BEST ORIGINAL
SCREENPLAY
The nominees for Best Original Screenplay are:
- Zero Dark Thirty, Mark
Boal
- Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
- Flight, Mark Gatins
- Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
- Amour, Michael Haneke
A: At
first glance this appears to me to be a relatively competitive category, and
one that we’re relatively familiar with since we saw all of these films except
for Amour,
but I personally think it comes down to two candidates for the prize. Can you
guess which ones I’m thinking of?
Sarah: Yes,
and I’m going to go with Zero Dark Thirty and Django
Unchained being the two front-runners you’re thinking of. This isn’t
just because they are two of the films nominated for Best Picture, but I think
they were also the two movies that were best received in this category.
Django Unchained was a beautifully mastered movie that captured
the feel of the past with the relevance to the present. The way that the
characters relate to one another through the dialogue is so modern while still
dealing with the issues of a 1800s United States. It wasn’t pretentious and I appreciated
that. There were also so many lines that were quote worthy and that really
stuck with you, and I think that is a mark of a great screenplay.
Zero Dark Thirty, on the other hand, was gritty and raw and Mark
Boal did a great job of writing a screenplay that embodies the vision of
Kathryn Bigelow. It was a story that the whole world wanted to know more about
and the fact that he was able to write such a treatment that enabled her to put
it on the big screen in such an effective way was pretty impressive.
A:
Absolutely. The screenplays for Django Unchained and Zero
Dark Thirty, to me, stand heads and tails above the other two films in
this category that we actually saw. It’s not to say that Moonrise Kingdom and Flight
didn’t have great screenplays, because with the comedy and the speech patterns
that Wes Anderson has become famous for, Moonrise Kingdom certainly has it’s
fans; and Flight was a script that took a long time to finally be made
and gave Denzel Washington a fantastic character to play, but they just aren’t
as memorable to me as Django and Zero Dark Thirty.
Tarantino is a master as writing dialogue and after writing
a number of classic films with tons of memorable moments, Django might be his best
because of the topics he touches on, the relationship between Jamie Foxx’s
Django and Christoph Waltz’s Dr. King Schultz, plus the unforgettable
characters in Leonardo DiCaprio’s Calvin Candie and Samuel L. Jackson’s house
slave, Stephen.
And then I couldn’t have said it better in regards to Zero
Dark Thirty. It’s a subject that Boal was able to get inside help with,
it’s incredibly detailed and it gives Bigelow and Jessica Chastain some great
stuff to work with in conveying the man hunt for Osama bin Laden.
We can’t really speak much about Amour because we haven’t
seen it, but I really do think it’s down to these two. So which one do you
think will win?
S: I
really would like to say that Django takes this one home, but I
think it will go to Zero Dark Thirty. The intensity of the story and controversy
that surround this movie and the story I think gives it the intrigue that it
needs to take home the Oscar. I would love to be proven wrong though, it could
be a total toss-up!
A: I’m going to go with the other film
then and predict that Django Unchained will win Quentin
Tarantino his first Academy Award since he won for Pulp Fiction in 1995. He’s
already won the Golden Globe and the BAFTA award for the same category and I
think that’ll carry over to the Academy’s voting bloc, too.
BEST ADAPTED
SCREENPLAY
The nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay are:
- Argo, Chris Terrio
- Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin
- Lincoln, Tony Kushner
- Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell
- Life of Pi, David Magee
A: In my
humble opinion, this screenplay category is far more competitive than the other
one. Every single one of these screenplays has a legitimate claim to the award
and I wouldn’t be surprised by any of them winning. Ok, maybe I’d be surprised
if Beasts
of the Southern Wild won, but that’s only because we hated that film.
Here’s how I see the Best Adapted Screenplay category
breaking down: Argo is the front-runner because Argo has been winning
EVERYTHING. But at the same time, there are at least three
other films that can challenge Argo because the
films themselves have very ardent supporters (for good reason) and those are Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook and Lincoln. How do you see this category?
S: I think that this might be the toughest category in the
whole show! I mean, we are dealing with some beautifully adapted stories. Yes,
even Life of Pi was pretty
incredible. It was supposed to be the book that couldn't be put to film and yet
they did it! I want to say that Argo is the one to
take home that Oscar but I think that it will be a fight to the finish. I think Silver Linings
Playbook will be the one that
gives it the biggest run, but Argo was just so good! The story was so intense even
though we knew how it would end. The dialogue and general way in which the
characters interact is pretty genius. Delivery of the great script was truly
key in this movie.
A: What you just said about Life of Pi supposedly
being an unfilmable book is why I think it has a shot at winning. There's not a
ton of dialogue outside of the narration by an adult Pi, and the screenplay
probably had to be incredibly descriptive so they knew exactly what to film.
But Silver Linings Playbook is the
opposite spectrum of that - it's very dialogue driven, it's quick-witted and
very emotional. There's a reason the film has a lot of fans in the Academy. And
then I add Lincoln in there
because it's a very sharp, time-period script that a lot of people on the older
spectrum ate up, but I think it's a little TOO heavy at times. Argo is that perfect medium, which is why I think
it's going to win.
S: Yeah, I'm going to go with Argo as well. It really
was probably the only movie this year that had me on the edge of my seat from
beginning to end, which is saying something. And the lines it gave
Alan Arkin and John Goodman are too funny!
BEST
DIRECTOR
The nominees for Best
Director are:
- Stephen Spielberg, Lincoln
- Ang Lee, Life
of Pi
- Benh Zeitlin, Beasts
of the Southern Wild
- David O. Russell, Silver
Linings Playbook
- Michael Haneke, Amour
A: Another tough category where most of the
nominees don't fall under "just happy to be nominated." In fact, the
Best Director category is so tough this year that not one, not two, but THREE
totally deserving directors got left out completely in Ben Affleck, Kathryn
Bigelow and Quentin Tarantino.
S: Yeah I'm a little
disappointed that those three are left out. To me, that really only leaves
Spielberg as a clear shot at winning this Oscar. While I think that he will
win, I don't think that he should. Lincoln was one of the most boring movies that I have seen
in a while. But I do think that through his direction, Day-Lewis, Field and
Jones were able to give Oscar-worthy performances and that's worth something.
A: I totally understand
the thought process behind Spielberg being the presumptive front-runner - he's
Steve Spielberg, he directed a top-notch cast to some great performances in a
historical drama and the film just looks great. Plus it doesn't hurt that the
guy who won the Golden Globe, the BAFTA and the Directors Guild Award in this
category (plus the SAG and Producers Guild equivalent) wasn't even nominated.
But I actually do
think Ang Lee and David O. Russell could give Spielberg a run for his money.
Like we just said, Life of Pi was supposed to be unfilmable
and Lee did a marvelous job bringing the story to life, plus it was one of the
best uses of 3D in film-making yet. And David O. Russell directed a phenomenal
cast in his own right, to the point that his film got a nomination for all four
acting categories. Who would have thought Bradley Cooper would ever have a
chance to win an Oscar (in any other year that is)?
S: Yeah this is a killer
competition! I'm going to go with Spielberg though. He has the best pedigree
in the running. And with the three who I think most deserved to be in this
category not in it, I think he is the only one that we
can safely go with. I'm just disappointed in this group (I know I said this
already). It's arguably one of the biggest awards of the night and three
extremely talented directors got the shaft.
A: Reluctantly I'll agree that I
think Spielberg is going to win the award, but I also want to make it
clear that I don't think he should win, and that Russell should win instead.
Actually, Affleck should win, but...you know.
S: Okay readers! That's
it for this edition of our Oscars analysis and predictions! Come back tomorrow
when we delve into the acting categories by discussing Best Supporting Actor
and Best Supporting Actress!
A: Oh! And for the second
straight year we're going to be LIVE-BLOGGING the Oscars! We know you're going
to be following our predictions up until the weekend, but don't forget to come
back on Sunday night when Sarah and I (and maybe a guest or two) will be
live-blogging while the show is airing, giving our running commentary and
reaction to the night's winners!
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