Academy Awards Week: Best Adapted Screenplay

Welcome to Academy Award week!  I will be taking an in depth look at some of the categories that make the Academy Awards tick.  The first category is Best Adapted Screenplay. The Adapted Screenplay prize is one of the most coveted awards of the night.  This award honors films who have adapted source material from books, plays, television shows, short plays, and even other films. If an original film has a sequel good enough to make it in the screenplay category (I do not think it has ever happened) they would have to be nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category because the film would be based on the first film.

Throughout the years this award has become incredibly competitive as more and more films seem to be based on other material.  While the quality in the Best Original Screenplay category seems to peak and valley every year, the Adapted Screenplay category has seemed to stay strong picking screenplays with strong writing, which are based on some solid material.  The interesting thing about this year has been that it feels as though Hollywood did a much better job with the original work than it did with adapting screenplays.  While the five nominees as pretty strong this year, picking five original screenplays seems to have been a tough task.

Past winners in this category have been It Happened One Night (1934), Gone With the Wind (1939), Casablanca (1942), To Kill a Mockingbird  (1962), The Godfather (1972), and The Silence of Lambs (1991).  Although 5 out of the 6 of these films are Best Picture winners only about 35 films out of the 83 years went on to win Best Picture.  The Adapted Screenplay trophy tends to go to well written films like Sideways (2004), which the Academy like but to enough to win the Best Picture category.  Many times the the screenplay awards become a consolation prize, and I think history will repeat itself again this year, ironically with another Alexander Payne film.

The nominees for this years Best Adapted Screenplay category are:

The Descendants-Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash
Hugo-John Logan
The Ides of March-George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon
Moneyball-Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian, Stan Chervin
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy-Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan

This past weekend The Descendants gained a lot of ground in this category winning both the Scripter and the WGA for Best Adapted Screenplay.  Winning the Scripter does not always mean you will win Oscar, mainly because its decided by USC, but winning at the Writer's Guild and Scripter is a pretty good sign.  The Descendants is nominated for 5 Oscars, and while Clooney was a favorite to win Best Actor in the beginning it looks like Jean Dujardin will be swept up in The Artist sweep.  This Best Adapted Screenplay will be a consolation prize for this film.

What about the other nominees?  Moneyball would be my personal pick, it's one of the sharpest screenplays this year.  Moneyball is also written by two of the best screenwriters today, which makes sense.  If a film is going to spoil it's going to be this one.  Tinker Tailor is an impressive screenplay because it has taken an incredibly long book that was made into mini-series at one point and makes one great film.  Ides has a decent screenplay, but it has no shot.  I am not a huge fan of Hugo's screenplay, in fact I think it is one of the weaker elements of this film.  Hugo's wins will come in some of the technical categories.

Will Win: The Descendants
Should Win: Moneyball

The Writer's Guild and Scripter Awards pick The Descendants

This weekend was a big weekend for the writing contingency of both film and television.  The Scripter Awards were held this past Saturday night.  The Scripter Awards were established by USC in 1988in order  to honor the preservation of the written word on film.  The Scripter's honor screenplays that have been adapted from pre-existing works.  The nominees this year were:


A Dangerous Method
The Descendants
Jane Eyre
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy


The winner of this award was Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash for writing The Descendants.


The Writer's Guild of America picked their winners in both the film and television categories.  Several films were not eligible because their authors were not a members of the union, like The Artist, which has a chance of spoiling in the Best Original Screenplay category at the Oscars.  The nominees in the films categories were as follows:


Best Adapted Screenplay

The Descendants, Screenplay by Alexander Payne andNat Faxon & Jim Rash; Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings; Fox Searchlight

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian; Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson, originally published by Norstedts; Columbia Pictures

The Help, Screenplay by Tate Taylor; Based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett; DreamWorks Pictures

Hugo, Screenplay by John Logan; Based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick; Paramount Pictures

Moneyball, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin; Based on the book by Michael Lewis; Columbia Pictures

Best Original Screenplay

50/50, Written by Will Reiser; Summit Entertainment

Bridesmaids, Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig; Universal Pictures

Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen; Sony Pictures Classics

Win Win, Screenplay by Tom McCarthy; Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni; Fox Searchlight

Young Adult, Written by Diablo Cody; Paramount Pictures

The winners were The Descendants in Adapted and Midnight in Paris in Original.  This will be the way the Oscar wins will look, most likely, but with different nominations, there are always variables that could change the Oscar game.

In the the television category Breaking Bad, Homeland, and Modern Family each took home two trophies.  Here were the nominees: 

DRAMA SERIES 
Boardwalk Empire, Written by Bathsheba Doran, Dave Flebotte, Gina Gionfriddo, Howard Korder, Steve Kornacki, Itamar Moses, Margaret Nagle,Terence Winter; HBO
Breaking Bad, Written by Sam Catlin, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison, George Mastras, Thomas Schnauz, Moira Walley-Beckett; AMC
Game of Thrones, Written by David Benioff, Bryan Cogman, Jane Espenson, George R.R. Martin, D.B. Weiss; HBO
The Good Wife, Written by Courtney Kemp Agboh, Meredith Averill, Corinne Brinkerhoff, Leonard Dick, Keith Eisner, Karen Hall, Ted Humphrey, Michelle King, Robert King, Steve Lichtman, Matthew Montoya, Julia Wolfe; CBS
Homeland, Written by Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Gideon Raff, Meredith Stiehm; Showtime


COMEDY SERIES  
30 Rock, Written by Jack Burditt, Hannibal Buress, Kay Cannon, Robert Carlock, Tom Ceraulo, Vali Chandrasekaran, Tina Fey, Jon Haller, Matt Hubbard, Dylan Morgan, John Riggi, Josh Siegal, Ron Weiner, Tracey Wigfield; NBC
Curb Your Enthusiasm, Written by Alec Berg, Larry David, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer; HBO
Louie, Written by Pamela Adlon, Louis C.K.; FX
Modern Family, Written by Cindy Chupack, Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Ben Karlin, Elaine Ko, Carol Leifer, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Dan O’Shannon, Jeffrey Richman, Brad Walsh, Ilana Wernick, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker; ABC
Parks & Recreation, Written by Greg Daniels, Katie Dippold, Daniel J. Goor, Norm Hiscock, Emily Kapnek, Dave King, Greg Levine, Aisha Muharrar, Chelsea Peretti, Amy Poehler, Brian Rowe, Michael Schur, Mike Scully, Emily Spivey, Alan Yang, Harris Wittels; NBC


NEW SERIES  
Episodes, Written by David Crane, Jeffrey Klarik; Showtime
Game of Thrones, Written by David Benioff, Bryan Cogman, Jane Espenson, George R.R. Martin, D.B. Weiss; HBO
Homeland, Written by Henry Bromell, Alexander Cary, Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Chip Johannessen, Gideon Raff, Meredith Stiehm; Showtime
The Killing, Written by Linda Burstyn, Jeremy Doner, Soo Hugh, Dan Nowak, Nic Pizzolatto, Dawn Prestwich, Veena Sud, Nicole Yorkin, Aaron Zelman; AMC
New Girl, Written by Nick Adams, Rachel Axler, Brett Baer, Donick Cary, Dave Finkel, Berkley Johnson, Josh Malmuth, Elizabeth Meriwether, J.J. Philbin, Joe Port, Luvh Rakhe, Joe Wiseman; Fox


EPISODIC DRAMA  
“A Dangerous Maid” (Boardwalk Empire), Written byItamar Moses; HBO
“The Age of Reason” (Boardwalk Empire), Written byBathsheba Doran; HBO
“Box Cutter” (Breaking Bad), Written by Vince Gilligan; AMC
“End Times” (Breaking Bad), Written by Thomas Schnauz & Moira Walley-Beckett; AMC
“The Good Soldier” (Homeland), Written by Henry Bromell; Showtime
“Just Let Go” (Dexter), Written by Jace Richdale; Showtime


EPISODIC COMEDY  
“Caught in the Act” (Modern Family), Written by Steven Levitan & Jeffrey Richman; ABC
“Goodbye Michael, Part 2” (The Office), Written by Greg Daniels; NBC
“Mother’s Day” (Modern Family), Written by Dan O’Shannon & Ilana Wernick; ABC
“Object Impermanence” (Weeds), Written by Stephen Falk; Showtime
“PDA” (The Office), Written by Robert Padnick; NBC
“Queen of Jordan” (30 Rock), Written by Tracey Wigfield; NBC

Modern Family took home Best Comedy Series and Best Episodic Comedy for "Caught in the Act."  While Homeland took home Best New Series and tied in the episodic drama category with the episode "The Good Soldier."  Breaking Bad won Best Drama and was the other TV drama to win in the episodic drama category for "Box Cutter."

Hugo and The Descendants Win Big at the National Board of Review Awards

In interesting movie news Hugo was named Best Picture, and the film's director Martin Scorsese was 
named Best Director by the National Board of Review (NBR).  The other film that took won a lot of awards was the quirky Alexander Payne film The Descendants.  The Descendants took home three awards including, Best Actor-George Clooney, Best Supporting Actress-Shailene Woodley, and Best Adapted Screenplay.


According the National Board of Review's website "Its stated purpose was to endorse films of merit and champion the new "art of the people", which was transforming America's cultural life. In an effort to avoid government censorship of films, the National Board became the unofficial clearinghouse for new movies."  In 1929 the National Board of Review honored the top ten films of the year, best foreign language film, and has been the first awards body to kick off awards season, until this year when the New York Film Critics stole their thunder.  Hugo winning makes a lot of sense because Hugo centers around honoring film making.


The NBR still picks the 10 best films of the year, the only film that puzzles me is J. Edgar, but the NBR loves Clint Eastwood.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 made the list and was honored with a book to film special achievement award. Making this top ten list is not guarantee that a film will even contend within the typical award season.  The film that wins and the other films that garner a good amount of other awards like The Descendants helps push an film further in award season.  


The same can be said for the winners of the acting awards.  For example last year the NBR  picked Lesley Manville from the film Another Year in the Best Actress category, and the only major award nomination she received was a Supporting Actress BAFTA nomination.  On the other hand Jackie Weaver won in the Supporting Actress category for the film Animal Kingdom, and this pushed her to gain recognition she may not have gotten.  If I were a betting man, and I can be when persuaded, I would say the actresses that won today could both be vulnerable. Tilda Swinton won Lead Actress for We Need to Talk About Kevin.  I think Swinton will get a nomination for this film, but the Academy could have a hard time embracing the subject matter.  Shailene Woodley's nomination depends on how much future award show traction she gets, how much Academy voters like her film, and being able to take her seriously, because of her television show on ABC Family.  The other acting winner in the Supporting Actor category was Christopher Plummer for Beginners, and he has a great shot at a nomination and could pull of the win!


Here is the full list of winners


Best Film: Hugo
(Rest of the Top Ten in Alpha Order)
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
The Ides of March
J. Edgar
Tree of Life
War Horse

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Best Actor: George Clooney, The Descendants
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Best Supporting Actress: Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
Best Original Screenplay: Will Reiser, 50/50
Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
Best Animated Feature: Rango
Breakthrough Performance: Felicity Jones, Like Crazy
Breakthrough Performance: Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Debut Director: J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
Best Ensemble: The Help
Spotlight Award: Michael Fassbender (A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame, X-Men: First Class)
NBR Freedom of Expression: Crime After Crime
NBR Freedom of Expression: Pariah
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation
Best Documentary: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Special Achievement in Filmmaking: The Harry Potter Franchise – A Distinguished Translation from Book
to Film

The Descendants Ascends to be a Solidly Quirky Film

The Descendants (4 out of 5 stars)

Directed by: Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt, Sideways)

Written by:Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash

Starring: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, and Amara Miller

Seven years ago was the last time Alexander Payne wrote and directed another film.  Payne's last film was the brilliant Sideways, which chronicled a wine connoisseur's experiences in love, and life.  Payne has had a great repertoire of films.  The first Payne film I saw was 1999's Election (potentially his best) then there was About Schmidt in 2002, and my personal favorite his last film Sideways (2004).  The Descendants ranks as my least favorite Payne but this is also some pretty solid film making.

The Descendants follows Matt King (George Clooney) who is trying to bring his family together while his wife lays in a hospital bed in a coma after a tragic boating accident.  Matt is working to come to grips with no longer being "the back up parent" and helping his children cope with their mother's situation.  Matt also has to deal with his extended family and a piece of land they own.  Matt and his family are descendants of Hawaiian royalty and white ancestors.  Matt is the trust and has sole control over what to do with the land; his trust will expire in seven years because of the law.  Back to the story I actually cared more about. As Matt's wife's condition worsens he brings his daughter Alex (Shailene Woodley) home to tell her his mom is not going to make it, and then she tells Matt her mom was cheating on him.

The strongest part of this film for me was George Clooney's performance.  I thought he played against type well, and gave one of his best performances.  My favorite scene was when he walked into his wife's room and cursed at her while she was laying there for making his life so hard.  Then when he later starts to cry as he realizes even though he has experienced so much pain.  Shailene Woodley who plays Matt's daughter Alex is pretty strong in this film.  I have seen her television show The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and to see this performance come from her proves that strong material and direction matter!  Judy Greer who always plays wonderful small roles shines in one the last scenes of the film, I wish she was in the film more.

Payne's direction and the screenplay are solid.  I did not care for storyline (as much) that gave the film its title.  As Matt needs to decide what to do with his land I often felt a little displaced from that story.  The stronger emotional context came from watching this family deal with their own imperfections while they watched someone slip out of their life.  Payne's strength is often dark humor, and while this film had some laughs the strength was the strong dramatic moments.  While the dark humor was there and was often funny with Matt's youngest daughter acting out in the beginning it was sometimes off putting like Alex's friend Sid laughing at her grandmother's alzheimer's.

Even with a more awkward voice over from Matt, the beginning of the film starts with him talking about how outsiders glamorize Hawaii, meanwhile people who live their still have problems.  The direction and screenplay do a good job highlighting both the beauty and troubles that exist within this paradise.