OVP: Best Adapted Screenplay (2017)
The Nominees Were...
James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, The Disaster Artist
Scott Frank, James Mangold, & Michael Green, Logan
Aaron Sorkin, Molly's Game
Virgil Williams & Dee Rees, Mudbound
My Thoughts: As I mentioned on Monday, the Adapted Screenplay race in 2017 was truly bizarre. While this is typically where most of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture are housed, in 2017, eight of the nominees for Best Picture were original screenplays, basically unprecedented in recent Oscar annals, and as a result the adapted screenplay category had to get scrappy. We of course have the sole Best Picture nominee of the bunch nominated, but the remaining nominees include three films that didn't get nominated anywhere else (again, something in the 6+ wide fields for Best Picture that never happens), and the first (and to date, only) live-action superhero film to be nominated for a writing trophy.
We are going to start with Logan, which is an unusual film for the writing because it is arguably the movie's best & worst attribute. Logan is a strange movie not because it's taking a beloved comic book character & growing him up into a grittier action film (that's virtually all of them at this point), but because they did it with the same actor from the original. Hugh Jackman continues his iconic Wolverine here, but drained of some of the comic book luster, Logan thinks that its story is enough that its raw & edgy, giving us a plot that makes very little sense & increasingly feels silly. That said, the ending, which feels reminiscent of "Days of Future Past" (for my money, the absolute best X-Men plotline in the history of the comic books) works perfectly. I can't really get into it without spoiling it, but if the remainder of the movie had been as good as the ending...we'd be having a different conversation here.
Mudbound has the aura of a screenplay based on a great book that didn't translate. I love a novel that explores multiple different chapters of people's lives, multiple different character perspectives, but while I have not read Hillary Jordan's bestseller, I can say with confidence this doesn't work onscreen. There are too many plots, and as a result the film frequently has to play most of its characters as caricatures, never giving us enough depth into Mary J. Blige's Florence or Jason Clarke's Henry...there's an interesting take on the strange relationship between Ronsel, Laura, & Jamie (who is in love with whom in this potentially connected triangle?), but even that gets lost in the weeds of a movie that has too much plot & not enough development.
That said, nothing can quite compare in terms of lost plot to The Disaster Artist. The movie is meant as a bit of an in-joke between the Franco brothers and the audience; you can practically feel them slyly grinning as they tell you a story they think you don't know. But the problem is that the script can't get into our unknowable main character at all. Tommy Wiseau is a mirage of a figure for midnight movie screenings at this point, potentially an informed performance piece or a bad joke gone too far, we'll likely never know. But the film never gives us a hint that Wiseau is in on the joke, and as a result The Disaster Artist plays as mean, a cruel prank pulled on an unsuspecting, unbalanced man who is being exploited for his inexplicable wealth. That the screenplay doesn't acknowledge that at all shows that the filmmakers had no idea what kind of movie they were making.
Call Me By Your Name is a film that takes what should be a difficult, introspective, and sometimes deeply sexually explicit story & gives it an airy quality. I love nothing more than a ticking clock romance, and James Ivory's script makes sure you feel that in every second of the movie, counting down until the moments when we know these lovers will have to decide their fate. Perfectly abetted against a great song score that punctuates the writing, the movie feels spare & driven largely from Elio's perspective, a smart young man realizing the complexities of a first love. A total triumph, and a great late chapter in the career of James Ivory.
Molly's Game is the last time that I gave an Aaron Sorkin movie a thumbs up. Once a West Wing fanboy (I quit the show when he quit the show, and honestly have never actually finished it out of loyalty to his vision), I have generally been a fan & some of his movies are fantastic. However, Molly's Game bridges the genius patter writing of Sorkin's talent in the first-half (there are few places that are a stronger fit for him than Jessica Chastain at a poker table) with a schmaltzy, chaotic, & underplayed back-half. Sorkin can never reconcile the fact that Molly is both whip smart and totally oblivious, and the way that he uses her drug problem as a crutch for the plot feels a bit lazy.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes combine their writing categories so there is no adapted or original distinction, and true-to-form for a year bereft of adapted contenders, only one made the cut (Molly's Game) and it lost. The BAFTA Awards separate their categories and gave the win to Call Me By Your Name, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Molly's Game, Death of Stalin, and Paddington 2, the latter of which was eligible for the 2018 Oscars, otherwise you'd see it nominated for me next week with My Oscar Ballot, though I did nominate for an award in my 2018 ballot. The WGA's went with Call Me By Your Name over Logan, Molly's Game, Mudbound, & The Disaster Artist, so an exact copy of Oscar's lineup (which virtually never happens). For sixth place, it's a crapshoot-it feels bizarre that a crew this motley wouldn't have more contenders waiting in the wings, but Wonder, Victoria & Abdul, Film Stars...your guess is as good as mine.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I am not above admitting that I also have a lost cause situation going on with Best Adapted Screenplay (most of my favorite contenders in 2017 were originals too, though that's more the case for me than with Oscar). I would've for sure included Wonder, though, which is proof that Stephen Chbosky's smart adaptation of Perks of Being a Wallflower wasn't just home field advantage. It takes a multi-character story & makes it feel airy.
Oscar's Choice: At the time I remember some worry that Mudbound would upend James Ivory's first Oscar, but that didn't happen-Call Me By Your Name took it.
My Choice: It's easy-Call Me By Your Name is in a class by itself, and would be almost impossible to beat in a strong year-in a weak year, there's no contest. I'd follow that with Molly's Game, Logan, Mudbound, and The Disaster Artist.
Those are my thoughts-what about you? Can we all just bask in the glory of a James Ivory win, or does someone want to stick up for one of the remaining four? Am I alone in thinking that Molly's Game was the last "good" Aaron Sorkin movie to date? And who the hell is in sixth place here? Share your thoughts below!
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