Until Mister Tee wrote it below, I hadn't realized that The Usual Suspects, Nixon, AND Toy Story -- the top candidates in the Original category, I feel -- had all been left off the WGA list. (Though I assume the Pixar effort was ineligible under the no-cartoons-allowed clause.) Then I checked the Globe nominees -- nope, none of them made it there either. (Mr. Holland's Opus?! Sheesh!) Had I been watching in '95, I imagine I'd have had real enthusiasm for the fact that so many deserving but on-the-bubble candidates made it into one lineup.
As for alternates, certainly voters could have come up with better choices than Braveheart, choices which others have cited already -- Seven, Before Sunrise, The American President; all very different films, but with singular merits.
After the WGA win, the potential for a Braveheart victory must have seemed mortifying. It's a lousy movie, full of relentless violence, silly faux historical dialogue, and a storyline that doesn't even cohere as interesting drama. By the time I got to the "They will never take...OUR FREEDOM!" speech -- which I had seen countless times already on TV, probably beginning that Oscar night -- I wasn't even really sure what that monologue was supposed to mean in context of the plot I was watching. Thank god it didn't win, but loathsome even as a nominee.
I enjoyed Mighty Aphrodite well enough, and I think it has a lot of typically funny Allen one-liners, and an endearing sweetness to it (that near-end scene between Allen and Sorvino with the baby stroller makes for a very unexpectedly touching finale). But it also seems like the kind of movie where even the elements that work about it don't all seem like they're working together. Which is to say, I think the Greek chorus scenes are inspired, but at some point they started to be distracting from the main narrative...and I think Sorvino's call girl is a very funny creation, but in a way that feels like she barreled in from another story entirely. This isn't a nominee I find deeply objectionable, but it isn't one of Woody Allen's top tier efforts either.
Amazingly, I managed to see The Usual Suspects years after its release, without any knowledge of The Big Twist. And I was pretty floored by the final revelation, though I wouldn't want to undersell the earlier portion of the movie either -- it had a twisty narrative that was very engaging, a lot of crackling dialogue, and a winning collection of oddball underworld characters. I expected it to triumph with us here, given that, of all of the nominees, it feels first and foremost like a singular writing achievement. But it doesn't quite get my vote, and the reason is because, although the ending is pleasingly shocking, I don't think it really adds up to all that much more than that. After I followed a fairly intricately worked-out plot for the majority of the movie, all of a sudden it was just up-ended, but to what end? For me, Memento's final reveal seemed far more organically tied to the narrative/thematic concerns of the rest of the film, and made me re-evaluate them in a new way. The Usual Suspects just seemed more like a neat "gotcha," which isn't something to knock, but it's also not something that wowed me as fully as it did many.
I count myself a pretty big fan of Oliver Stone's work from the mid-80's to the mid-90's, and Nixon was basically his last triumph. I think it's a pretty wonderful movie -- one of the year's best -- structured like a chaotic kaleidoscope of history and memory, portraying Nixon's rise and fall like an almost deeply inevitable tragedy, and finding a ton of compelling insight along the way. Obviously, I wasn't around during any of Nixon's political campaigns or terms in office, but he seems like one of America's most fascinatingly complicated presidents, whose flaws as a leader stemmed from the deeply insecure feelings he had about being in that position in the first place. Stone (and company) found such wonderful ways to articulate this, as in Nixon's comment to the Portrait of Kennedy ("they look at you and they see who they want to be, they look at me and they see who they are") or his exchange with the students at the Lincoln Memorial, creating a portrait of a man who never gave up on his ruthless goal of becoming President of the United States, yet always felt unworthy of being in the company of those who would be far more admired. It's a hugely ambitious movie, perhaps not always streamlined in the writing as economically as it could have been, but pretty thrilling from beginning to end. I'm surprised it hasn't gotten a single vote.
But I voted for Toy Story, which of course I adored as a kid. But I watched it again a few years back, right before the third installment came out, and I found it to be a tremendously efficient piece of writing. Yes, the Pixar template has been watered down in recent years, both by the studio itself, and its imitators. But those elements which many of us have enjoyed in the studio's triumphs over the years (a gaggle of inventive characters, lickety-split dialogue exchanges that just burst with cleverness, and a deeply felt emotional core) bloomed pretty brightly this first time around. And, perhaps more than anything, the screenplay highlights just how well the gang at Pixar worked out their stories, with cleverly planted plot elements paying off in hugely surprising ways ("THE MATCH!") in a manner that seemed effortless, though, of course, it was the result of a lot of fine tuning in the narrative department. And scene by scene, the writers came up with just wildly imaginative stuff, from the little green monsters worshpping "the claw" to the Frankensteined toys in Sid's bedroom, while poignantly tracking both Woody and Buzz's journey to the realization that neither of them are quite as special as they thought they were, a thematic undercurrent I find far from infantile. Pixar has released many wonderful entertainments over the years, but I still think this is their finest hour, and the screenplay gets my vote.
Best Screenplay 1995
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Re: Best Screenplay 1995
For me, the big miss on the adapted side is To Die For, an enormously witty take on the teacher-seduces-student genre that would have had my vote outright. I also believe, contra the WGA slotting, Clueless was viewed by Academy rules as adapted (a la the later O Brother Where Art Thou?), and I’d prefer it to several contenders.
I found Il Postino a pleasant but thoroughly wispy effort, wildly over-rewarded by voters in multiple branches. This was perhaps the earliest sighting of Harvey-the-Sentimentalist, and, while Il Postino was a substantially classier effort than subsequent efforts like Chocolat, I could have equally done without its nomination.
We’ve been through the Babe wars under best picture, but, to briefly recap: I’m not in the Italiano “Anyone who likes this is an infant” niche, but neither do I see the film as such a spectacular achievement (best picture from the National Society!). It, like Il Postino, is pleasant , but I expect more than that from my top movie choices (in fact, my big gripe with the Oscars that year was how many bows they made to the pleasant, and how few to the creative or edgy).
Apollo 13 was a very solid HBO sort of movie – one could easily imagine it sweeping the Emmys. By Ron Howard standards, it’s an engrossing, non-cornball effort…but it’s also lacking in much wit (about the only clever touch I can remember is Neil Armstrong being relegated to babysitting Jim Lovell’s mother). Given what ultimately won best film that year, I could easily have lived with Apollo 13 as alternate. But I’d like to think that, even in that event, voters would have gone elsewhere for script.
Leaving Las Vegas was my favorite film of the year, and I think it’s got a solid, piercingly honest script –it’s the only alcoholic movie I’ve ever seen that doesn’t pretty anything up but manages to find some beauty anyway. But when I think back on the film, I think more of those two great performances, and Mike Figgis’s jazzy rhythms, than I do of any particular dialogue.
Whereas, in Sense and Sensibility, you couldn’t help but be aware of the dialogue, because it was so blessedly witty. The Austen revival had begun a month or two earlier, with a somewhat drab film version of Persuasion (there’d also been the BBC Pride and Prejudice, which I’ve still somehow never seen). What I appreciated about the Thompson/Lee collaboration was its willingness to take a newer, more dynamic approach to the material – it preserved the story’s essence and heart, but was willing to set a more comic pace, which made it feel more vital than the earnest Persuasion. Costume films, for me, have usually erred on the side of reticence; here I was happy to see a boldness of approach that paid off while managing to respect its source. It’s not by a wide margin, but I deem Sense and Sensibility the strongest of this bunch, and give it my vote.
I can’t say I was as enthusiastic about the WGA alternatives as some of you are. Despite my affection for its two lead actresses, Muriel’s Wedding didn’t strike me as all that great. And I think The American President is a completely bland, sitcom version of politics – not only less biting than something like In the Loop, but well short of even Sorkin’s own West Wing work. The film had been spoken of in early Fall as a best picture nominee, and I saw its shortfall as a completely cheering development (not that the actual best picture nominees are any kiss for Christmas).
What would I have thrown in as substitutes under original? I concur with the praise for Andrew Kevin Walker’s se7en – the film may seem dominated by Fincher’s palpable gloom, but Walker’s script deserves more credit than it gets for breaking multiple thriller molds. I’d also advocate for Michael Mann’s work on Heat; the film may not add up to enough to justify its 3-hour length, but scene by scene the dialogue is excellent. And I’ll throw in a mention for Paul Auster’s most likely forgotten script to Smoke.
I actually went into the evening fearing Braveheart might win this category. It was for sure the worst of the group, but that hadn’t stopped the Writers’ Guild (and, contrarily, when it lost this prize, I thought best picture was out of the question – wrong twice!). I’ve said enough negative about Braveheart, recently and over the years, that it doesn’t need repeating…but I will emphasize that, as undistinguished as the film is, it’s hard to believe the writers put it on their list.
The Greek chorus is certainly the most audacious touch in Mighty Aphrodite, but, to double back from what I said re: Sense and Sensibility – sometimes being bold doesn’t pay off. I found the chorus scenes close to excruciating…and they seemed to occupy an inordinate amount of screen time. As for the rest of the movie, it wasn’t Woody in top form, but I found it funnier than most of his other post-Husbands and Wives efforts.
Given how dreary the WGA slate had been, I have to salute the Academy’s writers’ branch for coming up with far better replacements. The remaining three nominees here are all worthy of consideration.
Nixon started December as a prime Oscar hopeful; the week they opened, the NY Times had spoken of both Nixon and Heat as top contenders. The commercial flame-out of Stone’s film seemed to doom it to acting nominations only, but the writers saw to it stronger recognition was offered. I wouldn’t call Nixon exactly a marvel of screenwriting , but it took a subject about which I knew a vast amount and managed to find a fresh approach – in the process humanizing a man for whom I’d had, for decades, nothing but the deepest contempt. Nixon isn’t a great movie, but it’s a stirringly ambitious one that I may like more than any other Oliver Stone film.
The Toy Story nomination was an even greater surprise. Nowadays we’re of course over-accustomed to animated films turning up in the category, but at the time Toy Story showing up here was a breakthrough comparable to what Beauty and the Beast had managed under best picture. And the nod was widely considered deserved, since (though Italiano will not allow himself to discover this) Toy Story had been highly acclaimed for the wit of its script as much as for its (then) eye-popping visuals. Pixar established a new, impressive style: crisp, crackling humor (often too clever for kids to fully catch) married to the heartfelt sort of storyline in which Disney animation had long specialized. The film was pleasure from start to finish, and, almost more than the Disney resurgence of Little Mermaid through Lion King, established the animated film as a prime factor in contemporary movie-going. Of course, dozens of mediocrities (and far too few comparable classics) have followed in its wake, making its legacy a mixed one at best. But, having been present at the creation, I can say Toy Story represented a major creative achievement, and I fully endorse its nomination.
But, like(to date) the majority, I go with The Usual Suspects, which was absorbing all along the way, and then at, its finish, threw as spectacularly unexpected a narrative curve as I’ve ever experienced in a movie theatre. You can argue that the film didn’t go exactly deep in any way -- that’s pretty self-evident, and, as I see it, beside the point. The film is about hoodwinking the audience in as complete a way as possible, and few films have ever pulled off the like -- only Memento, in the years since, has come close. I wouldn’t want to see movies like this win every year, but this stellar example rates the prize for 1995.
I found Il Postino a pleasant but thoroughly wispy effort, wildly over-rewarded by voters in multiple branches. This was perhaps the earliest sighting of Harvey-the-Sentimentalist, and, while Il Postino was a substantially classier effort than subsequent efforts like Chocolat, I could have equally done without its nomination.
We’ve been through the Babe wars under best picture, but, to briefly recap: I’m not in the Italiano “Anyone who likes this is an infant” niche, but neither do I see the film as such a spectacular achievement (best picture from the National Society!). It, like Il Postino, is pleasant , but I expect more than that from my top movie choices (in fact, my big gripe with the Oscars that year was how many bows they made to the pleasant, and how few to the creative or edgy).
Apollo 13 was a very solid HBO sort of movie – one could easily imagine it sweeping the Emmys. By Ron Howard standards, it’s an engrossing, non-cornball effort…but it’s also lacking in much wit (about the only clever touch I can remember is Neil Armstrong being relegated to babysitting Jim Lovell’s mother). Given what ultimately won best film that year, I could easily have lived with Apollo 13 as alternate. But I’d like to think that, even in that event, voters would have gone elsewhere for script.
Leaving Las Vegas was my favorite film of the year, and I think it’s got a solid, piercingly honest script –it’s the only alcoholic movie I’ve ever seen that doesn’t pretty anything up but manages to find some beauty anyway. But when I think back on the film, I think more of those two great performances, and Mike Figgis’s jazzy rhythms, than I do of any particular dialogue.
Whereas, in Sense and Sensibility, you couldn’t help but be aware of the dialogue, because it was so blessedly witty. The Austen revival had begun a month or two earlier, with a somewhat drab film version of Persuasion (there’d also been the BBC Pride and Prejudice, which I’ve still somehow never seen). What I appreciated about the Thompson/Lee collaboration was its willingness to take a newer, more dynamic approach to the material – it preserved the story’s essence and heart, but was willing to set a more comic pace, which made it feel more vital than the earnest Persuasion. Costume films, for me, have usually erred on the side of reticence; here I was happy to see a boldness of approach that paid off while managing to respect its source. It’s not by a wide margin, but I deem Sense and Sensibility the strongest of this bunch, and give it my vote.
I can’t say I was as enthusiastic about the WGA alternatives as some of you are. Despite my affection for its two lead actresses, Muriel’s Wedding didn’t strike me as all that great. And I think The American President is a completely bland, sitcom version of politics – not only less biting than something like In the Loop, but well short of even Sorkin’s own West Wing work. The film had been spoken of in early Fall as a best picture nominee, and I saw its shortfall as a completely cheering development (not that the actual best picture nominees are any kiss for Christmas).
What would I have thrown in as substitutes under original? I concur with the praise for Andrew Kevin Walker’s se7en – the film may seem dominated by Fincher’s palpable gloom, but Walker’s script deserves more credit than it gets for breaking multiple thriller molds. I’d also advocate for Michael Mann’s work on Heat; the film may not add up to enough to justify its 3-hour length, but scene by scene the dialogue is excellent. And I’ll throw in a mention for Paul Auster’s most likely forgotten script to Smoke.
I actually went into the evening fearing Braveheart might win this category. It was for sure the worst of the group, but that hadn’t stopped the Writers’ Guild (and, contrarily, when it lost this prize, I thought best picture was out of the question – wrong twice!). I’ve said enough negative about Braveheart, recently and over the years, that it doesn’t need repeating…but I will emphasize that, as undistinguished as the film is, it’s hard to believe the writers put it on their list.
The Greek chorus is certainly the most audacious touch in Mighty Aphrodite, but, to double back from what I said re: Sense and Sensibility – sometimes being bold doesn’t pay off. I found the chorus scenes close to excruciating…and they seemed to occupy an inordinate amount of screen time. As for the rest of the movie, it wasn’t Woody in top form, but I found it funnier than most of his other post-Husbands and Wives efforts.
Given how dreary the WGA slate had been, I have to salute the Academy’s writers’ branch for coming up with far better replacements. The remaining three nominees here are all worthy of consideration.
Nixon started December as a prime Oscar hopeful; the week they opened, the NY Times had spoken of both Nixon and Heat as top contenders. The commercial flame-out of Stone’s film seemed to doom it to acting nominations only, but the writers saw to it stronger recognition was offered. I wouldn’t call Nixon exactly a marvel of screenwriting , but it took a subject about which I knew a vast amount and managed to find a fresh approach – in the process humanizing a man for whom I’d had, for decades, nothing but the deepest contempt. Nixon isn’t a great movie, but it’s a stirringly ambitious one that I may like more than any other Oliver Stone film.
The Toy Story nomination was an even greater surprise. Nowadays we’re of course over-accustomed to animated films turning up in the category, but at the time Toy Story showing up here was a breakthrough comparable to what Beauty and the Beast had managed under best picture. And the nod was widely considered deserved, since (though Italiano will not allow himself to discover this) Toy Story had been highly acclaimed for the wit of its script as much as for its (then) eye-popping visuals. Pixar established a new, impressive style: crisp, crackling humor (often too clever for kids to fully catch) married to the heartfelt sort of storyline in which Disney animation had long specialized. The film was pleasure from start to finish, and, almost more than the Disney resurgence of Little Mermaid through Lion King, established the animated film as a prime factor in contemporary movie-going. Of course, dozens of mediocrities (and far too few comparable classics) have followed in its wake, making its legacy a mixed one at best. But, having been present at the creation, I can say Toy Story represented a major creative achievement, and I fully endorse its nomination.
But, like(to date) the majority, I go with The Usual Suspects, which was absorbing all along the way, and then at, its finish, threw as spectacularly unexpected a narrative curve as I’ve ever experienced in a movie theatre. You can argue that the film didn’t go exactly deep in any way -- that’s pretty self-evident, and, as I see it, beside the point. The film is about hoodwinking the audience in as complete a way as possible, and few films have ever pulled off the like -- only Memento, in the years since, has come close. I wouldn’t want to see movies like this win every year, but this stellar example rates the prize for 1995.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1995
Corrected. Shame on me for confusing Adam Sandler's favorite writer with one of the Coen brothers.Heksagon wrote:Btw, Joel Cohen is misspelled as Joel Coen. I bet that happens a lot to him, though.
Re: Best Screenplay 1995
The Original category has good nominees in Toy Story and The Usual Suspects, a decent nominee in Braveheart and a terrible nominee in Mighty Aphrodite, which is possibly Woody Allen’s worst nominated screenplay (I haven’t seen Alice). There’s also Nixon, which I thought was decent film when I saw it as a teenager, but which I really need to see again as an adult. My vote goes to the clever and well structured The Usual Suspects.
The Adapted category has splendid films in Leaving Las Vegas and Sense and Sensibility, although the former is maybe more of a directing achievement rather than a screenwriting one. The three other nominees are enjoyable films when seen once, but not the type that I’d be enthusiastic to see multiple times. My vote goes to Sense and Sensibility.
Btw, Joel Cohen is misspelled as Joel Coen. I bet that happens a lot to him, though.
The Adapted category has splendid films in Leaving Las Vegas and Sense and Sensibility, although the former is maybe more of a directing achievement rather than a screenwriting one. The three other nominees are enjoyable films when seen once, but not the type that I’d be enthusiastic to see multiple times. My vote goes to Sense and Sensibility.
Btw, Joel Cohen is misspelled as Joel Coen. I bet that happens a lot to him, though.
Re: Best Screenplay 1995
I had to check to see if The Usual Suspects was produced by Miramax. It's not, but it sure feels that way in the worst way. If the film itself is not a gimmick, the its writing is. Christopher MacQuarrie wrote it in something like 11 days, so viewed within that context it's a justifiably career-making piece of work. I enjoy it for the performances mostly, not its ersatz profound dialogue. The 68th Academy Awards were the first I tracked, and while it was amazing that Braveheart managed to come from behind as an afterthought in the field to take it all, it's even more shocking to think about how many more Oscars it maybe probably should have won. Like Best Film Editing or Best Sound Mixing or Best Dramatic Score. Or The Writer's Guild of America's choice for Best Original Screenplay, Braveheart, a movie with an incredibly dull second act. Nobody remember how much of this movie is devoted to clan squabbling. If Mighty Aphrodite is a less obscure Woody Allen nomination than Alice, it's only because it has an Oscar-winning performance at the center of it. An equally obscure Oscar-winning performance to be sure. For ages after Mira Sorvino's win, I only saw her presenting the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The biggest written strength of the film is the literal Greek Chorus that almost requires a quaint, unassuming story to work.
Nixon is probably Oliver Stone's most underrated narrative. It doesn't get my vote, but I love how the film is full of false starts and ends, just like 37's political career. It starts in his darkest moment, then jumps to a newsreel movie enapsulated his life through Congress, The Senate, The Vice Presidency, his loss, and then losing the gubernatorial election to Pat Brown. Then at what? The 40 minute mark? The movie actually begins. It's a gargantuan movie, but I'll fault it for failing to specifically dramatize the most fascinating part of Nixonian lore: his downfall. When people bemoan what he could have done, it feels like grasping at abstractions. I never quite get the loss because Oliver Stone isn't interested in specific politics but the politics behind the politics, the "Beast" he keeps referring to. No matter, it's a very good film.
The American President should have been nominated here. It's a wonderful script, but I would have voted for Toy Story regardless. If there is one film any PIXAR film deserves to win (including but not limited to Best Animated Film), it is Toy Story for Best Original Screenplay. Who cares who wrote what? Is seven writers so many more than five for Il Postino? If the names bother you, blame not the writers (many of whom would be credited as [Story By] today) but the nominating committee who implemented the proper rules afterwards. My first viewing of Toy Story is one of the great, joyous filmgoing experiences of my life because of its writing. Because 1995 was the year I began watching movies, I've often looked to it as a barometer year to see how my tastes have changed. Braveheart and Apollo 13 would not appear anywhere near a Top Ten today but Wild Reeds and Safe would. Toy Story is always near the top for me, and I'll never quite understand how Babe was the film to capture Academy voters hearts and not PIXAR.
But Babe gets my vote for Best Adapted Screenplay as well for reasons that have been stated below. Apollo 13 is trapped awkwardly between disaster films of the past and the riveting tekkie talk of Paul Greengrass's films. Watch it all unspool is more gripping than it should be, but it's never sufficiently dramatized. The Leaving Las Vegas script might be the weakest aspect of that film, but with beautiful performances, aesthetic, and directorial humph. It's been some time since I watched Il Postino, but I recall it being a triumph of performance and character rather than incident or plotting. Fine, but no Oscar. Were I more familiar with Sense and Sensibility, I would likely roll for Emma Thompson's adaptation, but I'm not and I've always found the film a bit un-engaging. It's hard for me to keep the Roger Ebert review out of my head where he talks about the arbitrary nature of the men and coming and going. So, it's Babe almost by default, a dear, sweet, funny film extolling the virtues of being kind and being an individual.
The Best Screenplays of 1995 in my opinion:
1. Toy Story
2. Olivier Massart, Gilles Taurand, & André Téchiné, Wild Reeds
3. Atom Egoyan, Exotica
4. Aaron Sorkin, The American President
5. Richard Linklater & Kim Krizan, Before Sunrise
Countless other honorable mentions from this year. Countless.
Nixon is probably Oliver Stone's most underrated narrative. It doesn't get my vote, but I love how the film is full of false starts and ends, just like 37's political career. It starts in his darkest moment, then jumps to a newsreel movie enapsulated his life through Congress, The Senate, The Vice Presidency, his loss, and then losing the gubernatorial election to Pat Brown. Then at what? The 40 minute mark? The movie actually begins. It's a gargantuan movie, but I'll fault it for failing to specifically dramatize the most fascinating part of Nixonian lore: his downfall. When people bemoan what he could have done, it feels like grasping at abstractions. I never quite get the loss because Oliver Stone isn't interested in specific politics but the politics behind the politics, the "Beast" he keeps referring to. No matter, it's a very good film.
The American President should have been nominated here. It's a wonderful script, but I would have voted for Toy Story regardless. If there is one film any PIXAR film deserves to win (including but not limited to Best Animated Film), it is Toy Story for Best Original Screenplay. Who cares who wrote what? Is seven writers so many more than five for Il Postino? If the names bother you, blame not the writers (many of whom would be credited as [Story By] today) but the nominating committee who implemented the proper rules afterwards. My first viewing of Toy Story is one of the great, joyous filmgoing experiences of my life because of its writing. Because 1995 was the year I began watching movies, I've often looked to it as a barometer year to see how my tastes have changed. Braveheart and Apollo 13 would not appear anywhere near a Top Ten today but Wild Reeds and Safe would. Toy Story is always near the top for me, and I'll never quite understand how Babe was the film to capture Academy voters hearts and not PIXAR.
But Babe gets my vote for Best Adapted Screenplay as well for reasons that have been stated below. Apollo 13 is trapped awkwardly between disaster films of the past and the riveting tekkie talk of Paul Greengrass's films. Watch it all unspool is more gripping than it should be, but it's never sufficiently dramatized. The Leaving Las Vegas script might be the weakest aspect of that film, but with beautiful performances, aesthetic, and directorial humph. It's been some time since I watched Il Postino, but I recall it being a triumph of performance and character rather than incident or plotting. Fine, but no Oscar. Were I more familiar with Sense and Sensibility, I would likely roll for Emma Thompson's adaptation, but I'm not and I've always found the film a bit un-engaging. It's hard for me to keep the Roger Ebert review out of my head where he talks about the arbitrary nature of the men and coming and going. So, it's Babe almost by default, a dear, sweet, funny film extolling the virtues of being kind and being an individual.
The Best Screenplays of 1995 in my opinion:
1. Toy Story
2. Olivier Massart, Gilles Taurand, & André Téchiné, Wild Reeds
3. Atom Egoyan, Exotica
4. Aaron Sorkin, The American President
5. Richard Linklater & Kim Krizan, Before Sunrise
Countless other honorable mentions from this year. Countless.
"How's the despair?"
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Re: Best Screenplay 1995
Yet another year were I feel I can only vote in one category. This time it's screenplay adaptation with a rich choice of Leaving Las Vegas, Babe and Sense and Sensibility.
As for original, aside from the dreadful Braveheart, the other 4 nominees are quiet respectable though not worthy of a vote.
As for original, aside from the dreadful Braveheart, the other 4 nominees are quiet respectable though not worthy of a vote.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1995
The Usual Suspects and Sense and Sensibility
Re: Best Screenplay 1995
Whoever picked both Toy Story AND Babe (and some did, I am sure) should see a psychiatrist soon - amd be prevented from voting in the next political elections. How infantile can one be?!
I haven't seen Toy Story, needless to say, so I haven't voted in Original. The Usual Suspects would have probably been my choice - I mean, it's objectively "original", quirky, surprising, even too showily "intelligent" - you never forget that there's a writer behind it, but in this case, at least, a good writer. It's also absolutely "light" - it's actually stubbornly superficial, and this is why I guess I'd have thought of voting for Nixon instead - it's far from perfect, but it's ambitious, and I like its not-always-predictable approach to such a controversial, dark figure in America's recent history.The relationship between Nixon and his wife is I'd say quite perceptively written, too. But in the end maybe The Usual Suspect deserves to win here.
I can't believe that Babe - Babe! - will win Best Adapted Screenplay here - but in this board it could, it certainly could. And this is why I haven't picked Il Postino, despite the fact that it IS, I think, a screenplay with several good aspects, including honesty and a heart, a genuine heart. So I have picked Sense and Sensibility, because it's the only script here that can win over Babe - and also because it is a carefully executed adaptation of a novel which is less easy to make into a movie than it could seem at first sight.
I haven't seen Toy Story, needless to say, so I haven't voted in Original. The Usual Suspects would have probably been my choice - I mean, it's objectively "original", quirky, surprising, even too showily "intelligent" - you never forget that there's a writer behind it, but in this case, at least, a good writer. It's also absolutely "light" - it's actually stubbornly superficial, and this is why I guess I'd have thought of voting for Nixon instead - it's far from perfect, but it's ambitious, and I like its not-always-predictable approach to such a controversial, dark figure in America's recent history.The relationship between Nixon and his wife is I'd say quite perceptively written, too. But in the end maybe The Usual Suspect deserves to win here.
I can't believe that Babe - Babe! - will win Best Adapted Screenplay here - but in this board it could, it certainly could. And this is why I haven't picked Il Postino, despite the fact that it IS, I think, a screenplay with several good aspects, including honesty and a heart, a genuine heart. So I have picked Sense and Sensibility, because it's the only script here that can win over Babe - and also because it is a carefully executed adaptation of a novel which is less easy to make into a movie than it could seem at first sight.
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- Location: Jersey Shore
Best Screenplay 1995
Among this year's nominees for Best Original Screenplay are two I thought could have been better - Oliver Stone and company's Nixon and Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite and one I didn't much care for at all - Randall Wallace's Braveheart. Of the remaining two, I loved Toy Story but any film with seven credited writers kind of makes me wonder who wrote what. That leaves winner Christopher McQuarrie's The Usual Suspects as the only possible choice for me.
It didn't have to be that way. Oscar voters could have gone with the WGA picks of Amy Heckerling's Clueless; P.J. Hogan's Muriel's Wedding and Aaron Sorkin's American President over the first three I mentioned. Andre Kevin Walker's screenplay for Se7en would also have been a decent choice.
In Adapted, only Scott Frank's script for Get Shorty is missing among the WGA contenders. Also worthy of consideration were Tim Robbins' adaptation of Dead Man Walking and Alan Sharp's Rob Roy although that may have been considered an original as it does not give credit to Sir Walter Scott's 1817 novel.
Of the nominees I thought Leaving Las Vegas and Il Postino owed more to their acting and direction than their writing; I found Apollo 13 well written but on the dull side and Babe beguiling but lightweight No matter, though, as the Academy chose right in giving the award to Emma Thompson for Sense and Sensibility.
It didn't have to be that way. Oscar voters could have gone with the WGA picks of Amy Heckerling's Clueless; P.J. Hogan's Muriel's Wedding and Aaron Sorkin's American President over the first three I mentioned. Andre Kevin Walker's screenplay for Se7en would also have been a decent choice.
In Adapted, only Scott Frank's script for Get Shorty is missing among the WGA contenders. Also worthy of consideration were Tim Robbins' adaptation of Dead Man Walking and Alan Sharp's Rob Roy although that may have been considered an original as it does not give credit to Sir Walter Scott's 1817 novel.
Of the nominees I thought Leaving Las Vegas and Il Postino owed more to their acting and direction than their writing; I found Apollo 13 well written but on the dull side and Babe beguiling but lightweight No matter, though, as the Academy chose right in giving the award to Emma Thompson for Sense and Sensibility.