Writers Guild of America Nominations

[flipp525]

Holofcener's characters remind me of those found in a Mary Gaitskill short story. I really enjoy her work.

[Precious Doll]

(Precious Doll @ Jan. 04 2011,11:53)

(Reza @ Jan. 04 2011,12:57)

Never heard of 'Please Give'.

It's only the best film of the year IMO though.

My goodness. Do tell.

Nicole Holofcener has crafted a razor sharp comedy/drama about a group of self absorbed city dwellers (though set in New York in could take place in any big Western city), who whilst they are a bright and articulate bunch, are almost blind to what is going actually going on around them. It's also about self imposed guilt and the inability for some people to see that they are what they criticize themselves.

The film is also displays the best ensemble acting I've seen this year to date. Every role is meticulously played and the characters wholly believable.

It was interesting seeing this around the same time as the much acclaimed The Kids Are Alright, given that both filmmakers emerged around the same time in the 1990s. Holofcener's characters may be somewhat abrasive, and sometimes plain nasty, but she does write believable and witty dialogue and presents at the very least moderately believable characters and scenarios, unlike her less talented contemporary and future Oscar nominee Lisa Cholodenko.

Certainly the general negative reaction to Please Give and my admiration for the film places me in the minority, but new few films have afforded me so much pleasure and made me laugh so much.

[Sabin]

(Precious Doll @ Jan. 04 2011,11:53)

(Reza @ Jan. 04 2011,12:57)

Never heard of 'Please Give'.

It's only the best film of the year IMO though.

My goodness. Do tell.

[Precious Doll]

Never heard of 'Please Give'.

It's only the best film of the year IMO though.

[OscarGuy]

One of the things I read most frequently about The Fighter is that it's a fairly generic screenplay, but works irrespective of that.

[Sabin]

I think it very much is that kind of a movie. It sidesteps some conventions and there is a lot of personality in the margins that David O. Russell brings to the table, but it's utterly themeless. I have no idea what the movie is saying that Mark Wahlberg's character needs. Does he need his brother there, his family, his girlfriend? It's totally center-less. It's best when it indulges in the minutiae but as the film goes onward, it does that less and less.

[flipp525]

I think The Fighter is weighed down by a terribly formulaic script

Really? I thought The Fighter, for the most part, avoided the narrative traps of the "scrappy-boxer-makes-it-big" plot formula by deciding pretty early on that it wasn't going to be that kind of movie.



Edited By flipp525 on 1294174453

[Sabin]

Please Give is such a dull, low stakes, inoffensive film that dares to be edgy. It's not worthless but there's little reason to see it outside of Ann Morgan Guilbert and Sarah Steele. It's like nobody really knew what to do with Rebecca Hall this year.

I Love You Phillip Morris is a wonderful surprise and would get my vote in a moment for Best Adapted Screenplay. I think it's a superior piece of narrative writing to any of the other nominees by far. I think The Fighter is weighed down by a terribly formulaic script, and the focus of Inception's narrative was innately misguided. I'm back and forth between The Kids Are All Right and Black Swan, the former because it has better writing in it, and the latter because it's ultimately a more successful narrative. A toss-up.

[Big Magilla]

I'm real happy to see Please Give get some recognition, finally.

I'm not, though with so many other films disqualified, the pickings were slim.

Writer/Director Nicole Holofcenter grew up on New York's West Side. The daughter of Woody Allen's set decorator, she worked as an extra in several of his films as a teenager in the 70s, but she lives in Venice, Ca. now. Her impressions of contemporary NYC life seem to me to be more drawn from watching Allen's films than from having lived there decades ago.

Please Give is less abrasive than Friends With Money, but most of the characters are so totally obnoxious you wouldn't want anything to do with them in real life. The exceptions are Rebecca Hall as the grounded grand-daughter of a hateful old lady and Lois Smith as the cancer patient who who hooks mammogram technician Hall up with her grandson.

Catherine Keener plays a woman who makes her living by buying furniture wholesale from the children of dead people and then sells it at ten times its worth, salving her conscience by occasionally giving $20 bills to homeless people. She and her husband (Oliver Platt) make no bones about waiting for the old bat next door (Ann Guilbert) to croak so they can buy her apartment and expand their own, something Hall's sister, spoiled, selfish Amanda Peat is only too happy to do. She's also screwing Platt on the side.

[Hollywood Z]

I don't remember what was disqualified last year

I do remember that District 9, An Education and In the Loop were all ruled ineligible.

[Hollywood Z]

Wow. So THE TOWN is three-for-three with the Guilds so far. Pretty good. I know the only nomination it will probably get from the Academy is for Renner, but I am happy it is getting some attention.

Actually, I'm guessing four nominations for The Town. Best Picture (as a Dark Horse candidate), Best Supporting Actor - Renner, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing. It got a lot of buzz when the critics seemed to give Ben Affleck a sign of forgiveness for a near-decade's worth of blandness. A screenplay nod would be a great way to recognize Affleck as a talent behind the camera and also that he deserved his win for Good Will Hunting. Plus, they nominated Matt Damon last year for Invictus, which was his first nomination since Hunting, so this could be Affleck's bone being thrown to him.

[Hollywood Z]

Never heard of 'Please Give'.

Please Give is a movie that got a lot of surprise nominations and love from the Independent Spirit Awards.

IMDB Page: Please Give

[rolotomasi99]

Wow. So THE TOWN is three-for-three with the Guilds so far. Pretty good. I know the only nomination it will probably get from the Academy is for Renner, but I am happy it is getting some attention.

Also very happy for I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS. Considering what the two (straight) writer/directors went through to make this movie, I am glad they are receving some recognition for their labor of love.



Edited By rolotomasi99 on 1294168799

[FilmFan720]

I'm real happy to see Please Give get some recognition, finally. I know that it slipped in due to the number of disqualified screenplays, but I can hope that this might push Holofcener to an overdue Oscar nod.

Also happy to see Who Is Harry Nilsson on here...one of my favorite docs of the year!

[OscarGuy]

I don't remember what was disqualified last year, but the WGA Adapted list was:

Crazy Heart
Julie & Julia
Precious
Star Trek
Up in the Air

Only Precious and Up in the Air carried over. The Academy went for District 9, An Education and In the Loop. While I had thought Four Lions might have made a surprise appearance, I think it's probably more an Academy shocker than a WGA mainstreamish shocker.


Of course, the three that got nominated by the Academy were WGA ineligible, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised.