Writers Guild of America's 101 Greatest Screenplays Of The 21st Century (So Far)

Earlier this week, the Writers Guild of America released its list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays Of The 21st Century (So Far).

Taking the top spot was Jordan Peele's script for the 2017 horror Get Out. 

Aaron Mendelsohn, chair of WGAW's Publicity and Marketing Committee, said “As voted upon by the members of the Writers Guilds West and East, the list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century (so far) is both a celebration of the great writers and screenplays of the last 21 years and a study of how writing for the screen has evolved and diversified since the 20th Century... Plus, it's a great conversation- and argument- starter.”  

There's certainly some interesting choices on here and what I would personally consider to be some glaring omissions.

The full list can be found here, but here are some of the more interesting facts and figures:

The Top 10 films are:

• Get Out (2017) by Jordan Peele
• Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004) by Charlie Kaufman
• The Social Network (2010) by Aaron Sorkin
• Parasite (2019) by Bong Joon Ho and Han Jim Won
• No Country For Old Men (2007) by Joel and Ethan Coen
• Moonlight (2016) by Barry Jenkins
• There Will Be Blood (2007) by Paul Thomas Anderson
• Inglourious Basterds (2009) by Quentin Tarantino
• Almost Famous (2000) by Cameron Crowe
• Memento (2000) by Christopher Nolan

Of the 101 screenplays, 63 were original screenplays, whilst 38 were adapted or based on existing source material.

The most prolific writer on the list is Christopher Nolan, who has written (or co-written) four scripts: Memento (2000, #10); The Prestige (2006, #82); The Dark Knight (2008, #26), and Inception (2010, #37)

Quentin Tarantino, Joel and Ethan Coen, Alfonso Cuarón, and Paul Thomas Anderson all have three films included in the list. 

Bridesmaids (2011, Annie Mumulo & Kristen Wiig), Brokeback Mountain (2005, co-written by Diana Ossana), Lady Bird (2017, Greta Gerwig), Lost In Translation (2003, Sofia Coppola), and Promising Young Woman (2020, Emerald Fennell) are the five highest-placed screenplays by women.

Of the 101 screenplays, 20 of them were written (or co-written) by women, with Bridesmaids (2011, #12) as the highest-ranking female-written film. A further three films- Adaptation. (2002, #11), Children Of Men (2006, #18), and Jojo Rabbit (2019, #28)- were adapted by male screenwriters from source material written by women. 

Nine animated films made the list, with Inside Out (2015, #29) being the highest-ranked animated film. 

29 films on the list have won a Best Screenplay Oscar (16 for Best Original, 13 for Best Adapted). A further 51 have been nominated for one of the awards (35 for Best Original, 16 for Best Adapted), meaning 80 of the 101 films have had Academy recognition. 

Of the 101 films, I'm personally over the moon to see Brokeback Mountain (2005, #13), Sideways (2004, #15), Promising Young Woman (2020, #23), Mean Girls (2004, #34), Knives Out (2019, #49), Spirited Away (2001, #67), Call Me By Your Name (2017, #79), and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017, #80) included.

Although I do think the list is missing several very strong screenplays: personally, I'd add the following screenplays to the mix:

• Moulin Rouge! (2001, written by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce)
• Gosford Park (2001, written by Julian Fellowes)
• The Hours (2002, written by David Hare)
• Frost/Nixon (2008, written by Peter Morgan)
• Black Swan (2010, written by Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz, and John McLaughlin)
• August: Osage County (2013, written by Tracy Letts)
• Blue Jasmine (2013, written by Woody Allen)
• Love, Simon (2018, written by Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker)
• Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018, written by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty) 

But what about you? Have the WGA come up with a good list, or are they wide off the mark? What would you put on your own list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays Of The 21st Century (So Far)? Let us know in the comments below.

Mini-Countdown: 6 Most Oscar-Nominated Films Not To Win An Award

Sometimes when it comes to awards, you'll often hear people saying "it's an honour to be nominated". Well, for these six films, that honour would have to be enough because, despite ten Oscar nominations or more, they all walked away from the ceremony empty-handed.

Each film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Production Design, and either Best Original or Best Adapted Screenplay in their respective year, as well as having at least one nod in one of the four acting categories. 

Note: in the entries below, any number followed by an asterisk- e.g. (6*)- denotes that the film won in an acting category for which two or more actors/actresses from the featured non-Oscar-winning film were nominated.

1. The Turning Point (1977)
dir. Herbert Ross, starring Anne Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine, Mikhail Baryshnikov

This family drama set in the ballet world, with Bancroft and MacLaine as estranged sisters, was tied with weighty holocaust drama Julia for the most nominations for the 50th Academy Awards: both films had 11 nods apiece. But when the ceremony rolled around, the film would walk away with no awards, with Annie Hall (4*), Julia (2), Star Wars (3) and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1) triumphing instead. 

2. The Color Purple (1985)
dir. Steven Spielberg, starring Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover

As with The Turning Point, The Color Purple (Spielberg's reverent adaptation of Alice Walker's novel) was tied for the most Oscar nominations at the 58th Academy Awards. Both it and romantic drama Out Of Africa both had 11 nods apiece. But again, once we get to the ceremony, it's again a zero win situation. Instead, Out Of Africa (5), The Trip To Bountiful (1), Prizzi's Honor (1*), Ran (1), Mask (1), and White Nights (1) winning out instead. 

3. Gangs Of New York (2002)
dir. Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Day-Lewis

With 10 nods, Scorsese's sweeping period crime drama had the second-highest number of nominations at the 75th Academy Awards [the highest number that year went to Chicago which got an impressive 13]. But, sadly, the film wouldn't win anything. Instead, Chicago (5), The Pianist (2), Road To Perdition (1), Talk To Her [Hable Con Ella] (1) and 8 Mile (1) won in its place. 

4. True Grit (2010)
dir. Joel & Ethan Coen, starring Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon

The Coen Brothers' remake of the 1969 Western True Grit had 10 nominations at the 83rd Academy Awards (second only to The King's Speech which had a round dozen). The original version was only nominated for two awards, but won John Wayne the Best Actor Oscar. Perhaps they were hoping the same would happen again for Jeff Bridges? Spoiler alert: it didn't. Instead, The King's Speech (3), Inception (3), Alice In Wonderland (2), The Social Network (1), and The Fighter (1) won in the categories for which True Grit had been nominated. 

5. American Hustle (2013)
dir. David O. Russell, starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence

With ten nods- including one each in the four acting categories for the second year in a row- American Hustle was the joint top nominated film at the 86th Academy Awards, with Gravity also getting 10 nominations. However, there was no love for David O. Russell's crime caper, with the Academy honouring 12 Years A Slave (2), Gravity (2), The Great Gatsby (2), Dallas Buyers Club (2), Her (1), and Blue Jasmine (1) in its place. 

6. The Irishman (2019)
dir. Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci

Scorsese's epic crime drama was one of three films to garner 10 nods for the 92nd Academy Awards (along with 1917 and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood). But despite this, The Irishman was going home empty-handed, with Parasite (2), Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2*), 1917 (2), Jojo Rabbit (1), Little Women (1), and Ford V Ferrari [Le Mans '66] (1) winning instead. 

Review: Hail, Caesar! (UK Cert 12A)

Twenty-five years after Barton Fink, the Coen Brothers return to the world of the movies for their latest film Hail, Caesar!

Hollywood in the 1950s. Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is a fixer for Capitol Pictures studios, keeping any scandalous stories about the stars out of the press. However, when Baird Whitlock (George Clooney)- star of Capitol's latest prestige picture Hail, Caesar! A Tale Of The Christ- is kidnapped, Mannix must try and get the actor back before the press find out. 

There are a lot of competing storylines throughout the film- as well as trying to find a kidnapped star, Mannix has to deal with an unmarried pregnant ingenue (Scarlett Johannson), an actor best known for Western pictures suddenly placed in a period drama (Alden Ehrenreich) as well as fielding off twin gossip columnists Thora and Thessaly Thacker (Tilda Swinton) whilst on the hunt for Whitlock. He also has to deal with a job offer from aerospace company Lockheed which would give stability but take him away from the movie business. 

Because there's so much going on, several of the roles amount to little more than glorified cameos, with Jonah Hill and frequent Coen collaborator Frances McDormand particularly shortchanged. That said, performances are generally solid across the board, with a strong and stoic performance by Brolin in the lead. Mannix is a tough guy, determined to keep his stars in line and not afraid to let them know their place and their responsibilities, but there's more to him than that and Brolin gives an affable and very real performance. Interestingly, Mannix was a real-life person, who worked as a fixer for MGM. This is a heavily fictionalised version of his life and career.

Clooney is great as Whitlock, a bit of a lunkheaded star who starts to come round to his kidnappers' way of thinking. Ehrenreich is incredibly likeable as young Western star Hobie, struggling with his new role in a period drama and who becomes involved in the kidnapping plot. Johannson is wonderfully spiky as the pregnant ingenue, whilst Swinton gives brilliantly broad performances as the rival gossip columnists. I particularly liked Ralph Fiennes as the effete director of the period drama and Michael Gambon who adds an air of arch knowingness as an omniscient narrator. 

There are some real standout sequences - the aquatic ballet sequence where Johansson channels Esther Williams is particularly well done, as is a Gene Kelly style dance routine featuring Channing Tatum in a sailor outfit. One of the funniest sections comes when Mannix chairs a meeting with a rabbi, a Catholic priest, a Protestant priest and an Eastern Orthodox patrician over the representation of Christ in the Hail, Caesar! script. 

Hail, Caesar! is certainly more coherent than some other Coen Brothers movies, and whilst it is a lot of fun, it ultimately feels quite insubstantial.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez

Review: Inside Llewyn Davis (UK Cert 15)

OK, confession time: I'm not the Coen brothers' biggest fan. I don't actively dislike them and I have enjoyed a number of their films (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Fargo and True Grit) but I don't class myself as a fan of their work. Usually, I have to be in the mood for a Coen brothers film as sometimes their characters may strike me as quirky or idiosyncratic at one sitting, but downright bizarre or annoying at another. And let's not even go near their ill-advised and downright awful remake of The Ladykillers... But the trailer for Inside Llewyn Davis seemed intriguing, so I thought I'd- in the immortal words of The Watchers- give it a punt. 

Inside Llewyn Davis is a bit of an odd film to categorise. It's probably best described as a character study, I suppose. Set in New York's Greenwich Village in 1961, Llewyn (Oscar Isaac) is a struggling folk singer, performing at the Gaslight Cafe and sofa-surfing with friends and acquaintances. What happens next is a series of vignettes rather than a fully-formed plot or story; in fact, Joel Coen has remarked that 'the film doesn't really have a plot'. Llewyn ends up having to carry a ginger cat around with him until he can reunite it with its owners. He's previously slept with his friend Jean (a fiery Carey Mulligan) and she's pregnant but it could be either Llewyn's or her boyfriend Jim's (a dimwatt Justin Timberlake). He sees his manager. He gets some session work. He rides to Chicago with an obnoxious jazz musician (John Goodman) and his laconic valet (Garrett Hedlund). And so the film goes on. 

Performance-wise, it's all good enough. Isaac makes for a compelling lead, even though Llewyn isn't that likeable as a character- he's abrasive, condescending, slightly big-headed and a little too sincere, baulking at his sister's suggestion that he could always go back to the merchant marines if the music doesn't work out. Sometimes, the Coen brother's films are comedies of embarrassment, piling misfortune on misfortune on some poor schmuck (for example, A Serious Man or Intolerable Cruelty), making it almost excruciating to watch them struggle against the mounting absurdities around them. There's an element of that to Inside Llewyn Davis- although, in this case, some of those circumstances are of Llewyn's own making.

Other performances are similarly good. John Goodman's character Roland Turner embodies my previous statement about Coen brothers' characters; this time I found him quirky, another time I might have found him too brash or too oddball. Carey Mulligan doesn't have a lot else to do except snarl and throw some great one-liners at Llewyn, but she does it well and her singing voice is quite lovely. The music, produced by Marcus Mumford and T Bone Burnett, is- as you would expect- excellent; there are a few stand-out numbers such as 'Hang Me, Oh Hang Me' and 'If I Had Wings'. Bruno Delbonnel's cinematography is particularly good and overall it's a well-made piece, but I didn't love it and I'm finding it difficult to articulate why. 

Perhaps it's the lack of a clear-cut story? Maybe the script is a little too obtuse, a little too vague (although naming the Gorfiens' cat Ulysses is a none-too-subtle tip of the wink). Maybe it's the fact that the central character is actually a bit of a jerk. During one scene, Llewyn's manager mentions another character- a singing soldier called Troy Nelson (Stark Sands)- and predicts he'll be big because 'People connect to him' (unlike Llewyn). The film also frustratingly leaves the character hanging.

So, in summary, certainly no Ladykillers but far from being a Fargo. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Tez