OVP: Best Original Screenplay (2000)
The Nominees Were...
Cameron Crowe, Almost Famous
Lee Hall, Billy Elliot
Susannah Grant, Erin Brockovich
David Franzoni, John Logan, & William Nicholson, Gladiator
Kenneth Lonergan, You Can Count on Me
My Thoughts: We are moving into the Best Original Screenplay contest today. We have talked a lot over the past couple months about how the 2000 Oscars were not my favorite, and featured relatively middling (but not necessarily bad) lineups. That is not a uniform opinion, though, as some categories really step it up and are actually quite wonderful. The Best Original Screenplay category is one of those fields. This is, with one exception, a really solid group of contenders, and in some cases, we're discussing for the first time some of my favorite films of 2000 showed up in the OVP.
Let's get the one dud out of the way: Gladiator. I have been largely down on the film that would win Best Picture in 2000, but there are aspects of the film (like its art direction and sound work) that are worth celebrating. Its script, on the other hand...there's no reason for it here, and it's probable that even the Academy knew that given that in those days, the Best Picture winner frequently pulled off Best Screenplay. It's repetitive, much of it plays out like an outlandish, well-dressed soap opera, and it contains far too many random turns to amp up the rivalry between Maximus & Commodus for my taste. It's here solely based on that Best Picture nomination, nothing more.
Now let's get to the good stuff. The screenplay category is about plotting and it's about dialogue. Hopefully both are great if they're in the Top 5 of the year, but definitely one is going to shine brighter, and for Erin Brockovich, it's a film where the dialogue sparkles. What sets the movie apart is how well Julia Roberts' title character handles her speeches. Think of how iconic her "we brought that water in for you special" speech goes, or when she's explaining the reasons not to date her. This is a woman who has been underestimated her whole life, and the script is giving her the opportunity to finally stand up and be whom she dreamed she'd be. That's a cliched plot, but it's one that is elevated by character-specific script choices that makes Erin stand out.
The same can be said for Billy Elliot. Here we have an organic coming-of-age tale of a young boy who falls in love with dance, who is truly good at dance, but has to make that dream his own in a town that's not going to provide an opportunity for it to mean anything. Billy is really well done due to the way it builds relationships, including those with Billy's teacher and his gay best friend (who is in love with him). It helps that it feels written specifically for Jamie Bell, it's so honest and his performance is so good, but I think it really tackles this subject with authenticity and, like Erin, uses strong character work to rise above the core cliche of the plot.
Almost Famous is not what I'd consider a cliche, or at least it wasn't in 2000 (since then, a lot of movies have stolen from Cameron Crowe's original picture). I adored this movie, even seeing it for the first time decades after it came out. I do think that Crowe's sentimentality comes through and hurts the film in parts, keeping it from being a Graduate-style classic, but that's more a fault of direction than the script. The way that it shows youth, freeing & filled with the troubled reality that you only get to do it once, is marvelous, and I love the interplay between some of the characters, particularly Crudup & Hudson every time they're onscreen. It still feels fresh 24 years after the fact.
Our final nomination is for You Can Count on Me, a movie I watched obsessively as a high schooler (I was a weird kid). This was the first introduction the world got to Mark Ruffalo, and was Laura Linney's graduation piece after many years of playing side characters in films like Dave and The Truman Show. The film is such a knowing look at siblings, the quiet relationship you only have when you grow up in the same house, share the same memories & stories, and watch as adulthood (especially an adulthood spent apart) means that someone you know better than anyone makes decisions you don't understand. It's so organic, and I love the little Easter egg of them not saying the title (but clearly indicating the source of the title), a tricky reverse on the Peter Griffin meme.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes combine adapted and original into one category, and the winner is adapted, so we just have mentions of You Can Count on Me and Almost Famous among the losers. BAFTA keeps them separate, so we had Almost Famous beating Billy Elliot, Erin Brockovich, Gladiator, and O Brother Where Art Thou, while with the WGA we had You Can Count on Me atop Almost Famous, Best in Show, Billy Elliot, & Erin Brockovich. In sixth place, I honestly have no idea. The Coens would actually factor into Adapted Screenplay for O Brother, and I don't think that the scripts of Christopher Guest are Oscar's cup of tea. As a result, I'm thinking it was The Contender, with its two acting nominations and liberal politics that probably got in here (there are not many other options other than maybe Shadow of the Vampire that make sense as this was a heavily adapted year outside these five movies).
Films I Would Have Nominated: A very strong lineup, so I'll just list one movie-no film is as quotable (or as funny) from 2000 as the barnyard escape picture Chicken Run, which should've gotten some Oscar love in a lot of categories, but this is maybe the most egregious.
Oscar’s Choice: This was a very tight race headed into the awards ceremony, weirdly with two Best Picture runners-up besting actual Best Picture nominees, but Almost Famous took it over You Can Count on Me.
My Choice: I'm going to reverse that, with Lonergan beating out Crowe, though both would've made fine winners...Lonergan's work is just such a writerly film that I can't deny him the love. Behind them we have Erin Brockovich, Billy Elliot, and in back, Gladiator.
Those are my thoughts-what about you? Do you want to reunite with your long lost sibling with me, or would you prefer to jump ? Are we all in agreement that Gladiator stands out here like a sore thumb? And was it clearly The Contender in sixth place here...and if not it, what? Share your thoughts below!
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