OVP: Best Original Screenplay (2012)
The Nominees Were...
Michael Haneke, Amour
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
John Gatins, Flight
Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty
My Thoughts: The Original Screenplay category is generally my favorite of the two
writing categories. I usually love
a good story, and in a time where every major film is a remake or sequel and
every musical on Broadway is based on a movie, it’s nice to know that there’s
still a category that celebrates the unique.
Perhaps the most “original,” at least in the sense of what people
usually associate with the word, is the work of Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
in Moonrise Kingdom. The film has a color palette all its own
(or at least all Wes Anderson’s), with two great lead characters, and a plot
that sings in the film’s first half.
I was deeply pleased with Suzy and Sam, the way that they don’t seem to
fit in with anything except for each other, and while Anderson has some
plotting issues (his film never really expands properly when it comes to, say, Frances
McDormand’s plotline and marital troubles), and it becomes too predictable in
the second half, it’s still a fun and enjoyable slice of cinema.
Flight was the other non-Best
Picture to make the list (with the ten slots in Screenplay and the seemingly
nine slots in Best Picture, the vast majority of Best Picture nominees are
destined to get cited for writing with the new system), and did so as a
relative surprise (I was figuring that Paul Thomas Anderson would manage to
score a nomination for his film).
John Gatins’ script is the weakest of the five cited here primarily because I had so much trouble buying Denzel’s character
arch. The film is so intent on
showing the rip that comes through someone when they are an addict, and they do
definitely illustrate that point, but there isn’t enough of a push of character
to make his final act, when he is so close to the finish line and decides to
give up, believable. I think one
of the biggest issues with a screenplay is if the arches and plots of the film
don’t seem authentic in the end, and I have to subtract points for Gatins’ work-I
never found his main character, and his writing, to be true-to-each-other.
Mark Boal’s script is deceptively simple, much like his work in The Hurt Locker (a film I never cared
for quite as much as the haunting descent of Zero Dark Thirty). The
film is so completely focused on Maya, and stays that way for almost the entire
film (I want to say the Camp Chapman bombings and the successful assassination
were the only two scenes that weren’t pulling her as focus). This is a very deliberate decision, one
that could have been unsuccessful, but Boal’s script trusts Chastain to guide us
through this woman, to give just enough for us to identify her humanity, but
not too much to make us start to relate to her. His story works so well because he makes her almost another species-someone that we recognize as our own, but who is distant in her motives
and in her persona. This tale,
where the ending is a given, works because it gives us a look into a world that
we have only imagined from opened FBI files and spy films.
The old age tale in Amour is
also very simple, and as you may remember, though I wasn’t sold on the “masterpiece”
angle that so many were shouting, I still thought the film to be well-plotted
and finely written. The movie’s
directness helps the audience to feel the pain-only in the penultimate scene,
when death has enveloped the whole movie, are we given a moment of the woman we
saw so briefly in the opening scenes.
Instead, through Haneke’s script, we never get to turn back-to have a
pleasant moment the woman deteriorating in-front-of-our-eyes. That’s a bold, interesting way to handle
the movie (since it so frighteningly mirrors the one-way street of life), and one that deserves massive kudos.
Finally, we have the wild cowboy himself, Quentin Tarantino, the man
trying increasingly to skewer every genre with his epic sense of blood, guts,
and shocking the audience (here's hoping the next will be the romantic comedy!). Django doesn’t succeed in the same way
that Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, or Inglourious Basterds does, primarily
because the script isn’t tight enough (we still miss you, Sally Menke),
suffering from too many extended scenes in the center of the film, and the
final bloodbath doesn’t work well.
But what Tarantino loses in his plot, he always makes up for in
dialogue. His films are filled
with cutting, snap-crackle banter, and the one-liners, particularly from
DiCaprio, make up for the bloated scenes that were added to make the film an
“epic.”
Other Precursor Contenders: As
I mentioned below, the Globes combine their Screenplays, so only Django (which won) and ZDT managed to be included in the
lineup. At the BAFTA Awards, they
do separate between Original and Adapted Screenplay, and so we had only one
difference between the Oscar lineup and the Brits: Flight (a fairly American film to begin with) was ousted in favor
of Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master
(Django picked up the win
again). At the WGA Awards, The Master also made it, but this time
it was in place of Django (the WGA
has weird rules which almost assuredly precluded Oscar’s frontrunner from
making the cut). In addition, Looper (a film I couldn’t stand) also
got cut, taking the place of Amour
(Mark Boal won the trophy).
Films I Would Have Nominated: I
may not have included any of these, if we’re being honest. At the very least, three would easily
be gone, as I would have found room for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master (obviously in sixth place,
and far worthier than any film that got included), as well as Joss Whedon’s
sharp, sadistic The Cabin in the Woods (which
would have come close to winning my personal Oscar, were it not for The Master), and finally Reid Carolin’s
observant, brilliantly-paced Magic Mike.
Oscar’s Choice: AMPAS loves
to crown someone who has won every other precursor, so Quentin Tarantino rather
effortlessly picked up his second Oscar over Mark Boal and Michel Haneke.
My Choice: Writing this, it
made me really consider a couple of avenues (I hadn’t decided whom I was going
with until I started typing). Flight is clearly in fifth place, and I
think that Moonrise Kingdom is
probably in fourth. That leaves
the three Best Picture nominees, and I wrote the word “bloated” too many
times with Django to not give it a
bronze. For the trophy, therefore,
I’m going to go with Mark Boal slightly over Michele Haneke, using the fact
that I thought ZDT was the better
film as my tiebreaker.
We head into the acting races later this week, but let’s give the
writers their due. Were you endorsing the Django stampede in the
precursors and the Dolby, or did you lean toward Seal Teams, picturesque
islands, drunken flights, or French retirement? Why do you think that Tarantino had it so easy in his work
at winning the Oscar (considering ZDT and
Amour were surely ahead of him in the
Best Picture race)? And overall,
what was your best original screenplay of 2012?
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