Reel and Roll Awards (5): Best Original/Adapted Screenplay 2018

Best Original Screenplay

10. Isle of Dogs

A weaker element of the film, I'd say, though I would say it still is an admirable enough element of the film. The screenplay works best in establishing the tight-knit community of dogs on Trash Island, and the story of the boy's love and affection for his dog Spots. In this the film is both at its funniest and its sweetest, with just enough of Anderson's sardonic touches to help make the heartwarming parts stand out all the more. It's in the 'bigger picture' of how it affects the city of Megasaki where it falters, particularly in the character of Tracy, and I'll admit I've always found Anderson at his best when he sticks to the interpersonal and intimate. 

9. Shoplifters

A major sore point of the screenplay is unfortunately its final act, which actually in conception could work as a gradual peeling off layers to reveal the sad, unfortunate core of deceit within this happy 'criminal' family who live a life of lies but seemed so honest with one another. The screenplay however chooses to play this card all too quickly I feel without enough buildup, even though there are hints beforehand I felt that it was too big a shift. Having said that, everything leading up to it, and to be fair the ending as written, is brilliant, in its affecting, naturalistic portrayal of a most unusual family dynamic, with each character getting such rich development through dialogue with one another that it's a shame the final act prevents it from being a great screenplay.

8. Tully

While it never hits the heights of 'greatness', this is possibly Diablo Cody's best screenplay to date. It's a refreshing and rather unique script that I found most impressive in its take on the central character of put-upon mother and housewife Margo (Charlize Theron), and her dynamic with the titular nanny (Mackenzie Davis). Quite frankly it takes the tried and tested formula of a middle-age crisis comedy and does something rather interesting with it in making it sincere, honest, blunt yet compassionate take on the stresses but ultimately, also the joys of motherhood. It could've been just another Lifetime screenplay but it's so much more than just an affecting domestic drama. 

7. Thoroughbreds

This interesting take on the 'high school misanthrope' trope is a rather fascinating exercise in deconstruction, and the part of the film that's stayed the most for me. It creates the right balance of surrealism and blunt reality in the interactions between its two main characters, their devious 'plot' and the planning and fallout of it. It builds to its conclusion in a way that both feels kind of unassuming and unexpected yet entirely earned and along the way has little gems like 

6. First Reformed

A mostly 'good' screenplay for the most part in terms of its handling of the environmental subtext merged with the religious themes, in creating the sense of paranoia through Philip Ettinger's character, and the somewhat limited capacity of the supporting characters as various figures who seem to put our protagonist Reverend Toller (Ethan Hawke) on 'trial' of sorts. Where it goes into 'great' territory is in its depiction of the main character, as honestly everything centred directly on Toller, his inner turmoil and external repression, his questioning of his own faith and dealing with his grief, is all stuff you've seen before, but the execution of it by the screenplay is rather great.

5. Sorry to Bother You

While I have issues with the third act, none of them really stem from the way it's written: as an allegory the 'twist' does work really well and actually is implemented with enough nuance, I just don't think it was stylistically worked into the film well enough. Anyway, this is a cracking screenplay, just firstly in the sense that it is wildly entertaining as well as just flat-out wild. It takes us into the increasingly weird world of the world of corporate decadence with such brilliant lines, both funny and frankly quite scary, while balancing it well with the more earthly subplot of the labour strikes. Its main character Cassius Green is far from a blank slate, very well written in terms of his personal struggle, and plays off him the oddities rather well, and the racial and socio-economic subtext while far from subtle, is handled pretty effectively for the most part. 

4. Roma

A real minimalist screenplay and some might protest against its inclusion here, but I personally found it a perfect script for a perfect film. Though it is a film that relies more on the visuals than the dialogue, the dialogue is superb nevertheless, one particular standout moment being late in the film when the mother delivers some heavy news to her children being a particularly impactful scene in terms of dialogue. The most impressive part of the film in this regard though is the way the overarching 'story' is structured. It is not a 'plot', so to speak, but rather how everything ties in together, from the deadbeat father to Cleo's child, to the student uprisings, to the constant absence of the father, to the mother's own interspersed and gradually fleshed out struggle, the way they all fall in and out of the plot without ever losing sight of the emotional pull of the film's central flow is rather remarkable. Not a conventionally 'great' screenplay, so to speak, but 'great' in its own way. 

3. Blindspotting

Easily the best of the 'social commentary' films this year primarily because it handles the subject matter in a way that is most well integrated into the central 'story', though really the film as structured is a loose series of interactions, exchanges and events over the few remaining days of probation for Collin (David Diggs). His story of struggling against the system, so to speak, is handled in a rather low-key fashion actually for the most part, and effectively so, while him dealing with his friend Miles' (Rafael Casal) grandiose and frankly quite dangerous behaviour is just as compelling, as is Miles' own examination of his white privilege but also his identity crisis. Their banter and dynamic is the highlight of the film, so well written by Diggs and Casal fittingly since they're real-life best friends, and leads to some brilliantly written sequences like a most disastrous visit to a party, an unfortunate incident with a gun, and that breathtaking final rap sequence, capped off by one of the best placed breaks of the fourth wall of the year. 

2. The Favourite 

Well just for its barbed wit and scathing quips alone this is a terrific screenplay. From every snide remark by the rather uncouth Whig statesman Robert Harley (Nicholas Hoult) to every biting yet eloquent verbal par by Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz), the film features a non-stop stream of wit that is just, simply put, hilarious. There is more beneath all that, of course, in that the humour, while sometimes it is just that, very entertaining lines, also sometimes leads to something a bit more, and the revelation of what the Queen Anne's (Olivia Colman) rabbits mean to her is honestly one of the most heartbreaking scenes I've seen the past year. The arcs of all the central women are wonderfully drawn and overlap seamlessly, I have particular affection for how slowly Abigail (Emma Stone) takes over the court first through Sarah then through Anne, and how characters switch and swap places yet also remain in the same place which sounds like it could be repetitive but really isn't, at all. It's a magnificent screenplay. Hope it wins the Oscar.

1. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Well this is an interesting choice for me as two out of the six stories in the Coen Brothers' anthology are adapted from, respectively, a Jack London story about a prospector ('All Gold Canyon'), and 'The Gal Who Got Rattled' based on a story by Stewart Edward White about a meek young woman travelling west. The adaptation of these two stories are rather interesting as the screenplay takes these (great) tropes and stories and make them their own. The prospector's dialogue with the natural world in 'All Gold Canyon' is a remarkable example of how to mine (no pun intended) a real investment in essentially just watching a weary old professional at work, and 'The Gal Who Got Rattled' retains the strengths of the original story in terms of its poignancy with some pretty hilarious interludes like the backwards walking little boy, and the incredible addition of that final 'line' of 'unsure what to say to Billy Knapp'. Then in their 'original' stories the Coen Brothers take on stories you think you might've read in a way you have never and will never see again. From the violent singing cowboy to the dazed and confused bandit, to the relationship between an artist and impresario to a (literal? Metaphorical?) journey to the afterlife, the Coen Brothers string together characters as old as the Wild West with some hilarious dialogue (Buster Scruggs' constant wisecracks), to a rather interesting take on feeling out of place in the west in James Franco's frankly out of his element bandit. The touch of never having the impersario and the artist directly speak to one another. And that final haunting tale which never spells out anything directly yet has such clarity at the end. I'd say more but really this is a screenplay where you need to watch the film and how all the stories add to one another to fully appreciate.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Still need to figure out a number 10, but...

9. Deadpool 2

Though not every joke hits the mark - and a few of them really overstay their welcome - enough do with aplomb to make it an overall resounding success in the entertainment stakes. What I really do think stands out with regards to the film is how it actually manages to create some pretty affecting, though still amusing, relationships between the characters even when it's not at the forefront.

8. The Old Man & The Gun

An imperfect screenplay in that I do feel it somewhat loses its way towards the end and doesn't know quite how to conclude or wrap up this particular tale of an ageing rogue. Also I don't necessarily find the Detective Hunt scenes all that compelling in themselves. Having said that the initial set-up of the Over the Hill Gang, and the burgeoning romance, are all very well-written and there are nice little gems like Tom Waits' Christmas story (though who knows if that was improv).

7. A Star is Born

Flawed screenplay in that a few of the lines, particularly in some of the argument scenes between Jackson and Allie, feel a tad forced, and one could argue it doesn't bring anything 'new' to the table, story-wise. These aren't really issues so to speak with regards to the final product, though, as it contains some of the most scintillating yet honest flirtatious banter in recent cinematic memory, frankly, and each of the big emotional conflicts hit hard in crucial bits, particularly Jackson's confession to his brother, his memories of his father.

6. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 

The whole idea of multiple superhero-verses colliding with one another is a brilliant idea, and I must say executed to quite the perfection by the screenplay. In that it mines all the humour and hijinks out of the ideas, but also creates quite a grand sense of this shared universe that's really quite intriguing, to the point that I almost wish we could've explored it even more. There are flaws, the relationship with Miles Morales' uncle isn't well-fleshed enough, but on the whole it is a smashing success.

5. Boy Erased

Powerful source material, to be sure, in Garrard Conley's memoir about his experiences in gay conversion therapy, and Joel Edgerton's adaptation certainly helps to translate the depth and personal impact of that experience onscreen. Where I think it goes further than just a powerful representation of his personal experience is in its expansion, not creatively but thematically, on aspects like the protagonist's relationship with his father, in particular, which in the final half of the film finds a particularly remarkable poignancy, and their final confrontation ends the film on a supreme high note. 

4. First Man

A very atypical sort of screenplay, both for a space biopic, in its very insular and 'limited' focus, and for a Damien Chazelle film since it's not scripted by him. Well it's easily my favourite screenplay in a Chazelle film to date as it sheds any of my previous reservations about his films from a screenwriting perspective. It's a very efficient and unfussy screenplay to begin with, with nary a wasted line or scene in depicting the lead up to the Apollo 11 mission. It's rarely flowery but kind of like the depiction of Armstrong on the surface, very straightforward work in terms of building the story plot-wise, and successfully managing to avoid many of the usual tropes of the constantly bombastic emotional wife, or the straw man authority figures, but what is my favourite part of the screenplay is its slow almost unassuming build-up of the emotional undercurrent which honestly took me on first viewing by quite the surprise at how beautifully it is integrated into the film.

3. Leave No Trace

Now this is definitely a film which finds a certain beauty within silence, but I can praise that element without discounting the screenplay which is an essential element to the film's success. Frankly the central father-daughter relationship could've fallen completely flat, or even worse come across as either completely toxic or falsely saccharine, in the wrong hands. The screenplay avoids these potential pitfalls and instead takes this moving relationship to another level by presenting in essence how it clashes with the two worlds created by the rift between nature and civilisation. It makes the development of the little communities that father and daughter reside within have such life even when primarily focusing on how that dynamic changes over the course of the film, and makes lines like 'the same thing that's wrong with you isn't wrong with me' have such power.

2. Burning

An incredible screenplay which upon re-watch, and reading the Murakami short story it was based on, more than holds up, in fact with the 'revelations' of the mystery in mind it becomes all the stronger. The mystery is not constructed in the usual sense upon clues, at least not in the usual sense of the word 'clues', rather it is a rather brilliantly developed 'emotional mystery' of sort where we watch the protagonist unravel 'secrets' in a way where he remains a mystery himself too. It's incredible how despite all this mystery that nothing ever seems unsatisfying or unclear, it is all there in the construction of the taut screenplay in how it puts its characters in conflict or conversation with one another, and results in a truly transformative experience. I'd say more but a lot of what the screenplay strengths are most displayed come in the scenes where characters reveal more about themselves, most notable among them Ben's (Steven Yeun) 'confession' scene.

1. Can You Ever Forgive Me?

This is a fantastically written film about writing of the forgery sort, which finds such honesty in its depiction of dishonesty, so to speak. It goes further than just being an entertaining writer's crime caper of sorts, and delves into the lives of two misanthropic and technically rather reprehensible characters, and makes them such entertaining individuals you just thoroughly enjoy spending time with. It even manages to add layers of emotional poignancy to Lee Israel's predicament, and even comic relief Jack Hock, without ever 'cheating', and the writing behind their friendship is perhaps the most moving friendship of the year, though it's just as hilarious. It strikes the perfect balance between providing the 'caustic wit', so to speak, but also such an earnestness in examining its subject matter, and makes for a rather wonderful film.