Analysis: Best Adapted Screenplay 2015

Oscar nominees:

1. Nick Hornby for Brooklyn: Note, I haven't actuall read any of the books aside from Far From the Madding Crowd, of the films I've put on these lists here. Nevertheless even without having read the apparently amazing Colm Toibin novel, Hornby's script just pulsates with so much enthusiastic, lovable and just plain beautiful dialogue, particularly in the dinner scenes with Julie Walters' Mrs Keogh and Eilis' fellow boarders, the Italian family dinner scene, and of course above all the romantic scenes between Tony and Eilis.

2. Drew Goddard for The Martian: Another just purely enjoyable script as it blends together the humour and pathos of Mark Watney's situation together so brilliantly, gives each and every supporting character their own fair share of juicy lines, paces the film so wonderfully and makes the flowing dialogue every bit as important as the acting, direction and editing. Science fiction scripts are always a crucial facet of the film's success and I'm glad The Martian was recognized in this respect.

3. Emma Donoghue for Room: While the film itself I do think it peaks at the beginning and kind of wanes by the end, nevertheless I think the script as a whole is very strong. I think getting the author herself to write the screenplay was the best decision that could've been made as you can feel that Donoghue knows her material inside out (obviously), and probably worked with the actors, especially Tremblay, to explain how it would be best delivered. The highlight is obviously Jacob Tremblay's voiceover narration, but everything else feels so realistically evoked, and it's a great screenplay.

4. Phyllis Nagy for Carol: I would agree to an extent that the dialogue in Carol isn't of the most complex sort, as so much of Therese and Carol's relationship is developed through silent looks, and some of the lines are written in accordance with the 1950's style of melodramatic dialogue, with the more striking lines taken from Patricia Highsmith's novel. Nevertheless it is my favourite movie of the year, and if the script had been lackluster it wouldn't have been. It flows very well, characterizes its two leads wonderfully, keeps the repetition of themes for supporting characters feel unforced and natural, and is overall very good work, if not the highlight of the film.

5. Adam McKay and Charles Randolph for The Big Short: I think out of everything I find particularly lackluster about The Big Short, I think the directing is atrocious, the acting is mostly average with a few high points, and the script...well the script isn't that bad actually. I'm actually not entirely opposed to reading the source material because the film felt at points that it had a good story to tell, it was just let down by some of the performances and yes the directing. Any humour derived from the film comes from the screenplay, and I think these following two clips can help explain what I mean by that. The first one with Christian Bale, is actually fairly engaging because Bale delivers it quite well and makes the dynamic fairly interesting, the second one is actually fairly well written too but is let down by the strange tone and Ryan Gosling.

My nominees:

1. Donald Margulies for The End of the Tour: This being one of my favourite films of the year, I think above all the things that most defines this film is the great screenplay. The acclaim for this film's screenplay has been rapturous as it makes just the interplay and conversations between two men, David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) and David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) the most wonderful things to listen to and watch. Funny, sad, insightful, pleasant and unpleasant, it might just be one of my all-time favourite screenplays.

2. Nick Hornby for Brooklyn

3. Drew Goddard for The Martian

4. Jeffrey Hatcher for Mr Holmes: The script has a lot of ground to make up for through the film's relatively sparse running time, and that it manages to within 104 minutes, encompass both the crime drama aspect of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, the emotional undercurrent to old Sherlock Holmes' regrets, the familial bonds between his housekeeper and her son, the Japan subplot...is just so impressive. Beyond that it's also endlessly quotable, a genuine piece of cinematic literature in how the story slowly unfolds onscreen in such a great way.

5. Aaron Covington for Creed: A great Rocky film needs a great script. This time round it's not written by Stallone himself, but I couldn't even tell since Covington assimilates the style of dialogue and inter-character dynamics in such an evocative way of the original screenplay, that I never felt it was paying homage to the old films, I felt like it was just very much in vein of the own films. This is a film that doesn't hold its punches, and not only in the literal sense: the emotional subplot of Rocky's is probably some of the most senstiviely written stuff I've seen onscreen all-year, and all the other facets that make a great underdog story--humour, sass, heartfelt touches--are also done tremendously.

 

6. Emma Donoghue for Room

7. Phyllis Nagy for Carol
8. Cary Joji Fukunaga for Beasts of No Nation
9. David Nicholls for Far From the Madding Crowd
10.