Twist my arm: I'll share my thoughts on the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar Nominees

The Good, The Head Scratchers, and the Notable Exclusions

Hello literate cinephiles,

I’m a huge fan of adaptations. It’s fascinating to see how a story goes from an idea in an author’s head to a published book to a written script to a released film. I like how an entire Academy Award category is dedicated to the adapted screenplay. Two years ago I was thrilled by Sarah Polley winning for her Women Talking screenplay. I wrote about that book and movie and it remains one of my favorite deep dive experiences I’ve had on this newsletter.

Last year Cord Jefferson won for his American Fiction script (adapted from Percival Everett’s book Erasure) and I loved his acceptance speech. His script was funny and true to the source material but not servile to it.

Now that Oscar season is upon us, I’m looking at the list of nominees for best adapted screenplay and feeling mixed on it.

The Good

Conclave adapted from the book Conclave by Robert Harris

I’m pleased with this nomination because I thought the book and movie were both well done and started interesting conversations (read: controversy). My minor quibble: The book feels like something written with adaptation in mind. The conversion from book to script seems effortless. Harris is an author whose work gets adapted consistently, which isn’t a knock - I liked this book and movie a lot. I’m commenting on the level of effort and ingenuity when it comes to adapting the material, which I consider low for this book and high for something like Nickel Boys.

Nickel Boys adapted from the book The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

This represents the gold standard of adaptations and the strongest contender on the list. This Pulitzer Prize winning book is challenging to translate to the screen. It deals with the upsetting topic of the sexual and physical abuse of Black youths. It jumps back and forth in time. It has a surprise ending that works in a book but would be difficult to maintain in a visual medium. And yet, the movie pulled it off because of the way it was written and shot. I’m impressed and I hope it wins this category. I want more people to read the book.

Sing Sing adapted from "Sing Sing Follies" by John H. Richardson and “Breakin' the Mummy's Code” by Brent Buell

I haven’t seen it or read it but enough people I trust are raving about it so I’m putting it with The Good.

The Head Scratchers

A Complete Unknown adapted from the book Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald

I’m not a history of music buff or a Dylan fan but this book sounds interesting and I’m on the waitlist at the library. I haven’t seen the movie but I’m feeling bitter towards it for reasons unrelated to this nomination. First off, Hollywood and the Academy have a weird obsession with musical biopics. There are so many and they rarely spark my interest. And then there’s James Mangold, a fine director who I’m sure did great work on this film, but giving him a best director nomination while Denis Villeneuve, who busted his butt in the desert for several months to shoot Dune, goes unrecognized is annoying.

Emilia Perez adapted from the book Ecoute by Boris Razon

Like everyone else, I’m baffled by the 13 nominations. Like David Chen says in his newsletter, I don’t personally know a single person who has both 1) Seen it and 2) Thought it was good. What is going on here? I have not seen it yet either and I want to withhold judgment until I do…but seriously, what is going on? I don’t understand why it’s nominated in so many categories but especially this category. The source material is a French novel (I can’t find an English translation) called Ecoute which has 15 ratings on Goodreads of 3 stars or less. It has five reviews on Amazon. I need to do more half-hearted research, but I’m scratching my head about the whole thing. If someone knows more please explain.

Notable exclusions

Dune 2: I know not everything can be nominated, but Dune is an amazing script. Part 1 was nominated in this category so it feels weird to leave out Part 2. The book is such challenging source material and when I look at what Conclave did versus what Dune did, Dune has the edge! Not knocking Conclave but as I say above, the book is clearly written with the screen adaptation in mind. Again, it’s the level of effort, which I know isn’t the standard used for determining who gets a vote but maybe it should be.

Wicked: Wicked got plenty of love elsewhere so I’m fine with it not being nominated in this category. I also think the musical did most of the heavy lifting on the writing front and what the movie adds is everything in the visual medium, which it got nominated for. I have more thoughts on this after reading the book and plan to write a newsletter about how I hope Gregory Maguire’s Wicked gets a more faithful adaptation someday. Heresy, I know.

The Wild Robot: I’m happy for this movie getting recognized for music, sound, and animated feature (which it will probably win). I haven’t read the book, but it may be something about it being a children’s book that discouraged voters.

It Ends With Us: Ha, kidding. Nothing notable about this, just seeing if you’re paying attention.

Thanks for being here and sharing in this weird obsession of mine. What are your thoughts on the nominations?

Also, if you simply comment and tell me what you’re reading, it’ll make my day.

Kyle