Best Screenplay 2000

1998 through 2007

What were the best original and adapted screenplays of 2000?

Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)
13
29%
Billy Elliot (Lee Hall)
2
4%
Erin Brockovich (Susannah Grant)
1
2%
Gladiator (David Franzoni, John Logan, William Nicholson)
0
No votes
You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonergan)
8
18%
Chocolat (Robert Nelson Jacobs)
0
No votes
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Hui-Ling Wang, James Schamus, Kuo Jung Tsai)
1
2%
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen)
2
4%
Traffic (Stephen Gaghan)
4
9%
Wonder Boys (Steve Kloves)
14
31%
 
Total votes: 45

mlrg
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Re: Best Screenplay 2000

Post by mlrg »

Sabin wrote: Traffic hasn’t aged well. It wasn’t profound in 2000 and it isn’t profound now. It’s nothing that you can’t find on television but it was bracing at the time to see Soderbergh take what David O. Russell did with push-processing (?) and take it one step farther, admittedly to less results.
I don’t think that Traffis hasn’t aged well. The thing is that it set the tone for several following films and specially for dozens of TV series put to screen during the last 10/15 years.

Actually, I think that of Soderbergh tried to make this film today, it would certainly be shot as a TV Mini Series.
Sabin
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Re: Best Screenplay 2000

Post by Sabin »

Every now and then I think of how we drove Editman away with our incessant Chocolat slams. And today? Chocolat would likely find itself recipient of how many more nominations? And while I’m certainly a fan of several other far more worthy films that failed nominations, does anybody look to 2000 as a year of great omission injustice?

To be fair, there are a few depending on whom you ask. For me, Almost Famous is a film that I get endless pleasure revisiting. Its failure at the box office remains mystifying (save for its far too inflated budget) and after nominations and wins from the Golden Globes, the SAG, the DGA, and the PGA, that voters could pass it over remains a bit baffling. While its not the most structured script in the world, content comes first and if like me you respond to the journey that Almost Famous takes you on, it’s really the only choice. The closest runner up would have to be You Can Count on Me, which like The Savages and The Squid and the Whale was a screenwriting juggernaut at the critic’s award that seems to have faded a bit from view. I haven’t revisited it in some time but doesn’t it seem a bit quaint for such hozzannahs? I suppose the others I just mentioned are as well are as well. It’s a very well-written, exceptionally acted film that never quite elicited much enthusiasm from me. Steven Soderbergh’s involvement with Erin Brockovich seems to be more quality control than innovation. I forget how many screenwriters were involved with the film but it’s certainly a good version of something we’ve seen countless times before and much of it is due to the witty writing. I have nothing to say about Billy Elliot or Gladiator, both of which survive their writing, although to be fair I haven’t seen Billy Elliot since Stephen Daldry became easily the dullest filmmaker alive and I have seen Gladiator since Ridley Scott became his runner up.

Call it blasphemy but just as Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland improved upon James Ellroy’s excellent novel, I’m inclined to say Steve Kloves made Michael Chabon’s novel even better as well. And while Steve Kloves’ screenplay is a masterful distillation, Curtis Hanson’s direction might be even better. One of the most toxic decisions of that Oscar season was pushing it into the dramatic category at the Golden Globes. A charming speech by Michael Douglas could have more than easily pushed his brilliant performance within grasp of a nomination. The Coens’ O’ Brother, Where Art Thou? nomination was rightly seen as a lark, but it’s more evidence of how exhaustively they think out their odysseys (pardon the pun). Traffic hasn’t aged well. It wasn’t profound in 2000 and it isn’t profound now. It’s nothing that you can’t find on television but it was bracing at the time to see Soderbergh take what David O. Russell did with push-processing (?) and take it one step farther, admittedly to less results.

My choices for Best Screenplay of 2000
1. Steve Kloves, Wonder Boys
2. John Cusack, D.V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink, & Scott Rosenberg, High Fidelity
3. David Mamet, State and Main
4. Cameron Crowe, Almost Famous
5. Edward Yang, Yi Yi (A One and a Two...)
"How's the despair?"
mlrg
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Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Re: Best Screenplay 2000

Post by mlrg »

voted for Traffic and Billy Elliot
Big Magilla
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Best Screenplay 2000

Post by Big Magilla »

There were four very good screenplays nominated in the this year's original category: Billy Elliot; Erin Brockovich; You Can Count on Me and the winning Almost Famous. The fifth slot, though, should have gone to either Shadow of the Vampire; Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai or WGA nominee Best in Show over Oscar nominee Gladiator.

In adapted, American Psycho; Before Night Falls and East Is East would all have been better choices than WGA and Oscar nominee Chocolat. The others, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; the winning Traffic ; Wonder Boys and the Oscar nominated O Brother, Where Art Thou? over the WGA pick of High Fidelity were all fine choices.

Picking a winner in both categories, though, is really tough. In original, I'll go with You Can Count on Me in a very close race with Billy Elliot and Almost Famous. In adaptation Wonder Boys is a slightly easier pick over Traffic and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
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