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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

2013 Oscar Preview: Best Original Screenplay

Click here for my introduction

NOMINEES

  • Amour (Michael Haneke)
  • Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)
  • Flight (Michael Gatins)
  • Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola)
  • Zero Dark Thirty (Mark Boal)

MY THOUGHTS


DJANGO UNCHAINED: If you looked at the script for Django Unchained you wouldn't necessarily think it was a Quentin Tarantino script. The movie absolutely is a Tarantino movie with the classic Tarantino violence and style, but the script lacks the classic Tarantino banter and random monologues that has filled his past greats like Inglourious Basterds and Pulp Fiction. It was because of that that was part of the reason Django was not as good as Tarantino’s other classics. However, Django was still one of the best original scripts of 2012 because in the end, it is still Quentin Tarantino.

FLIGHT: I originally saw Flight because it was Robert Zmeckis and I heard Denzel Washington was great in it. I hated almost every moment of Flight because it’s a pretty awful script. If you thought Lincoln was over-the-top and melodramatic then you haven’t seen Flight. Denzel’s character is so poorly written because there’s not a shred of subtlety or nuance to it. The story as a whole is even worse. The blatant reference and talk of religion is just insulting to the audience and it shows a lack of contempt. (If you want to see religion done right in movies then go watch Life of Pi).
ZERO DARK THIRTY: I don’t know what to think of the script to Zero Dark Thirty. The thing I enjoyed most about ZDT (for what I did enjoy) was Katheryn Bigelow’s directing. However, the film took a bold look into what it took to capture Osama Bin Laden and a bold look at what Maya (Jessica Chastain's character) had to do to capture Bin Laden. It’s not a script I enjoyed but a script I respect.
MOONRISE KINGDOM: I will never see a Wes Anderson movie ever again. After seeing The Royal Tennenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson is just one of those writer/directors that I know I do not care for. I know a lot of people like, enjoy, and respect Wes Anderson and I mean no disrespect to the man but I am not one of those people. That is why I will never see Moonrise Kingdom- no matter how much people rave about it. As one person described Moonrise Kingdom as “Wes Anderson porn”, it further reinforces by belief that no matter what, I will neither like MK nor enjoy its script.. 
AMOUR: I haven’t seen Amour and it’s a shame since it got so many Oscar nominations because over and over again you will be forced to hear me say, “I’m sorry, I can’t judge Amour because I haven’t seen it.” However, from what I've heard about the film, there's barely any dialogue in it. Obviously you can have a lengthy script without dialogue but it seems weird to nominate a film for Best Screenplay when the film's characters barely talk.

IF I HAD AN OSCAR BALLOT

  • Chronicle (Max Landis and Josh Trank)
  • Looper (Rian Johnson)
  • Seven Psychopaths (Martin McDonagh)
  • The Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon)
  • Wreck-It Ralph (Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee)

WINNERS

  • WHO SHOULD WIN (OSCAR FIELD): Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)
  • WHO SHOULD WIN (ENTIRE FIELD): Wreck-It Ralph (Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee)
  • WHO WILL WIN: Zero Dark Thirty (Mark Boal) Michael Haneke (Amour)

FINAL THOUGHTS

Chronicle does what every movie should, it presents and develops true characters and in doing so you end up sympathizing with a great and evil villain… Looper is great mainly because of the directing and Rian Johnson’s visual style but how it explores the world of time travel and just says “fuck it” is pretty ingenious… Seven Psychopaths is (besides Looper) THE most underrated film of 2012. It takes a great and meta spin on action movies in Hollywood and takes you for a fun and entertaining thrill ride thanks to Martin McDonagh’s great script… The Cabin in the Woods is another meta movie, this time about the horror genre, that’s just plain fun from start to finish… Wreck-It Ralph is the best animated movie since Wall-E and- in my mind- officially ends Pixar’s reign on animated movies thanks to this Pixar-esque and great script by Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee (Wreck-It Ralph was made by Disney Studios themselves)

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