OVP: Best Adapted Screenplay (2023)
The Nominees Were...
Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach, Barbie
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Tony McNamara, Poor Things
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
My Thoughts: As I said yesterday, the Best Picture field was dominating in this category, with all five of the films cited being from that field, and the certain sixth place also being a Best Picture nominee. When you're that staid, it's hard to have a lot of interesting things to say. This is the first time we've gotten to one of these movies (the rest had tech citations), and obviously it's not the last time we'll get to them, as all of these will not only show up in Best Picture, but 45% of our acting nominees & 60% of our directing nominees are from these five films...so let's just do this, as if Oscar didn't have an interesting take on this field, I shouldn't be expected to find one to start our discussion.
American Fiction is the only new name we haven't hit yet, so I'll begin there. I really enjoyed this movie, let's start straight-out, I think more than most people did even with its Oscar haul. I believe it's sharp in the way it handles satire, while also giving us scenes that feel so real that you can't help but wonder if this is exactly how they'd play out in real-life. I do think the film fails in trying to talk about the Black experience alongside the queer experience (we'll get into this more tomorrow with Sterling K. Brown's character, but it's grappled with really poorly in a film that otherwise feels quite on-the-nerve), but it also shares so much rich discourse about how the commodification of diversity has led to a flattening effect, it's hard to argue with this film being celebrated.
Barbie was inexplicably placed here despite it being adapted from a box in a toy store (I think this is one of the stupider choices the branch has made in a while), but it's a fun & game look at Mattel's pink creation. Gerwig & Baumbach's script is funny, filled with wit and delicious commentary on feminism. I honestly think the best parts of the film in that regard are some of the asides ("I don't control the railways or the flow of commerce" being a really astute look at the literal meanings of words), more than something like America Ferrara's quite generic "girl power" speech toward the end of the film. I was more struck by the movie's humor than its abundant looks at the experiences of women, to be real...but as a man I'm going to kind of let that one go as I don't feel the need to Kensplain a fun script's weak points.
This is another Barbenheimer mash-up (currently Barbie is up 2-0 in the OVP with three more categories to go after today), and Oppenheimer in a lot of ways stays in the same lane as Barbie: a lot of good, just a smattering of needs-to-be-fixed. I loved the way Nolan handles the film's structure, giving us snippets of Oppenheimer's life that still feels like it's building to something, and we have a lot of wonderful writing. The film's politics, similar to Barbie, are a mixed bag (should Oppenheimer get the benefit-of-the-doubt in the way that he does?), it has one terrible line about JFK that needs to be cut as it's far too Sorkin-esque, and Nolan continues not to be able to write women (Emily Blunt's Oscar nomination being this one-note is very much a writer's issue). But this is a gigantic, engaging biopic, one that earns its stripes.
The Zone of Interest is so much a film of other elements (directing, production design, sound) that you might forget that it also has an absolute banger of a screenplay. The movie uses the Holocaust as an omnipresent Sword of Damocles, ready to strike at any moment the audience might forget what is going on with these characters. The way that it makes organic dialogue feel so chilling, as we hear people discuss mundane topics that also include genocide (one that they're helping to perpetrate) is horrifying, and a good reminder that the way we treat modern politics as a game is really dismissing the real world ramifications of those conversations (and us dismissing our own role in them). Glazer is a genius.
Which brings us to Poor Things. Between the two, I honestly think that Poor Things is the more intriguing piece of feminist writing than Barbie, mostly because it's having a conversation that is rarely brought up in the movies around a woman taking power over her sexuality (and the way that that threatens men). But when it comes to gender dynamics between the two, especially in the film's second half, it becomes a bit less riveting, and again moves into cliched conversations. The writing is also sharper in the first half, much wittier and the plotting is more strongly-structured. Poor Things, the more I write about it, feels like a movie that aged worse after I watched it & considered it after-the-fact, which is a pity as Emma Stone is so good in the picture.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes combine adapted & original, so we have four adapted screenplays losing to the original Anatomy of a Fall: Barbie, Poor Things, Oppenheimer, and Killers of the Flower Moon. The BAFTA's put Barbie in original, so it's not here, though American Fiction won against All of Us Strangers, Oppenheimer, Poor Things, & The Zone of Interest, while the WGA's (which, let's remember, were presented after the Oscars so this isn't really a "precursor" at all) also went to American Fiction atop Are You There God, It's Me Margaret?, Killers of the Flower Moon, Nyad, & Oppenheimer. In sixth place, it's obviously Killers of the Flower Moon-the only Best Picture nominee not to get nominated anywhere else, there's no way it wasn't Scorsese's film.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I have held off long enough in discussing All of Us Strangers and its criminal lack of nominations at the Oscars (I purposefully haven't listed it before this even though it will definitely get nominations at the My Ballot before this. Just an absolutely perfect film, one that gives so much in its script, generously looking at the way we can never really grow up (and never truly understand our parents).
Oscar's Choice: Making films about writers is generally a good way to win this award, and that was the case with American Fiction, getting a trophy against the "Barbenheimer" team that otherwise would've gone to one of the duo (I'm honestly not sure which).
My Choice: For sure The Zone of Interest, totally acing with not even a top three aspect of the film (it's just that good). For the silver, I'm going to give it to Barbie against Oppenheimer, giving Gerwig's film a 3-0 lead with the OVP. Both films have faults, but Barbie's are less to do with the script (and again, both faults are minor-both would've made a decent victor). Behind these are American Fiction and then Poor Things.
Those are my thoughts-what about you? Do you want to critique the literary scene with Oscar or would you prefer to...actually The Zone of Interest is so dark I can't make this cutesy-is your choice American Fiction or The Zone of Interest? Was Barbie or Oppenheimer closer here (I think of their six matchups, this is the one that they got the closest both in my ballot and with Oscar's)? And who was Killers of the Flower Moon closest to ousting? Share your thoughts below!
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