Friday, January 29, 2016

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Original Screenplay 1999

The Contenders:

American Beauty (winner)
Being John Malkovich
Magnolia
The Sixth Sense
Topsy-Turvy

What’s Missing

Evidently, 1999 was a great year for original screenplays. It’s a year good enough that I almost wish there was room for 10 nominees. No, really. The best options might well be the nominees, because a lot of the films I would put here will be objected to by plenty of people. So, let’s get started. It’s impossible to discuss 1999 without mentioning The Matrix. I like The Matrix, but let’s be honest; it didn’t deserve to be nominated for its screenplay. The problem with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is that it’s difficult to understand about half of the characters, but I love it anyway. Some will also object to Ghost Dog, but it’s a better movie than its reputation, and I like the screenplay a lot. Don’t like any of those? How about Rushmore? Both Boys Don’t Cry and Man on the Moon are more traditional Oscar fare and could’ve stood a mention. I’m not serious when I suggest Bowfinger, but that’s a movie much funnier than it’s given credit for being.

Weeding through the Nominees

5: Topsy-Turvy is too damn long. I can’t say it’s not an interesting film or that I didn’t enjoy watching it. But it’s 161 minutes long and there’s not 161 minutes of plot here. Topsy-Turvy doesn’t get boring, but it also doesn’t really seem to go anywhere. And while there’s entertainment to be had here, this is the film I’d dump to add in something else from the year. It’s a fine movie, but not one of the five best original screenplays from 1999.

4: I think it’s entirely possible that I’m judging The Sixth Sense too harshly and comparing it too much with Stir of Echoes, which came out about a month and a half after. I like the story of Stir of Echoes more; it benefits from having been written by Richard Mattheson, for starters. Beyond that, it’s a better version of something that is essentially the same plot. The Sixth Sense is probably better than fourth place, but for me, it can’t overcome that hurdle.

3: I think Being John Malkovich will be the choice of a lot of people reading this, and I understand that choice completely. It is probably the most inventive and creative screenplay of the year, and certainly the most inventive of the five nominees. I can’t take it higher than third, though; it suffers from being filled with characters that I really dislike, and that’s hard for me to overcome on a gut level. In fact, the only character I like is Malkovich himself, and I only really like him for the first part of the movie. I know that’s the intent. I just wish I liked the people more.

2: My placement of Magnolia will probably bother a lot of readers. Some will think that this belongs on the bottom, and I’m guessing that a few will think that it deserves the top position. Magnolia is pretty polarizing. I happen to like it, and I like it pretty well. There’s a lot going on here, and I think all of it works. I get that not everyone does and I get that the main objection is the event that happens at the end. Don’t care. I like it. It’s not my winner, but if it had won, I wouldn’t have been terribly upset.

My Choice

1: No, American Beauty was the right winner. This is a movie that is filled with anger, and it gets all of the anger right. There are plenty of movies that attempt to show that middle aged malaise, the true depth of a mid-life crisis, and none do it as well as American Beauty. Even the things that lean more toward the froofy artistic stuff—the blowing plastic bag, for instance—are done well. There’s always a lingering doubt with me how much of this I’m supposed to take at face value and how much I’m not, and I like that about it, too. If it’s messing with me, it does it well enough that I’m not sure it’s doing it. A good choice.

Final Analysis

14 comments:

  1. I agree on American Beauty. It is a very intelligent movie and, yeah, it messes with your skull. I would put Being John Malkovich second, there has never been a movie quite like that. Magnolia never really did it for me. It feels overly pretentious.

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    1. I get that--Magnolia either works for you or it doesn't. It works for me, but I understand why it falls on its face for other people.

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  2. Totally agree with this, but I wouldn't have objected if you did have BJM in the top spot because of how inventive it is.

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    1. Being John Malkovich is one of those movies I want to like a lot more than I actually like it.

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  3. I've see all but Topsy-Turvy. I completely agree with your ordering, and pretty much for all the reasons you stated. I really appreciate the structure of Magnolia: it would have been so hard to keep all those stories going, and I also liked the ending.

    The people in American Beauty are almost as difficult to like as those in Being John Malkovich, but their unpleasantness springs from the constricted lives they feel they are living, and fuels their anger.

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    1. Yes--that. Everyone in Being John Malkovich feels mean. These aren't good people. In American Beauty, I think they used to be good people but are so crushed by the weight of their lives that they can't see it anymore.

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  4. This is a tough one. I'd drop Topsy-Turvy, even though I liked it more than you, because a chunk of it is actually them doing the Mikado's story. I'd also jettison Magnolia, complete with jetpacks strapped to it to get it as far to hell away from here as I could.

    That leaves American Beauty, Being John Malkovich, and The Sixth Sense - all of which I think are terrific. I wouldn't have an issue with any of them winning. BJM was probably a little too weird for folks, and in regards to The Sixth Sense some people discount a film with a twist just because it's a film with a twist, so it makes sense that American Beauty won.

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    1. There's the Magnolia reaction I was expecting. I know there are people out there who don't like it. I understand even if I disagree.

      We'll agree on Topsy-Turvy. I think it's a fine film, but too long for the story. Boys Don't Cry belonged here more than it did.

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    2. The one nice thing I will say about Magnolia is that I liked Aimee Mann's songs. I hate everything else about it, including the rain of frogs/toads.

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    3. Yeah, that tends to be one of the reactions to it.

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  5. Haven't seen Topsy-Turvy and while Sixth Sense is really well-crafted, it is also a bit conventional. So my top three are the same as yours, but I cannot decide in which order. Magnolia is emotional and intelligent (but muddled), BJM weirdly inventive (though crammed with unpleasant people), American Beauty sad/funny/angry/numb. Hmmm, this is too complicated for me...

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  6. The shift should adequately provide the catalyst for the hero’s change from response mode to attack mode and adds new weight and dramatic tension; problems worse, stakes higher. screenplay stakes

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    1. I gotta say that I'm not entirely sure what this is in reference to.

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