Anora is one of my favorite movies of the year. You can find my full review here. Aside from having a fantastic screenplay, screenwriter and director Sean Baker crafted a film that is beautifully heartbreaking on many levels. It’s funny when it needs to be. It’s tense and dramatic at the appropriate times. But it …
Category: Reviews
Best Original Screenplay – The Substance
The Substance might very well be the best original screenplay of the year. I love A Real Pain, and I will discuss tomorrow how much I love Anora, but there is something about what Director and Screenwriter Coralie Fargeat crafted with this script that sings with a voice the other screenplays this year don’t quite match. There is …
Best Original Screenplay – The Brutalist
I’m going to come right out and admit it. I did not get this movie. To me, The Brutalist and Emilia Perez are the two most overrated movies of the year. I can give The Brutalist more of a pass because I can appreciate it as a work of great art, but for me, it …
Best Original Screenplay – A Real Pain
Sometimes, a screenplay is more about the characters than the story it tells. Sometimes, the story is there to serve as a vehicle or a mechanism for allowing the characters to experience the growth they need to experience. Sometimes, the inner journey a character experiences in a screenplay is more important than the external journey …
Best Original Screenplay – September 5
Sometimes politics creates a great story and sometimes politics gets in the way of a good story. September 5 is an example of both. This film is a compelling take on the horrific kidnapping and murder of the Israeli Olympic team during the 1972 games in Munich. It’s told from the point of view of …
Best Adapted Screenplay: Nickel Boys
This is the most difficult screenplay so far for me to give an in-depth analysis of. I’m going to come right out and say this script, in particular, and the movie, in general, perplexed me. That is not to say that I didn’t enjoy it or that I didn’t find it compelling or powerful. Just …
Best Adapted Screenplay: Sing Sing
I was overjoyed to see Sing Sing get some Oscar love in the form of a couple nominations. I doubt it will win anything, but the fact that it was nominated is a win in and of itself. I am especially happy that one of those nominations was for Best Adapted Screenplay. Sing Sing is …
Adapted Screenplay Nominee: Emilia Pérez
I have been down on Emilia Pérez for a long time. I heard a lot of negative reviews about it before seeing it, but I went into watching it with an open mind. The story of Emilia Pérez as a production is one of missed opportunities. It could have and should have been a great …
Adapted Screenplay Nominee: Conclave
Conclave is my favorite film and my favorite screenplay of the year. Director Edward Berger created a film in such a way as to make something that most people would find mundane into a riveting drama that felt so compelling that it felt like the fate of the world was at stake. That isn’t necessarily …
Adapted Screenplay Nominee: A Complete Unknown
I wrote a blog on this film earlier this year, but this post will focus on the screenplay. As everyone knows, A Complete Unknown is a biopic about Bob Dylan’s early career, how he dealt with rising fame, his tumultuous relationships with Joan Baez and Sylvie Russo, and his struggle to define himself as more …