Re: Best Screenplay 2008
Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 11:06 pm
What's that bad smell? Oh...it's the nominees for adapted screenplay.
My winner in that category is Tell No One -- and, yes, I know: it's ineligible. But it's so superior to any of the nominees that defying the rules in almost an imperative.
It's not like I have any clearly superior qualified substitutes -- though I would say, if a Kate Winslet film had to be nominated here, I'd have gone for Revolutionary Road (not that I'd go to the wall for that effort, either).
I've heard many people speak admiringly of The Reader in book form, so maybe it was better before it was Daldry-ized. The last scene, with Lena Olin, suggests a more insightful work, and maybe that work does exist on the page. But the film is softcore porn crossed with Nazism, and gets no consideration.
I actually like some of Doubt, but mostly it's the atmosphere and the acting, none of which are reflected in the script, which I think is far shallower than its author (and the Pulitzer committee) appear to believe.
Frost/Nixon is a marginally better play, but fairly blandly conceived. A perfect Ron Howard project.
It's easy to see why audiences swooned over the struggle-through-degradation-to-win-your-dreams structure of Slumdog Millionaire. It seemed to have a context (the evolution of modern India, from rural hovels to industrial skyscrapers), and a wish-fulfilling romance alongside. I have to credit it for its ability to work an audience (and Danny Boyle for masking its basic fraudulence). But I can't vote for it.
If I were compelled to cast a vote, I guess it'd be by default for Benjamin Button, which at least has some ambition. But it's way too drawn out and slow moving, despite scattered high points. If David Fincher hadn't directed with such imagination, I'd have found it interminable.
For the first time in this set of polls, I'm going to abstain.
My winner in that category is Tell No One -- and, yes, I know: it's ineligible. But it's so superior to any of the nominees that defying the rules in almost an imperative.
It's not like I have any clearly superior qualified substitutes -- though I would say, if a Kate Winslet film had to be nominated here, I'd have gone for Revolutionary Road (not that I'd go to the wall for that effort, either).
I've heard many people speak admiringly of The Reader in book form, so maybe it was better before it was Daldry-ized. The last scene, with Lena Olin, suggests a more insightful work, and maybe that work does exist on the page. But the film is softcore porn crossed with Nazism, and gets no consideration.
I actually like some of Doubt, but mostly it's the atmosphere and the acting, none of which are reflected in the script, which I think is far shallower than its author (and the Pulitzer committee) appear to believe.
Frost/Nixon is a marginally better play, but fairly blandly conceived. A perfect Ron Howard project.
It's easy to see why audiences swooned over the struggle-through-degradation-to-win-your-dreams structure of Slumdog Millionaire. It seemed to have a context (the evolution of modern India, from rural hovels to industrial skyscrapers), and a wish-fulfilling romance alongside. I have to credit it for its ability to work an audience (and Danny Boyle for masking its basic fraudulence). But I can't vote for it.
If I were compelled to cast a vote, I guess it'd be by default for Benjamin Button, which at least has some ambition. But it's way too drawn out and slow moving, despite scattered high points. If David Fincher hadn't directed with such imagination, I'd have found it interminable.
For the first time in this set of polls, I'm going to abstain.