Ranking the Oscar Nominees: Best Adapted Screenplay

And the nominees were -

Call Me By Your Name - James Ivory

Ivory is now I believe, the official oldest nominee for the Oscar in the writing category (his fourth nomination overall). He's had an amazing career, having been the driving force behind some excellent British films like A Room with a View, Howards End, and one of my all-time favourite film adaptations of one of my all-time favourite novels, The Remains of the Day. This screenplay is perhaps most evocative of his work on Maurice in exploring sexual identity as a young gay man through the relationship between Elio and Oliver over the course of a sunny summer in the Italian countryside.

The Disaster Artist - Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber

Neustadter and Weber have had quite the interesting career trajectory, starting off with the indie roots of smash hit 500 Days of Summer and moving to the more mainstream fare of young adult dramas like The Spectacular Now and The Fault in Our Stars (ehh), and this year working on no other than the one, the only story of Tommy Wiseau and The Room.

Logan - Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green

A real surprise, I'd say, that it came down to an X-Men film to garner the first ever nomination for a superhero film screenplay - no, The Dark Knight was not nominated for one back in 2008 (although, as a devout lover of The Dark Knight, I'll admit that if one finds fault anywhere it would be with dialogue like 'things are worse than ever' and 'no more dead cops'). Frank, who's worked on varous adaptations from Philip K. Dick (Minority Report) to John Grogan's Marley and Me, and Green who this year alone contributed to Logan, Murder on the Orient Express, Alien Covenant, and Blade Runner 2049, worked with Mangold in both adapting and significant revising the source material of 'Old Man Logan' from the X-Men comics.

Molly’s Game - Aaron Sorkin

You all know Aaron Sorkin, and you all either love or hate him with his work on (take a deep breath) A Few Good Men, The Social Network, The West Wing, Steve Jobs, Moneyball and more. This marked Sorkin's directorial debut, and his choice of story to adapt was that of Molly Bloom's memoir (take another deep breath), Molly's Game: From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker and the undercover poker empire she ran with many Hollywood celebrities, atheletes and the shady Russian mob, as well as his own addition of the story of her trial.

Mudbound - Virgil Williams and Dee Rees

Television writer Williams and director Rees collaborated on this adaptation of Hillary Jordan's 2008 novel, which she's apparently working on a sequel to. The screenplay has been hovering around awards season, winning at the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association getting a slew of nominations, and making it the first Netflix film to be nominated in the screenplay category.

My ranking for the nominees -

5. Molly's Game 

This has plenty of good things to talk about. The usual Sorkinese dialogue flows well, and the general storytelling is fine, particularly when delving into the crazy world of underground poker games, the exposition delivered about these games is well handled, the humour is generally good, and there are particular standout confrontations like the scene between Molly and Player X, and any scene where Molly has to navigate her way around particularly uncouth individuals.

The bad part is when the film tries to get more 'serious'. I particularly hated the subplot with her father, which not only never really went anywhere interesting, was filled with some of the most on-the-nose, unrealistic dialogue even for an Aaron Sorkin screenplay. The trial scenes are mostly fine, but a few scenes where it tries to defend Molly Bloom as some sort of paragon of morality feel very faulty, and I have to give extra credit to Idris Elba for selling the hell out of some of those extremely cheesy lines - his big speech is one of the few instances where the 'moralizing' works. The script might've been better off as more of a The Social Network 'she's not a jerk,. just trying too hard to be one' tale.

4. Mudbound

Mudbound is consistently engaging from a visual standpoint, from a narrative perspective its far more of a mixed bag. There's the racist father which I actually thought was the worst part of the film, partially due to the performance behind it but also the writing where almost every line that comes out of his mouth is, 'I'm a grizzled ol' bigot'. The dynamic between the disgruntled wife and the unfeeling husband was never actively bad, but felt underwritten for the most part as they seem to go from an amiable enough relationship to animosity in the blink of an eye, and the exploration of the Jackson family's dynamic was solid but never went beyond the expected point. The use of narration is a mixed bag, again a lot of it is due to the performances, but the narration that tries to convey more story feels clumsy, while the narration that gives life to their internal thoughts works well. There's many reservations I have to the overall story and dialogue, but I thought the exploration of the African-American soldier and his friendship with a fellow veteran was fascinating, and honestly would have preferred a screenplay that honed in on the character of Ronsel, though in part that is also due to Jason Mitchell's excellent performance.

3. Call Me By Your Name

I really like all of these top 3 scripts, and it was relatively difficult to rank them. Funnily enough, though it seems to be the most dialogue-driven film out of these three, Call Me By Your Name relies a great deal on silence, particularly in establishing the relationship between Elio and Oliver. I should also note that apparently, early on in the creative process there was the possibility of using a narrator's voice throughout the film, I'm glad they didn't go with that as it would've felt entirely out of place. Having said that, whenever characters speak in the film, there's always this sprightly, verbose air that feels entirely natural, and most importantly fitting to the very erudite setting of the film. I particularly liked the subtle interplay between Elio and Oliver over the former's musical capabilities, Elio's bemusement at Oliver's use of 'later', or Mr Perlman's observations about the Greek statues ('not a single straight line in them'). I will say most of the film's most powerful and affecting moments are its silent ones, but there is of course Mr Perlman's speech at the very end which is very well written, well delivered too of course, and helps sum up the film pretty well.

2. Logan 

Having only read a general Wikipedia summary of 'Old Man Logan', I'm glad we got here instead. There are flaws to the script of Logan, I'm not the biggest fan of X-24 being included in the third act, and the exposition needed to get us to that point felt a bit clumsy. I also think the inclusion of the other Transigen children, while it ends up working, diminishes some of the intimacy and tension built up by the limited focus in previous scenes. While there are reservations I have with the screenplay, however, I thought most of it was amazing. The choice to switch the roles of Logan and Professor X in the destruction of the X-Men was genius, as was the decision to show the Professor suffering from dementia and seizures that prove lethal to many. Its dialogue largely captures such a vibrant, lived-in tone, and even relatively minor characters like Donald Pierce and Caliban get their own moments to shine. The use of the X-Men universe is particularly interesting, and I particularly loved how it shows the X-Men comics are a staple of pop culture within this universe, as both a way of showing the divide between fiction and 'reality', as well as the X-Men as a symbol of hope. Best of all, though, is exploring the peculiar family dynamic between Professor X, Logan, and Laura, which makes what it builds up to both fascinating and emotionally potent.

1. The Disaster Artist 

Well this is the only screenplay here which I've read the source material to - The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, The Greatest Bad Movie Ever is a cracking read by Greg Sestero & Tom Bissell, which gives such fascinating insight into the former's relationship with Tommy Wiseau, the making of the room, and the more general struggles of making it big in Hollywood, while even delving a little into the enigma of Wiseau and what makes him tick. The film technically simplifies a lot of elements from the autobiography. Sestero's initial disregard for The Room and reluctance to take part is brushed over. Some of Wiseau's nastier, more manipulative decisions are excised - his decision to replace one of the actors partway through without advance warning, his poor treatment of Juliette Daniel while still shown in the film is not shown in as much detail -, and the ending is changed from the slightly more cynical ending in the book, to the more inspirational, spiritually if not factually truthful ending about what The Room means to its fans. It also adds in some elements that feel more cinematic than truthful - Bryan Cranston's inclusion into the plot as a way of dramatizing Sestero needing to shave his beard.

Honestly, though, despite all these changes and notable exclusions, I think this is on the whole a pretty great screenplay. First and foremost, it sketches Greg and Tommy's friendship with great understanding and sensitivity. I appreciated how the film never loses the perspective of Greg Sestero, as opposed to trying to make everything about Tommy. Though it's technically a bit too kind on Wiseau for some of his worse tendencies, it does not hide from most of them, and shows the problematic dynamic between the two friends in an effective fashion. It manages to narrow down the rather broad scope of the book into exploring this friendship between the two, while bringing about the same amount of laughs and humour as the book, and building to a surprisingly heartfelt conclusion. Also, bonus points for Neustadter and Weber creating 'new dialouge' for Tommy that feels entirely natural coming off his tongue, without seeming like it's pandering to the fans. It's not as deep a screenplay as say, Ed Wood, but it's a fantastic screenplay in its own right.