM PST 11/17/2012 by Todd McCarthy

THR's Todd McCarthy looks back at his favorite scores from the past year and finds a number of A-list composers at the top of their game -- plus one beguiling newcomer who broke through.

Where film music is concerned, has any year since 2008 been anything other than the Year of Alexandre Desplat? The composer is as brilliant as he is indefatigable. In 2012, he has his name on eight films, and it's an extraordinarily eclectic bunch: Moonrise Kingdom, Argo, Rise of the Guardians and the upcoming Zero Dark Thirty as well as four European Cannes entries -- Rust and Bone, Reality, Renoir and Cloclo, a small French film.