Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Adapted Screenplay 2023

The Contenders:

American Fiction (winner)
Barbie
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest

What’s Missing

It’s always interesting to me to see some of the movies that turn out to be adaptations rather than original. It’s not a shock at this point when something in a long series is adapted--Godzilla Minus One is clearly an adaptation, as is The Last Voyage of the Demeter, clearly coming from Nosferatu/Dracula or films part of a series like Evil Dead Rise and Scream VI. The surprises come in movies like Boy Kills World, not something I’d nominate, but I was sure that was original. Other films that could have been nominated, but that I would not have nominated, include Rustin, Nyad, and A Haunting in Venice. Animated movies don’t get a lot of respect in the screenplay categories, so Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Nimona, and Robot Dreams weren’t going to get some attention that they deserved. Dumb Money would have been an interesting nomination, and I’m genuinely surprised that Killers of the Flower Moon was skipped, simply based on the movie and the pedigree. Finally, while it didn’t stand a chance, there is so much done well in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, that I can’t help but pitch it here.

Weeding through the Nominees

5. At this point, regular readers are as aware of my general ambivalence of Yorgos Lanthimos as much as they are my general disappointment in Quentin Tarantino. Poor Things, therefore, is the movie I would most likely want to drop from this list. I don’t love the story and I don’t love the characters, so there’s not a great deal for me here. Flowers of the Killer Moon might still end up in fifth for me if it replaced Poor Things, but I’d feel better about it being a nomination. Sorry not sorry if you’re a fan; there’s just not much here that I enjoyed.

4. As this is the film that won the big award, I’m not surprised at the nomination for Oppenhemier. This is one that feels, at least to me, like there’s a lot more here than is needed. This is a three-hour movie telling a story that could have been handled in just over two, but it seems that one again the film world is in a “films need to be epic” era. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Oppenheimer except that it’s bloated. It also has weird sexual content that doesn’t seem to have a great deal of purpose other than to shock. I mean, at least in Poor Things the amount of sex and nudity was plot-relevant. Here, it just seems there to sell tickets.

3. I don’t really like that I’m putting The Zone of Interest in third, and the choice between second and third was the hardest for me this time. The thing that sells this film is the focus—we're looking at this family and always in the background is the horror at the center of the story. It’s subtle, and that’s not always easy to do in film in general. To be fair, the lack of media literacy that plagues a great deal of the world seems more common in the sort of person who wouldn’t be disturbed by what’s going on behind the wall, but it’s still a risk. I like the nomination, and I’m happy it’s here.

2. The winner of this Oscar was American Fiction, and I get the win. It’s a really good screenplay, and like The Zone of Interest, there’s a lot going on here that is subtle. That’s hidden behind the broad satire on display, though, which makes that subtlety all the more impressive. One of the bigger strengths of the film is also a weakness. A lot of what our main character goes through feels real, but also has very little to do with the main plot. It feels like a lot of red herrings. This makes the story feel realistic, but it also makes a part of the film feel unnecessary. Still, I love the nomination and I don’t hate the win.

My Choice

1. I genuinely have to wonder why Barbie didn’t win, and how much of that might be because of the source material. Can we really contemplate given an Oscar to a movie based on a girls’ toy? Well, they should have. This is not merely the best screenplay of 2024, but one of the best screenplays of this decade. Beyond simply being a good story, it is filled with trenchant social commentary of the sort that makes manosphere bloggers pissed off. Greta Gerwig is a true talent and Oscar has yet to recognize that beyond a few nominations. This should have been hers, and I think most people know it.

Final Analysis