Ranking the Oscar Nominees: Best Original Screenplay

The nominees are:

The Big Sick – Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani

Probably the most interesting narrative behind it out of all the nominees, as Gordon and Nanjiani, a real-life couple, based it (loosely) upon the own challenges they experienced in the early stages of their interracial relationship, with the main character even sharing the exact same name, and played by Nanjiani himself. Out of the nominees this was perhaps the least 'locked' into getting a nomination, and it's the only one it garnered, with its only other possible opportunity having been Supporting Actress for Holly Hunter.

Get Out – Jordan Peele

Peele, one of my favourite sketch comedians working today (alongside his partner in crime Keegan Michael-Key), originally envisaged the screenplay as a subversion of the 'high school reunion' story where an African-American male feels like an outsider among a group of liberal white school-friends of his girlfriend. He subsequently re-drafted it into a horror movie subversion of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and integrated timely issues of racial tension, exclusion, and the objectification of the African-American experience into the script. This is one of Peele's three nominations this year.

Lady Bird – Greta Gerwig

This is I believe Gerwig's, best known for her work as an actress particularly her collaborations with Noah Baumbach, first proper screenplay to get made into a film, and also her first nomination, and one of her two nominations this year. She has described the screenplay as being not based directly on anything that happened in her teenage years, but rather took inspiration from her memories and feelings as a teenager growing up in her small hometown, and capturing that sort of atmosphere and tone. She's spent years working on the screenplay, originally entitled Mothers and Daughters.

The Shape of Water – Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor

The idea for the conception of this screenplay was very interesting, as it came about from a discussion by del Toro with novelist Daniel Kraus, who has since published a novel jointly released with the film. Inspired by his memories of watching Creature from the Black Lagoon and rooting for the titular creature to have a happy ending to his romance, him and Vanessa Taylor set about creating a story which, set in this heightened reality of 60s Baltimore, involves the earnest, loving treatment of this concept.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Martin McDonagh

The inspiration for the screenplay was apparently, McDonagh driving past billboards specifying the details of some unsolved crime around the Georgia, Florida, Alabama area, which he created a narrative around and wrote characters specifically with his two principal actors, Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell, in mind. This is McDonagh's second nomination, after his flawless work in 2008 got one and lost to Milk.

Ranking the nominees:

5. The Shape of Water

A bit of a weak link in this lineup, I'd say, the film is rather delightful overall as a product of Guillermo del Toro's vision, but the screenplay itself, while never problematic or bad, is not on the same level as the other nominees, and indeed many of the other screenplays snubbed, and I'd say that out of the 13 nominations the film received this is the only one I have real issue with being nominated. It takes the usual generic tropes of the 60's and takes them up to 11, with extremely evil, extremely good characters, and indeed Michael Stuhlbarg's character is possibly the only character with any real nuance or ambiguity to his characterisation. The dialogue flits between being rather lovely and sweet in its earnest, if unsubtle intentions, and over-the-top in its thematic intentions, particularly in the scenes where it addresses issues like homophobia and racism. I might be sounding very negative about it, but there are good things, the opening and closing lines have such a beauty to them, the discussions of love are often quite heartfelt, and it's actually surprisingly funny at points, but as a whole the screenplay isn't a great, though the film itself is.

4. The Big Sick

The rest of the nominees here are all pretty outstanding, and I hate to rank them. Nanjiani and Gordon's screenplay is great as it strikes the fine line between being a realistic examination of relationships, and a more crowd-pleasing dramedy. Its weakest parts are when it strays too far from the central story of the character out of sync with his own family, his girlfriend, and girlfriend's parents, for example the bits with his standup comedy friends could have een entirely excised, as well as I'd say one or two of the scenes with his other prospective girlfriends which do steer the film too closely to a typical Hollywood comedy. Otherwise, it's a fantastic screenplay. It manages to create a rather affecting central romance with understandably limited time, creates the unique family dynamic of the Pakistani American family well, and most notably the interactions between Kumail and Emily's parents is particularly great, as the writers hit the emotional beats just as well as the comic ones, often times within the same scene. Whether it's the mom calling out the racist frat boy, a quiet discussion about infidelity, and the very well developed arc where the girlfriend's parents find such a strange sort of kinship with the you man, it makes the film stand out as one of the more refreshing entries into the rom-com genre in recent years. 

3. Lady Bird

I hate to rank this in third place. I really, really do, and I should note that my personal top 5 for Best Original Screenplay this year are in a league of their own (I'll discuss the other two in my top 5 soon).  I could probably switch this with Three Billboards at any point given that I do think it is the more 'flawless' screenplay. Though it is perhaps not the most 'original' screenplay ever in terms of its conception, being very much a straightforward coming-of-age story in its general conceit, I thought it was beautifully executed in terms of execution of it. The mother-daughter relationship is of course, the highlight of the film and writing, and I loved how Gerwig never picks sides between the two in their conflicts, clearly defining both sides of the arguments and making their interactions flow in such a naturalistic fashion, I thought the scene where they're in a store buying Lady Bird a dress for Thanksgiving was particularly evocative of a real-life parent and child interaction you'd hear just about anywhere. These interactions are funny without mocking the characters, and makes the happiness, frustrations, love and anger between the two flow in a truly exceptional fashion, and builds up to some of the most tearjerking moments of film this past year.

That is of course, the highlight of the film and the main area it excels, but on other fronts it is very written too. The grieving pastor, the sidelined best friend, the adopted quirky brother, the depressed dad, the pretentious artsy-fartsy boyfriend and the closeted gay young man are all depicted with sensitivity and without judgement, and Gerwig plays them off Lady Bird in a way that feels like you get to know all of them so well. I found the film entirely believable throughout, okay maybe the high school football coach becoming a drama teacher veers a bit into caricature territory but I still found it hilarious, so that's okay, and more importantly finds genuine feeling in its simple, straightforward but thoroughly engaging story. It's a wonderful screenplay, and like the other top two on the list I would love for it to win the Oscar.  

2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 

McDonagh is a fantastic screenwriter, and I've been reading some of his plays recently which aren't too shabby either. This is a great screenplay. Perhaps even more so than his previous films, the depiction of the all-consuming nature of guilt is sketched beautifully through Mildred Hayes, and even though there are one or two scenes which might stick out as a bit 'stagey' for the character to 'show off' like the rant against the Catholic church, or the conversation with the doe, I feel McDonagh integrates it naturally into the scheme of the film. The drastic arc undergone by the character of Officer Dixon is absolutely superb, flawless writing. The means by which McDonagh presents obstacles and challenges to the characters might not be perfect at times - there's an unnecessary scene where Mildred comes face to face with the supposed 'villain' which felt a bit out of place - but the end result is undeniably powerful.

What is perhaps even more admirable is the amount of detail McDonagh gives to his side characters. The way Chief Willoughby is integrated into the plot is done in a surprising way that ends up being one of my favourite parts of the film, and though I know some take issue with the letters he leaves behind they're actually one of my favourite bits of writing in the film, and another one being McDonagh's meta-aware subversion of his 'victim meets the assailant' trope and the 'darkly comedic encounter in the hospital' trope he'd established in his previous films to devastating effect, and his unique take on the 'dinner date' and 'bottle of wine' scene which goes in a rather unexpected direction. One could perhaps denote these as overly self-aware touches that take one out of the film, but for me it only amplified it. Beyond all that it's just a really entertaining screenplay that's hilarious when it needs to be, heartbreaking when required, and just a bit of both at times, building to a uniquely McDonagh-ian conclusion that only he could pull off that's both unresolved and deeply satisfying.

1. Get Out

This was a tough choice to make, but I'll have to go with Jordan Peele's script for Get Out for the time-being. It's just a brilliantly crafted screenplay which only gets better with every re-watch of the film, with throwaway lines like 'we couldn't let them go' about Georgina and Walter, the history behind Walter's late night running, Logan's line about having not had enough time to appreciate the African American experience fully, literally every line that comes out of Georgina and Walter's mouth, the set-up for the family's actions in the third act. 

All of these weird little mysterious enigmas, and more, the mysteries peppered throughout the film find their own set of revelations and resolutions in a way which is subtly hinted at throughout without giving the game away. The final act in particular is satisfying just as much due to the writing as it is due to Kaluuya's performance, and Peele's direction. The inclusion of the sunken place creates equal parts horror and emotional impact for the story, and the revelation of Chris' past is given just the right amount of focus to bring the needed impact without hindering the overall pacing of the story. Then there's the humour, in the form of the horror movie best friend and the satirical take on the objectification of the African-American experience by society, which only helps to amplify the film, making certain moments stand out as hilarious, or troubling in its relevance to modern-day society. It's a meticulously crafted piece of work that is one of, if not the, highlight of the film, and is a perfect example of making the most out of the potential of a concept in an equally entertaining, and thematically satisfying, fashion.