The 92nd Academy Awards: Who Should Win (Part II)
We are just two days away from this year’s Oscar ceremony, following what has been an atypically brief but typically controversial awards season. In this article, I rank the contenders in the Screenplay, Directing, and Best Picture races and dive into my take on the relative merit of the contenders.
To find out who I think should win in the four acting categories— check out Part I of this article.
To find out who I think will win — check out my preview of tomorrow night’s ceremony.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
5.) Todd Phillips and Scott Silver, Joker (Prior Oscar Appearances: See above re: Phillips; Silver was previously nominated for co-writing 2010’s The Fighter). I didn’t find any aspect of Joker’s screenplay to be particularly impressive. I though it was uninteresting as a character study, lacking in meaningful commentary, devoid of humor or thrills, and even unconvincing as an origin story of a great arch-villain.
4.) Steven Zaillian, The Irishman (Prior Oscar Appearances: He won in this category for 1993’s Schindler’s List and has additional nominations for 1990’s Awakenings, 2002’s Gangs of New York, and 2011’s Moneyball). The truly gifted Zaillian did strong work adapting Charles Brandt’s book I Heard You Paint Houses into a sprawling organized crime…
