Hans’ Oscar Bites

Oscar Bites #5 – BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Ok we’re back to the usual suspects, though with a few new guests! Lots of varied source material being adapted here, from a classic novel to a Korean film to a couple of your modern novels, though each with their own varied takes.

The nominees are:
-Bugonia
-Frankenstein
-Hamnet
-One Battle After Another
-Train Dreams

In order of preference:
5) TRAIN DREAMS (Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar; based on the novella by Denis Johnson)
Our Sundance star of the year, this quiet little story about a man carrying making a life for himself in family in the growing early 20th century Pacific Northwest captured many with its dreamy simplicity and heartfelt narrative. All told there’s very little dialogue here so the strength of this screenplay lies in its ability to paint a tableau of this growing but still untamed land and its parallels to this man’s life.

4) FRANKENSTEIN (Guillermo del Toro; based on the novel by Mary Shelley)
Since I am terrible at books, I have never actually read Frankenstein, and since I am terrible at movies, I’ve never seen the classic Frankenstein movies. I did, however, grow up watching the Munsters and going to Universal Studios, so I have some grasp of the iconography of this character. All that to say is that this screenplay does so well on standing on its own from all of those previous narratives, as to create or start its own dark universe. The two act structure helps compartmentalism one’s feelings toward are various characters, though the dialogue does leave a little something to be desired (a character really says “No Victor, you are the monster”).

3) HAMNET (Chloé Zhaoand Maggie O’Farrell; based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell)
A novelist getting to adapt their novel for film can always hit or miss, but being partnered up with an experienced filmmaker like Chloe Zhao can help. I actually think this partnership works because I imagine one of the most difficult aspects of adapting one’s own novel wanting to get as much in as possible; however, that kind of approach helps balance a someone like Chloe Zhao who can trend toward the minimalist in her screenwriting. What we get is a pensive story flow peppered with character-building moments and vignettes culminating in an extraordinarily emotional climax.

2) ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Paul Thomas Anderson; based on the novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon)
I’ve never quite vibed with Paul Thomas Anderson’s storytelling approach, and I think the best example of his writing that works for me is There Will Be Blood, which is a pretty unimpeachable movie from top to bottom. In this case, however, as I’ve alluded to before, the approach of modeling this film as almost a series of vignettes or short stories helps with compartmentalizing a very long story. On top of that, the film still manages to have a lot of super portable lines, such as “a few small beers” and “[Mexican whistling]”.

1 BUGONIA (Will Tracy; based on the film Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan)
Being adapted from a Korean sci-fi film automatically means that this is going to do great numbers with me. That said, this screenplay takes a lot of different narrative, swings, and choices that at first make you think that it doesn’t know quite where it’s going. And then once you get to the end, you realize that it has been leading you to the conclusion all along. Much kudos to the actors for bringing this screenplay to life, and your ghost the director for a good solid, directing hand in making this complicated tone of a story makes sense.

-WILL WIN: One Battle After Another
-COULD WIN: Hamnet
-SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE: nothing really stood out to me as a major miss so let’s be fun and say Zootopia 2