Best Screenplay 1999

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What were the best original and adapted screenplaysof 1999?

American Beauty (Alan Ball)
5
9%
Being John Malkovich (Charlie Kaufman)
11
21%
Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)
6
11%
The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan)
1
2%
Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh)
3
6%
The Cider House Rules (John Irving)
1
2%
Election (Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor)
10
19%
The Green Mile (Frank Darabont)
0
No votes
The Insider (Eric Roth, MIchael Mann)
3
6%
The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella)
13
25%
 
Total votes: 53

FilmFan720
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Re: Best Screenplay 1999

Post by FilmFan720 »

Looking at my lists for 1999, it reminds me of just what an incredible year for American cinema this was. Going over this list, though, makes me kind of sad for what left out in favor of some really poor writing.

On the Original side, this has to be one of the strongest slates this category has seen; even if you don't love these films, these are all five writers who have had incredible success in film and television and are all auteurs to some extent or another. Magnolia might not be P.T. Anderson's best work, but the stuff that works in Mangolia works like gangbusters. Topsy-Turvy is unlike the rest of Mike Leigh's oeuvre (until this year, at least), but it is still a smart work that I'm happy got nominated here. The Sixth Sense is about as good as a Hollywood ghost story can be. The 17-year old in me thought American Beauty was beyond brilliant, and I still think there is a lot of smart writing in there, but the flaws seem greater now to me and I can't vote for it here (although I can't argue against it too much). Being John Malkovich, however, is an almost perfect screenplay, an original, innovative, hilarious, scary, thoughful, intelligent, layered portrait of modern life. I have to vote for it here.

The Adapted slate, however, doesn't hold up as well. John Irving may be my favorite living author, and The Cider House Rules is one of his most wonderful books, but everything about his adaptation misses the mark for me. I don't understand how it happened, but it is a mess. The Green Mile is almost as big of a mess, and if I don't rank it last here, it is only because I don't have the attachment to the source material I have with the Irving piece. The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Insider are both very literate and intelligent films that I like to see nominated, but I don't find either impressive enough to vote for.

I know I'm something of an Alexander Payne apologist in these woods, but I think Election is head over heels smarter, funnier and deeper than anything else in this category (or any of the other eligible screenplays). Every time I return to it, it shocks me how smart it is, how deceptively subversive it is, but also how tenderly it holds its characters (though you have to dig a little bit for that). It's a lovely film, made possible only by that brilliant screenplay. The easiest vote for me so far in this game.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1999

Post by Uri »

Mister Tee wrote:It's not a popular stance, but my first deletion would be Topsy Turvy, which I found bafflingly overrated. It not only won the NY Critics prize (and tied at the National Society), voting critic John Anderson in Newsday claimed it was boring, the degree to which it topped the rest of the year's films, in a runaway. How he could feel this in such a banner year is mystifying, but especially because I find Topsy Turvy a way overlong film that barely bothers to connect scene to scene. My memory is of plot points being raised in one scene, then dropped in favor of new plot points, which would then would be succeeded by other new plot points...all the way to the end, when Gilbert in the final scene suddenly seemed to have previously unmentioned problems witin his marriage. The film felt like it was written by the Guy Pearce character in Memento. Without narrative cohesion, I found it hugely boring at points along the way (especially during the rehearsal for, what was it, a sorcerer operetta?). A definite no vote for me.
Topsy Turvy is a personal favorite of mine and I was looking forward to see what you had to say about it, since being aware of your personal, intimate knowledge of musical theatre, I thought it’d strike a chord with you. Interestingly, I love it for all the things you found distracting. In recent years I became more and more impatient with “well written” scripts. And Topsy Turvy, with its fractured, free structure doesn't obey the rules studied in screenwriting workshop. It’s a meditation about the artistic process, Art and commerce, Art and social structure, the nature of Wit as an artistic tool as well as a defense mechanism, gender roles. And it often does it in an associative, even erratic, certainly non linear, way. One is let to experience it by a gradual accumulation of these bits and pieces of information rather than by being plot driven. I found it to be an extremely rewarding, emotionally and intellectually coherent narrative.

As for the last scene – while Mrs. Gilbert's outburst was indeed unexpected, in retrospect, following carefully Lesley Manville’s masterful, full of nuances, performance it makes perfect sense, and it beautifully sums up a major theme which runs through the entire film, that of the contrasting approaches to Art and Life – that of the the sensual, very sexually active Sullivan as opposed to the restrained, formalistic (and probably celibate) Gilbert.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1999

Post by The Original BJ »

Original Screenplay had an overload of bountiful options this year. I definitely would have wanted All About My Mother -- one of Pedro's most inventive and moving films -- on the ballot. I'll also push for Boys Don't Cry, which got most of its awards attention for its actresses, but which I think of as much more than simply a great performance vehicle. (In a less competitive year, The Straight Story and Three Kings would be right in line for inclusion as well.)

I don't have the overall issue with Topsy-Turvy that Mister Tee does -- I think it's a very enjoyable kaleidoscopic look at the creation and production of a well-known musical, both a witty and insightful portrait of behind-the-scenes life in the theater, as well as an authentic depiction of a time and place. (In this and Vera Drake, Mike Leigh reveals a real knack for crafting lived-in historical worlds that feel far less embalmed than in much period fare). Still, I'll take the point that, simply on a plot level, it doesn't feel as carefully constructed as some of its competition, and I pass over it pretty quickly, though I don't in any way resent the nomination.

Gosh, my 12-year old self thought The Sixth Sense was just about the most amazing thing (at least until a much MORE amazing thing came along several weeks later). That twist ending completely floored me, and I remember watching it a second time in awe of the careful way Shyamalan hid his clues in plain sight throughout the majority of the movie. I'm not quite as high on the movie now -- I like to think I look for more in a movie than simply plot surprise -- but I do think there's a lot that's solid about the writing even beyond the Big Twist, namely its touching mother-son relationship, and a compelling theme about a young boy learning to cope with death. And I also think it's genuinely scary, which is a lot more than most "horror" movies these days can say for themselves. No vote, but I'm happy to salute an effort that made it seem like Shyamalan was a real talent, before his career imploded.

The remaining three scripts belong to some of my very favorite movies of the year, and it's tough to choose between them. Many filmmakers have tried their hand at Altman-esque ensemble dramas, but few have succeeded as well as Paul Thomas Anderson. The opening moments of the movie, outlining the various coincidences with rapid-fire energy, just sets a thrilling stage for the film that follows, weaving a whole slew of fascinating stories together, with characters whose lives parallel and bounce off of one another in hugely complex, exciting ways. I'm not sure I'd have ended the movie with the raining frogs, but even there, the sheer ambition and chutzpah of such a story choice felt really exciting, the kind of narrative turn you just go with when in the hands of such a confident filmmaker. Anderson doesn't get my vote this year, but Magnolia was definitely one of the movies that made '99 such a wonderfully imaginative year.

I've outlined my reaction to American Beauty at the time, as well as reactions since then, and it remains a very significant milestone in my filmgoing life. It may surprise some, then, that I didn't end up voting for it in this category. Which isn't to say that I don't think the screenplay is a wonderful accomplishment, because I do. Its blend of black comedy and tragedy seemed bracingly unique at the time (in an era before a plethora of similar suburban exposes hit film and tv screens), and its story of a couple of unhappy families struggling to find meaning in their existence was full of fascinating characters, sparkling dialogue, and tonal shifts that felt jarring in only the most appropriate ways. (I'll never forget the gasp I let out when the gun appeared on the side of the frame during the movie's climactic moment.) I, too, will reject revisionism and say that I continue to think American Beauty is the best film of its year, and Alan Ball's imaginative but still grounded work is one of its most crucial elements to its success.

However, Being John Malkovich is my second favorite movie of the year, and when it comes to voting for ORIGINAL Screenplay, I have to side narrowly with the movie I found an even greater burst of originality. There's invention in this script from the word go -- even before we get the portal into Malkovich's mind, there's the bizarre 7th and a half floor situation, which lays the groundwork for even more outrageous hijincks to come. Then there's the monkey flashback, the sequence where Malkovich enters his own mind (still one of the most laugh-out-loud scenes I've ever seen in a movie theater), the chase through Malkovich's subconscious, and on and on. I think Charlie Kaufman took an insane concept and ran with it to increasing levels of dazzling originality. But the movie isn't just wild set pieces; it's full of characters searching for their identity, the titular character included, and its themes about the excitement (and danger) of wanting to be someone else simply because one is unhappy with him/herself give the movie a resonance beyond its fun-house adventures.

It's a very close call -- and Beauty is a movie so close to my heart that I hate to take its Oscar here away -- but writing is the area that Malkovich excelled in most of all, and I'll toss a bone its direction in this category.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1999

Post by The Original BJ »

1999 was such a stupendous year, with bountiful options in both writing categories, which made it all the more annoying when two movies that clearly didn't belong crashed the Adapted slate. My alternates would be Eyes Wide Shut and Toy Story 2 (with The End of the Affair and Fight Club perfectly respectable as well).

The Green Mile is the kind of problematic movie that undiscerning liberals can get behind as an indictment of both the death penalty and America's racist past. And yet, the movie's take on both subjects is totally troubling to me. The whole thing practically fetishizes its electric chair execution scenes (even the most horrific one occurs because things go WRONG, with no one mentioning how inhuman it is to start with), and the story of a black man with mystical powers who can heal all of the white characters' suffering before begging to be put out of his misery through electrocution is, beneath the surface, not exactly the most racially sensitive plot line. And, it's just so, so LONG.

If you told me when I saw The Cider House Rules that December that it would win two major Oscars and become the major challenger to American Beauty in Best Picture, I would have been floored, it seemed like such a minor affair. Yes, it's a movie seemingly about IMPORTANT subjects -- abortion, rape, incest, war -- but it actually has very little to say about any of them. They're basically just window dressing for a mostly ho-hum coming-of-age narrative. I haven't read Irving's novel, but I assume it's far more complex than this on the page, because as a film I found it utterly wan.

The Insider is a very strong script -- consistently engrossing, full of tense sequences and exchanges, and with a lot of smart dialogue. I agree with the point Mister Tee made, though, that with so many more imaginative movies on display this year, The Insider does feel a bit traditional, despite being a perfectly respectable piece of craft. I think part of this feeling has to do with the fact that The Insider isn't really about much more than its central subject, which is to say, it's not as broad thematically as the very best scripts were this year. It would have been a far more deserving choice than the winner -- and, as this prize seemed within reach, it was an upset I was rooting for -- but I find the remaining two scripts to be richer, more exciting pieces of writing.

Election is probably the most writer-centric of these movies, with its snappy one-liners, exaggerated but also deeply human characters, and hairpin plot turns. I love the way it takes a story about a suburban Midwestern high school, of all places, and uses it to craft one of the best and most piercing satires of the political campaign process ever put to film. This is also one of Payne's blackest movies, made before his more sentimental impulses began creeping into his comedies; I don't mean that as a criticism of his later films, so much as celebration of the fact that in this case, full-on cynicism was just the right approach for this story and its brand of humor. A great, dark gem of a movie.

But I will side with The Talented Mr. Ripley here, which strikes me as a grander overall achievement. It still seems odd that Ripley faded as an Oscar candidate -- it was classical and literate in a manner that's typically catnip to Oscar voters, but of a far more complex bent than more milquetoast fare like The Cider House Rules. Many modern filmmakers have tried to capture the thrill of Golden Age Hitchcock (heck, Brian De Palma spent much of his career on it, often successfully), but not too many have come as close as Anthony Minghella does here. Ripley is consistently suspenseful throughout, but full of entrancing romantic flair, and with a roguish but sympathetic protagonist whose push-pull relationship with his upper class companions is just tantalizingly realized. (Minghella also brings to the surface the homoerotic subtext that pulsed through Hitchcock's work, making Tom's infatuation with Dickey something that will almost inevitably lead to self-destruction). And, scene for scene, Minghella manages some wonderful moments -- the sequence in which we assume Dickey's body will resurface in the water, only to be surprised by what appears, feels like a classic suspense movie misdirect. Obviously, a lot of what makes beats like this work is direction, but much credit must be given to the script as well, for its well-constructed narrative, rich subtext, and, excitingly, more wit and humor than Minghella typically showed elsewhere.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1999

Post by Heksagon »

Hmm... We are now getting into territory where there’s a lot of films that I haven’t seen in more than ten years, and I feel I should maybe see again before commenting on them.

The Original category is exceptionally good this year. Even The Sixth Sense, which is the weakest film in this line-up, is a surprisingly effective film, even if its reputation has been hurt by the fact that its director has since worked his way from top to bottom. It’s also a very tough choice for me to decide who to vote for. In the end, I went with Being John Malkovich.

This year, the Adapted category is weaker than the Original. None of these are really bad, but The Cider House Rules and The Green Mile are not quite the level I’d like to see receive Oscar nominations. The choice here is much easier than in Original, as I’m a particular admirer of The Insider.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1999

Post by Mister Tee »

Both categories were tough for me, for the atypical reason that I had more than one option for which I was anxious to vote.

The adapted side of the ledger is besmirched by two unworthy nominees, who should have been replaced by The End of the Affair and Fight Club.

The Green Mile is excruciatingly long, and has the added advantage of being silly/not worth the time. I've always felt this film's Oscar success was an indictment of the whole "make projections before we've seen the film" system -- no one particularly liked it, but the idea it should be in the race was so set by December that it couldn't be kept out. It's truly astonishing the generally more discerning writers fell in line for it.

Early on in watching The Cider House Rules, I thought maybe the filmmakers were up to adapting Irving's sprawling novel, as the first half hour got through hundreds of pages with economy. As the film went on though, it struck me that Irving's stories require a vast epic sweep -- reduced to essentials of plot, they don't have the narrative excitement you get on the page. A story that felt in the novel like it covered years was contained with a few months onscreen...and became much less. The fact that this was the Oscar winner was to me the first real sign that Harvey Weinstein had got out of control.

The Insider was a perfectly absorbing docudrama. In most years, it would have qualified as one of the best films on offer. But 1999 offered such a bumper crop of inventive films that it felt a bit musty by comparison; I was surprised so many people (most notably the LA Critics) flipped for it so massively.

My choice would come down to the remaining two: the razor-sharp satire of Election and the richly textured, class-conscious Talented Mr. Ripley. Election of course has Payne's trademark hilarious dialogue, and a wonderful archetype in Witherspoon's Tracy Flick. It's a somewhat small effort, but a pretty perfectly realized one, and in many years it'd have my vote.

But The Talented Mr. Ripley struck me as a fuller work. I'd seen Purple Noon, and enjoyed it in a "clever twist" sort of way. I was startled by the depth Minghella found in Highsmith's source material -- using the same plot outlines Purple Noon had, but weaving in as stark a portrait of class striving as we'd seen on screen in many years. Damon's Ripley becomes not the amoral ruffian of Highsmith's novels, but a lowly-born guy avid to ascend to the levels those around him took completely for granted. The film works brilliantly as thriller, but has the texture of a keenly-observed novel besides. For me, the best work on the year.

The original slate is stronger, but I'd have preferred All About My Mother and Three Kings to have made the cut.

It's not a popular stance, but my first deletion would be Topsy Turvy, which I found bafflingly overrated. It not only won the NY Critics prize (and tied at the National Society), voting critic John Anderson in Newsday claimed it was boring, the degree to which it topped the rest of the year's films, in a runaway. How he could feel this in such a banner year is mystifying, but especially because I find Topsy Turvy a way overlong film that barely bothers to connect scene to scene. My memory is of plot points being raised in one scene, then dropped in favor of new plot points, which would then would be succeeded by other new plot points...all the way to the end, when Gilbert in the final scene suddenly seemed to have previously unmentioned problems witin his marriage. The film felt like it was written by the Guy Pearce character in Memento. Without narrative cohesion, I found it hugely boring at points along the way (especially during the rehearsal for, what was it, a sorcerer operetta?). A definite no vote for me.

I'll never know how I might have reacted to The Sixth Sense had I not had the twist spoiled for me prior to viewing. Even with that, I thought it was a decent enough film -- touching, in its treatment of the Haley Joel Osment character -- but I guess I'll always feel its major Oscar success is mostly a salute to its box office potency.

I very much like the three films that are, at this moment, staging a fierce fight for primacy in this category.

I admire Magnolia's ambition above all. Anderson is one of the few contemporary filmmakers attracted to the epic form without consistently wedding it to the American past (though of course he did do that with There Will Be Blood). It's great to see a movie set in the here and now that covers so much ground, involving such a wealth of characters. In many other years, I'd vote for it. But I must note that it doesn't really stick its landing: Anderson at this point (and maybe since, as well) was better at setting out a landscape than in tying his pieces together to make a clear statement. And there are two films, in this exciting year, I think are more fully successful.

Being John Malkovich starts with a burst of lunatic energy, and, for much of its running time, keeps topping itself: the Malkovich portal is only the first of many Charlie Kaufman inspirations that make the film laugh out loud funny and drive the story forward to ever-greater heights. The catch? I said "for much of its running time". For me, when the (relatively) mundane explanation for the portal finally emerges, the film runs out of steam, and the denouement doesn't reach high enough -- in the end, the film seems to be mostly about its own cleverness, nothing more. Now, let me add that that cleverness is of an exceptionally high order, and the film definitely gets consideration for my vote simply because very few movies can sustain that level of cleverness half as long. But in the end, I go elsewhere.

Because I wasn't around during the '98 Oscar lead-in, I feel like American Beauty was the subject of the first board war I can remember -- led by Damien, but firmly backed by Dennis B., as I recall. I'm not truly up to plodding through all the issues again. I'll just say that, though I found the behind-the-curtain-of-suburbia theme rather ho-hum, the details, characters and dialogue of the movie struck me as very fresh, and full of surprising moments -- many comic, but just as many touching. For me, revisionism be damned, American Beauty remains the best film of the great year 1999, and it's screenplay is a major reason why. It gets my vote.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1999

Post by Eric »

Needless to say, the one and only time you'll see me voting for Payne.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1999

Post by ITALIANO »

There finally ARE some very good screenplays nominated this year, and even the winner for Original - while maybe not VERY good - is a smart and occasionally even brilliant piece of entertainment. Not the revelatory, profound analysis of American life that some thought it was back then, but nice, not stupid, and with good roles for its actors. And God knows that I didn't care for Being John Malkovich when I saw it, but at least, in the empty-postmodernish-movie category, it's still better than Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or others which followed. But then Magnolia is such a writing tour-de-force that it honestly towers over the other nominees, as good as they are (and, again, for once they are all more or less good by the way). Unlike others, I loved the movie, but I also feel that, even if I hadnt loved it, I would still have admired it. For its unusual ambitions, at least, for its scope - so rare today in American cinema and not only in American cinema. The best of these five, definitely.

The bland Cider House Rules won in Adapted - mostly, I guess, out of respect for its writer. It's better than The Green Mile, though at least The Green Mile is kind of trashily entertaining, while Cider House Rules is, again, bland, unremarkable. I never for once believed that Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and most of the other actors in The Talented Mr Ripley were actually people from the 50s - or that even that THAT Italy was "50s Italy". It all just sounded and looked too contemporary, too fake - and while this may be mostly a problem of Minghella as a director, it IS also a problem of Minghella as a writer. But the other two are better - Election is probably minor, but interesting, and at times as caustic as it SHOULD be; The Insider isn't a terribly exciting piece of screenwriting but is at least informative, and done with the kind of American commitment "to a cause" which, while it has sometimes led to better movies, is at least honest, sincere. I can't say that I've enthusiastically voted for it, but I have voted for it.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1999

Post by Precious Doll »

Three stellar choices in each category is pretty impressive for the Academy (Being John Malkovich, The Sixth Sense, Magnolia, Election, The Insider & The Talented Mr. Ripley).

Such a shame that the likes of The Straight Story, South Park, Fight Club, Boys Don't Cry & All About My Mother couldn't dislodge those lesser nominees.
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Re: Best Screenplay 1999

Post by mlrg »

voted for Magnolia and The Insider
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Re: Best Screenplay 1999

Post by Sabin »

An exciting year with less-than exciting winners. I understand the American Beauty backlash if not the American Beauty hate. Every time I see it, I find something to enjoy, laugh at, and respond to. I remember watching it at a movie theater in Tucson, Arizona convinced I’d seen a masterpiece and I wasn’t alone. Most films that go on to win Best Picture are rarely immediately heralded as contemporary masterpieces like American Beauty and almost none of them hold up on scrutiny. But it’s a strong piece of entertainment that’s masterfully cast, shot, (especially) scored, and directed. But it’s not my choice for Best Original Screenplay. Not in a year with Being John Malkovich, which WAS a contemporary masterpiece that holds up under scrutiny. It’s a film about identity. Its depiction of fame feels very Inside Edition and Hard Copy. Its love triangle and gender/sexual confusion feels very Daytime TV. Everybody in Being John Malkovich is 90s sitcom broad. There’s nothing in American Beauty that Being John Malkovich doesn’t do better – especially in the field of indescribable heartbreak which Kaufman did better five years later in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

The other nominees are very fine as well. I go back and forth on Magnolia but there is a powerful through-line of Fathers and Sons, of incest, of addiction that feels if not profound than at least creatively diagramed. There’s some tremendous character-work as well. John C. Reilly’s lovelorn cop might be PTA’s finest hour. I haven’t seen Topsy-Turvy in ages but man, it’s strange to look back and see just how well it did with the critics and very few else. Not a single Golden Globe nomination but it won big with the New York and National Society of Film Critics. I vaguely remember thinking it would be a contender, and certainly Jim Broadbent deserved a nomination. No idea how it holds up but I remember thinking it was an excellent movie that took its time. I do know how The Sixth Sense holds up. In defiance of everything M. Night Shyamalan has done since, it’s very good. For a while, I thought the twist was that it starts as a strong horror entry and becomes a pretty sweet, human film. The Sixth Sense is likely my choice for Best Picture, but in a field with Being John Malkovich it loses out.

Had I not been such a fan of John Irving’s The Cider House Rules, I might not have worked up such a loathing to what I can only perceive as John Irving’s willful mutilation of his source material. What was so sprawling, strange, and moving on the page felt barely once removed from Nicholas Sparks in the hands of Lasse Hallstrom and Harvey Weinstien. Were I to watch it today, I might find it slightly more tolerable, and no doubt adapting such a huge book is hard work, but it played to me like a loathsome half-measure – the blame lying almost solely in this category. Frank Darabont’s treated The Green Mile with the opposite approach, seemingly keeping everything in tact. I don’t hate the film like some do. I haven’t watched it since its sneak preview on the University of Arizona campus, eager to run back and post at this board that yes, it was indeed a triumph. Once the dust settled, I realized very clearly, no it was not. The Green Mile would make a strong miniseries but it’s not a movie for the modern age.

Election, The Insider, and The Talented Mr. Ripley are all worthy nominees but Alexander Payne’s finest moment is Election, a movie so sharp I had a very difficult time with it when it first came out but it ages better and better every year.


Best choices for Best Screenplay of 1999
1. Charlie Kaufman, Being John Malkovich
2. Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor, Election
3. Jim Uhls & Andrew Kevin Walker, Fight Club
4. Trey Parker, Matt Stone, & Pam Brady, South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut
5. David O. Russel, Three Kings
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Best Screenplay 1999

Post by Big Magilla »

This year the Academy agreed with the Writers Guild on 4 out of 5 choices in both Original and Adapted categories. In both cases I prefer the WGA choices.

Both bodies agreed on American Beauty; Being John Malkovich; Magnolia and The Sixth Sense in Original with the WGA adding Three Kings and the Academy Topsy-Turvy. The only other alternative I can think of is All About My Mother. Both, however, agreed on American Beauty for the win with which I concur.

In Adapted there was agreement on The Cider House Rules; Election; The Insider and The Talented Mr. Ripley. For their fifth choice, the WGA picked October Sky while the Academy chose The Green Mile. I would have not only picked October Sky over The Green Mile but would also have picked The End of the Affair over The Cider House Rules. My winner, however, would have been The Talented Mr. Ripley over both the WGA's pick of Election and the Academy's pick of The Cider House Rules.
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