Oscar Talk: Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenplay -
Dee Rees, Virgil Williams - Mudbound
Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber - The Disaster Artist
Aaron Sorkin - Molly's Game
James Ivory - Call Me By Your Name
Michael Green, James Mangold, Scott Frank - Logan
This year's nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay are fairly eclectic. The fact that there is a superhero movie in the mix is another positive sign this year that the Academy is starting to recognize multi-genre filmmaking. Adapting a comic book or graphic novel becomes harder when the resulting outcome is more nuanced and character driven, versus a blockbuster full of special effects and one-note villains, so Logan's inclusion here is well-deserved. Another unconventional entry here is The Disaster Artist, a commerically-marketed comedy about one of the worst movies ever made. Though I do have fondness for the story, I believe the screenplay suffers in comparison to the original novel by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell, favoring cliché plot devices over a well-structured and unique true story. Aaron Sorkin is always going to make an appearance for writing as long as he has a film to nominate, and Molly's Game is strong and clever, but not nearly like in his past films. I also believe that Jessica Chastain should have earned an acting nomination instead, as her performance is what really carries the movie. The two true frontrunners are Mudbound and Call Me By Your Name. Both films are profound and important in separate ways, and though I have not read the source material for either, make sense as winners for this category as they were translated into incredible on-screen features.
Who will win: Call Me By Your Name
Who should win: Call Me By Your Name, Mudbound and Logan would all be satisfactory winners (What can I say? It was a good year!)
Images by 20th Century Fox, A24, Sony Pictures Classics, Netflix, STX Films
