Cinematical Seven: My Favorite Screenplays of the Decade
Filed under: Classics, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Scripts, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Seven, Remakes and Sequels
Well, it's official. The Writers Guild of America is going on strike tomorrow. Here's hoping the strike ends quickly and that all parties come away happy. And writers? Use this time off to study my choices for the seven best screenplays of the 2000's:
The 40 Year Old Virgin by Judd Apatow & Steve Carell
The blending of improvisation and the written word gives Apatow's two classic comedies -- Knocked Up would be the other -- a feeling of authenticity that is all too rare in today's film world. Apatow takes the strategy of writing for specific performers and their strengths, and it really pays off. Scoff if you want at a sex comedy making the list, but for a movie to be this incredibly funny -- while keeping an oddly touching romance and a spot-on character study afloat -- the screenwriters deserve high praise.
About Schmidt by Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor
One of the saddest comedies ever made, and one of the most truthful and painful portraits of old age. Payne and Taylor specialize in scripts about people on the verge of cracking, depressed souls who tend to find the smallest redemption possible. Payne/Taylor characters never go from Point A to Point B over the course of the screenplay, they go from Point A to Point A.1. The small, gradual changes in their characters are reflective of the way actual humans (as opposed to movie humans) work. Warren Schmidt's personal growth is so minor that it is confined to the last thirty seconds of the film, but when it comes it's an emotional punch in the gut.
The Departed by William Monahan
A rare instance when the remake far outshines the original, Monahan pumped up the Infernal Affairs screenplay to operatic levels. You've got a lot of amazing actors at the top of their game here, and the temptation is always to throw praise on the beautiful faces saying the words. But they wouldn't have had those brilliant, foul-mouthed dialogue blasts without Monahan's near-perfect script. It touches on fathers and sons, on loyalty, on morality, on trust, on identity, on intimacy, on relationships, on commitment, on Catholicism, on being Irish, on and on and on. And it does it all within the confines of a crackling, blood-soaked genre picture.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by Charlie Kaufman
Charlie Kaufman is an off-the-charts genius screenwriter, and with Eternal Sunshine he showed he had a heart as big as his brain. At last, a romantic movie with something, lots of things, big things to say about love, memory, and loss.
High Fidelity by D.V. DeVincentis & Steve Pink & John Cusack & Scott Rosenberg
A fantastic double feature with Eternal Sunshine is High Fidelity, another modern classic about breaking up. John Cusack and his team did a hell of a job adapting Nick Hornby's A+ novel into an A+ film. Capturing Chicago just as well as the book captured London, the writers knew that attention to the specifics and details of human flaws were going to resonate with a lot of people. The film certainly resonated with me -- a lot of watching it felt like looking in a mirror, and that genuinely scared me and woke me up. High Fidelity is one of the finest depictions of male insecurity and emotional retardation ever put on film.
Mulholland Drive by David Lynch
Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko was considered for this list, but that excellent film is really just Lynch-lite. And all due respect to Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive is Lynch's masterpiece. Everyone who goes into this movie will see it differently, process it differently, understand (or not understand) it differently. There are those who claim Lynch is just "weird for weird's sake," and while I can see their point with something like Inland Empire, I don't think there is any question that Lynch knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote Mulholland. It's a deeply unsettling script, full of inexplicable humor, horrific moments, unexpected emotion, and hot lesbian sex.
The Royal Tenenbaums by Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson
The Royal Tenenbaums is the dysfunctional family comedy/drama blown up to an epic scale. Anderson and Wilson set up an amazing assortment of oddballs here, each of them badly damaged and each trying to connect with anyone or anything. The laughs all come from character, not in-your-face gags, which makes them sting and stick. It's the closest film has gotten to a J.D. Salinger novel. Judging by the disastrous Darjeeling Limited, Wes Anderson needs to return to writing with Owen Wilson, and fast.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-04-2007 @ 9:03PM
Joe said...
Pretty damn great list there, good on you for putting it together.
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11-04-2007 @ 9:11PM
Justin said...
Good films listed here, a personal recommendation of mine would be O' Brother Where Art Thou...
http://www.thefilmreviews.com
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11-04-2007 @ 10:33PM
Joe said...
That was a very impressive list. I can say I agree whole-heartedly with every choice, especially ESotSM, which has to be one of my all-time favourite movies.
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11-05-2007 @ 8:17AM
Betsy said...
Not a bad list ... but drop "The Royal Tenenbaums" -- (Let's see, how much annoying, affected quirkiness can we possibly cram into each character in the movie?), and replace with the brilliant "Sideways." There, that's better.
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11-05-2007 @ 8:18AM
Luke G. said...
I’m very grateful you didn’t mention the Big Three of the decade's overrated screenplays: Donnie Darko, Memento, and Crash.
My opinions:
40YOV: Very good screenplay, although I think Superbad’s screenplay is better. A-
AS: I can’t agree. I really don’t get the accolades for Alexander Payne. B-
TD: Every good idea was taken from the Hong Kong original, and I can’t remember a line of dialogue from that film. Minus the performances, MS’s direction, and the twists left over from Infernal Affairs, what does this film have left? B-
ESotSM: No disagreements: best screenplay of this millennium. A
HF: I agree. A-
MD: Eh. It was mostly about jumbling a screenplay and letting people feel smart once they figured it out, wasn’t it? I’m on the fence with this one. B+
TRT: I agree. A-
Personally, I would replace Schmidt, Departed, and Mulholland with Ratatouille, Adaptation, and Ghost World.
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11-05-2007 @ 8:36AM
Robin said...
Superbad screenplay better than 40YOV? Superbad is inferior to 40YOV in every way (except raunch humor.. so if that's your thing..).
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11-05-2007 @ 9:40AM
Luke G. said...
you know...now that I think about it, you're right. 40YOV > Superbad.
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11-05-2007 @ 9:44AM
Ponyboy said...
I am so glad Tenenbaums made this list!
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11-05-2007 @ 9:59AM
tikirob said...
I always liked The Royal Tenenbaums...the other screenplay I liked was American Beauty.
Rob
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11-05-2007 @ 10:23AM
Cincinnati Mike said...
Great list. I wasn't sure if "the decade" refers to the current decade (the oughts? the oh-oh's?)or the past ten years. Either way, I'd give a nod to LA Confidential.
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11-05-2007 @ 11:05AM
Jason said...
Drop The Royal Tenenbaums. The Darjeeling Limited is a much tighter and heartfelt screenplay.
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11-05-2007 @ 11:25AM
Nova said...
have you ever watched infernal affairs?? it was superior to the american remake and tony leung did a much better acting job as well. How can a screenplay be great if all the important aspects were taken directly from another movie?
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11-05-2007 @ 11:35AM
Piper said...
Excellent list. I would argue that About Schmidt is a better screenplay than a movie. I loved the story but hated the acting. Unlike anything Payne has done before, the characters more like caricatures. Dermot Mulroney and Kathy Bates were prime examples of this.
And High Fidelity remains one of my most favorite movies of the last decade. Like you said of 40 Year Old Virgin, the script plays to the strength of the characters. Jack Black has never been better and may never be that good again.
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11-05-2007 @ 12:57PM
Alex said...
This is a pretty great list! Would have picked Knocked Up over 40YOV but I'm not complaining. I'm pleasantly surprised that A) Royal Tenenbaums made the cut (as lauded as it is, there are way too many detractors); and B) bandwagon fave Sideways did not make the cut (it's a shallow "teens get laid" movie with grown men and wine instead of beer).
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11-05-2007 @ 10:40PM
Doug said...
Adaptation has to on anybody's list of best screenplays. I also loved Before Sunrise and Good Will Hunting.
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11-06-2007 @ 3:10AM
misterpink said...
great list. closer and matchpoint would go on mine...and baby geniuses
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11-07-2007 @ 2:25AM
Aaron said...
Collateral.
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11-07-2007 @ 5:10AM
Kirby Holt said...
>I’m very grateful you didn’t mention the Big Three of the decade's overrated screenplays: Donnie Darko, Memento, and Crash.<
Yeah, but he mentioned the other three: "The Departed", "Eternal Sunshine" and "Mulholland Dr."
- kch, http://moviedearest.blogspot.com/
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11-07-2007 @ 5:57AM
Paco Fox said...
I agree with 16: Eternal Sunshine is maybe THE most overrated screenplay ever. For starters, its second act is almost useless (it's based on the hero trying not to forget, but, thanks to the opening of the picture we know the outcomming of the whole thing), and let's not talk about the subplots.
The Departed script is good, but in a way that it manages to get its way with some implausibilities while your are enchanted by all its good qualities thanks to the excellent editing and direction (not to mention how it deals with certain topics, as the article's author has said)
Mulholland Dr. is not about the script. A great script is one that can make a decent movie even if Uwe Boll shot it verbatim. Not in this case.
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11-07-2007 @ 11:58AM
Gil said...
"A good script is one that can make a decent movie even if Uwe boll shot it verbatim."
THAT is the greatest line of dialogue of the new millenium.
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