10 Years, 10 Great Screenplays.

Update: Yeah, I know, there's technically 11 years/11 screenplays. I wrote this near the beginning of my blogging career... it's a big rough, and there's been controversy around it. But... whatever.

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In light of the Writer’s Strike having just ended, I thought it might be a fun idea to write an article based around 10 really great movies within the last 10 years (1 movie per year) that were just incredibly smartly written. Whether it be dialogue, scenario, or just brilliance all around, something about each of these screenplays turned out 10 magnificent movies. Each of these descriptions isn’t overly long, and they say roughly the same thing. I just felt it was important to at least state some reasons why I thought these movies were chosen for their specific year. So let’s get started.

1997 – Chasing Amy.

Written by: Kevin Smith

Arguably one of Kevin Smith’s best movies (though maybe not his wittiest, which would go to Clerks), Chasing Amy is a story about a lesbian and the man in love with her. Whether you are straight, gay, or bi, you can’t deny that Chasing Amy has heart. And its script is really well done, at that. My personal favorite scene would be when Jason Lee is trying to explain to Ben Affleck why the relationship can’t work, using examples with Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, and the Man-Hating Dyke. It’s just classic Smith dialogue.

1998 – The Big Lebowski.

Written by: Joel and Ethan Coen

Very quick, smart, and hilarious. It’s a movie full of memorable characters and scenarios. And when the main character is known as The Dude, you know you have a classic (in one form or another) on your hands. Fuck it, let’s go bowling.

1999 – Fight Club.

Written by: Jim Uhls (based on the book by Chuck Palahniuk)

This was the hardest year to choose from. Do you have any idea how many great movies came out in 1999? A large chunk of them, actually. It was almost like everybody was afraid the world was going to end with Y2K and decided to get all their best movies out all at once. From movies such as The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, and American Beauty, it was incredibly hard to pick just one. But I finally decided to stick with Fight Club. Yes, it’s based on a book, but it was just so smart and witty that it was hard not to choose it. There’s so many scenes in this movie that are memorable, dialogue-wise, it’s hard to even pick one thing. And to top that off, you even have that narration about the ‘I am Jack’s’ such-and-such. At the very least, it was intelligent adaptation.

2000 – Requiem for a Dream.

Written by: Hubert Selby Jr.

On the other hand, 2000 was the year of a lot of crap, with such gems as Battlefield Earth. It seems that in getting out all their best ideas in 1999, and upon realizing the world didn’t end come 2000, they realized “Well hell, we still have movies to make… um…” I’ll be honest, I haven’t completely watched this movie all the way through because I didn’t care for it while I was watching it. It’s possible that it was because I was watching it after midnight, but still… this was one of the only highly acclaimed movies of the year, so I chose it.

2001 – Memento.

Written by: Christopher Nolan (based on a short story by Jonathan Nolan)

(See what I did there?). And that scene where he’s running from somebody thinking he’s chasing somebody and realizes he’s being chased instead is classic. The idea behind this movie was brilliant in and of itself. This movie can’t get enough recognition. So what can I say about Memento?

2002 – Donnie Darko.

Written by: Richard Kelly

This movie is such a mind-freak (sans Chris Angel). It still boggles the minds of us years later. It’s twisted, dark, and smart. Time travel is tricky business, and this movie handles in a great way.

2003 – Adaptation.

Written by: Charlie and ‘Donald’ Kaufman (based… around?... a book by Susan Orlean)

After the first time I saw this movie, I couldn’t watch another movie without it messing with my brain. This is the movie about movies that will forever alter the way you see movies. Love or hate Nicolas Cage, this is one of his best flicks. Not to mention it was written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman about Charlie and Donald Kaufman… and Donald Kaufman doesn’t even exist. Seriously… a movie about adapting a book that cannot be adapted so he adapts his own life and merges it with the story of the book he can’t adapt… all of this being based on the true story of how Charlie Kaufman being unable to adapt a book that cannot be adapted so he adapts his… yeah, you get it. My brain hurts, too.

2004 – Shaun of the Dead.

Written by: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg

This movie has one of my favorite scripts in existence. I continue my claim that this movie was one of the most brilliant things ever written. Everything in this movie is either said or done at least twice in two different circumstances. And everything that happens in the latter half of the movie is foreshadowed in the first half. It had to have taken ages to plan this movie out to the degree it was. I still catch stuff in this movie after countless times of seeing it. It’s a hoot.

2005 – Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

Written by: Shane Black (based on a book by Brett Halliday)

Regardless of the entirely overcomplicated and confusing ending, this movie was insanely quick-witted and smart. The story is tight and the characters are vibrant. It’s funny and it’s just good all around.

2006 – Brick.

Written by: Rian Johnson

Originally, this year had gone to Stranger than Fiction. But then I realized that Brick came out the same year, and I already had one movie that was somewhat similar to Fiction in premise (Adaptation). So Brick it is. It has a great idea: Take a classic Noir Film with your basic 20s detective or whatnot… and set it in a present-day high school with the same type of dialogue and everything. You have to know what you’re in for before watching the movie or you’ll be utterly lost and confused, but once you get into it you realize how well and smartly written this movie really was.

2007 – Juno.

Written by: Diablo Cody

Possibly not the best film of 2007, but it was certainly one of the most original and funny. The characters are round (in the literature sense), the dialogue was fast and snappy, and everything about this movie screamed “love me, I’m brilliant.” You can’t help but love the character of Juno and her quick wit.

THE GOLDEN COMPASS.

As a fan of the book, I will do this review in the fashion I typically do my book-to-film reviews in. I will review it as both a film and an adaptation.

First I guess I should start with the obvious: the controversy. Again, as a fan of the book, I see little reason for controversy. In movie format, there shouldn’t be any whatsoever. There was no mention of ‘the church’ or even ‘original sin’ (and if you’ve read the books, you know how important that is). While on the subject, I have to say I’m quite impressed with the way they handled the religious stuff. They always talked around it, never quite saying it, but giving a good enough reason as to why things were the way they were. Anyway, on to the reviews.

As a movie, it worked pretty well. The second half of the movie was a bit fast-paced, and after the point in Trollesund when Iorek joins the team, it’s just bam, bam, bam with the story points without ever really getting into any character depth or growth. As for the actors, they really should be billing Dakota Blue Richards (Lyra) first instead of Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig (who is barely in the movie). She really steals the show. If I were to pretend I didn’t know any better as to what happens in the story, I would say it ended pretty well with a cliffhanger ending, and I couldn’t wait to see the next.

However, I do know better, so here we go with the book-to-film review. If you’ve not read the book, the following are SPOILERS:

The first half of the movie is great. Right up until Iorek gets his armor back, I would have to say the movie had been a great adaptation. Nearly flawless, really. Then Iorek joins the team and the story moves on… out of order. In the book they head to Bolvangar and then to Svalbard. In the movie, they’re on their way to Svalbard first when Lyra sneaks off with Iorek to find this ‘ghost’ that her alethiometer (golden compass) is telling her about. If you’ve read the book, you should know what happens next… except for the fact that they replaced the original boy with Billy Costa instead. Now, I can understand this. They did it to shorten the character list (there were a ton of them already). But immediately after this scene, upon their return to camp, they’re attacked by the Samoyeds and Lyra is taken to Svalbard… yes, Svalbard, not Bolvangar, which doesn’t make much sense… especially since Svalbard was shown as an island earlier in the movie, and they get there by sled.

Well, once Lyra is at Svalbard, there is no prison sequence and no mention of Lord Asriel, but Lyra immediately makes her plan to trick the king (who is named Ragnar instead of Iofur, to avoid confusion with Iorek). This takes a couple minutes and everybody is ready for the big fight. The fight actually happens a lot like in the book, amazingly enough. The fight ends, Iorek becomes king… then immediately leaves to run Lyra to Bolvangar, where she crosses the ice bridge alone (it happens here instead of at the part where they head for Asriel). The Bolvangar sequence is a lot shorter, too. It’s basically meeting Roger, sneaking to an empty room, overhearing information, being caught, being put in the guillotine machine (which is pretty hardcore), being saved, learning about her parents, escaping, and setting the place on fire. After that is the big fight between the Witches, the Gyptians, and the Tartars (and Iorek). After all that good stuff is done, Lyra meets up with Lee Scoresbee again and sets off into the Northern Lights to find Lord Asriel in Lee’s airship with Roger, Iorek, and Serafina. The end.

No, I’m serious. That’s where the movie ends. The last three chapters are gone, like a lot of other early reviewers have mentioned. I felt cheated, almost. It felt like I just watched a nearly incomplete movie. As for other differences, Lord Asriel is kidnapped by the Tartars and sets up his own workplace under THEIR capture instead of at Svalbard. The Witches are merely a passing mention. Serafina is introduced out of nowhere. There is no Consul or finding of the branch. There’s really no mention of any other Witches or inner struggle between different Witch tribes. There’s also no mention of the ‘you can’t trick a bear unless they act human’ thing, which takes away a lot of the meaning behind Iorek’s win against the king. However, even with these changes, I can see reasoning behind it in the world of adaptation. I can see why they switched Bolvangar and Svalbard, even though you can tell they originally planned to do it in the correct order (Lyra even mentions what occurred at Bolvangar while in Svalbard, even though, in the movie, she hadn't been there yet... and some of the filming was messed up, like the sled trip to an island, or the ice bridge to Bolvangar). I can see why they did the intercission to Billy Costa instead. But that’s about it. They filmed over 200 million dollars worth, and they cut out one of the largest chunks of that change from the movie.

END SPOILERS.

So, as a movie, it was pretty good. As an adaptation, it started great, then kinda went downhill. The acting from Dakota Blue Richards and Nicole Kidman was great. They couldn’t have found a better Lyra. The visual effects were beyond stunning. The Armored Bears were amazing to watch. However, the last half was too speedy, and the ending left something more to be wanted. There could have been a bit more character development, and the movie could have been a tad longer to incorporate some of this stuff. So, my final ratings are as follows:

As a movie… A Keanu ‘Whoa’.
As an adaptation… Stop Saying Okay! Okay.