NOMINEES
- Argo (Chris Terrio)
- Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin & Lucy Alibar)
- Life of Pi (David Magee)
- Lincoln (Tony Kushner)
- Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell)
MY THOUGHTS
ARGO: What made Argo great was Ben Affleck as a director but the movie works because of the solid foundation set by Chris Terrio. A very good script made this great film work.
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD: I will give Beasts some credit that it created well defined characters and situations and knew exactly what it wanted to say. However, at the end of the day this medium is still storytelling and film therefore the story needs to be entertaining and compelling. Beasts was just straight up boring.
LIFE OF PI: While I never read the book by Yann Martel, all I heard during this ad campaign that it was impossible to make the book of the same name into a movie. I was thoroughly captivated by Life of Pi and thought it was an excellent film- so to turn an unfilmable book into a great movie seems like a damn good feat to master. The story managed to not only tell a great and captivating story but with great characters and wonderful nuances about religion.
LINCOLN: To make a biopic about Abraham Lincoln is easy, but to make a movie about the 13th amendment is a difficult task. Kushner had to add monologues about nuances in the law (see: Lincoln's monologue about his Emancipation Proclamation) while still telling a story. While Kushner's script is bold and daring, that doesn't always equate to success- as the script to Lincoln proves. If Kushner had actually created well-defined characters then it would have been a good script, but his superficial melodrama with forced conflict (see: any scene with Mary Todd Lincoln in it) means I don't think Lincoln should have gotten nominated.
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK: David O. Russell made a fun and wonderful movie thanks to an incredible script he wrote. We truly got to know what makes Bradley Cooper's Pat Jr. and Jennifer Lawrence's Tiffany tick. We delved deep inside mental illness to create rich storytelling and characters.
IF I HAD AN OSCAR VOTE:
- 21 Jump Street (Michael Bacall)
- Argo (Chris Terrio)
- Life of Pi (David Magee)
- Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell)
- Skyfall (Neil Purvis, Robert Wade, & John Logan)
WINNERS
- WHO SHOULD WIN (OSCAR FIELD): Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell)
- WHO SHOULD WIN (ENTIRE FIELD): Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell)
- WHO WILL WIN: Argo (Chris Terrio)