The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

In today’s post, we will be taking a look at the nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay at the upcoming 91st Academy Awards.

Will win: BlacKkKlansman
Should win: A Star is Born
Also nominated: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, If Beale Street Could Talk

It will probably be considered an upset if anything but BlacKkKlansman goes on to win the award for Best Adapted Screenplay – however, put simply, it is not the strongest screenplay nominated in this category. BlacKkKlansman is a fine film and its screenplay does a serviceable job, but one does have to wonder if its perceived dominance here is largely because of Spike Lee’s involvement. Lee is a brilliant director who has inexplicably failed to garner much attention from the Academy during his long and illustrious career. Given that his nominations in the Best Director and Best Picture categories this year are unlikely to yield any golden statuettes, Best Adapted Screenplay may well be the token award that rights the wrongs of Academy Awards gone by.

In truth, the more deserving winner would be Bradley Cooper, Eric Roth and Will Fetters’ screenplay for A Star is Born. It has been well documented that this is a film that has been remade numerous times throughout the years, with Cooper’s directorial debut serving as its fourth iteration. Far from retreading old ground, this is a screenplay which confidently reimagines the story for a different generation, adding layers of vibrancy that make it feel bold and dynamic. It is no easy feat to make a story told this many times feel so fresh and relevant, and it is a great shame that it will likely go overlooked.

Whilst If Beale Street Could Talk and Can You Ever Forgive Me? both appear to have outside chances of doing well here, neither are strong enough to make waves that could rock the boat, and all the signs continue to point towards a win for BlacKkKlansman.

BlacKkKlansman is hot favourite to win the Best Adapted Screenplay category.

Two categories which go together hand-in-hand are Best Original Song and Best Original Score. Historically, nominees in the Best Original Song category have performed before the award is presented.

Best Original Song

Will win: Shallow (A Star is Born)
Should win: Shallow (A Star is Born)
Also nominated: All the Stars (Black Panther), I’ll Fight (RBG), The Place Where Lost Things Go (Mary Poppins Returns), When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs)

Lady Gaga and Mark Ronson’s Shallow is the odds-on favourite in this category, and rightly so. It is a song of great emotional resonance and truth, a conversation between two lost souls which builds emphatically to an earth-shattering climax and expression of self.

Unlike the other nominees and their relationships with their respective films, A Star is Born could not exist without Shallow. It is the beating heart of the film, the moment around which the story is built. In the few months since its release, it has become a cultural phenomenon, and the Academy Award for Best Original Song deserves to be its crowning achievement. This one isn’t even close.

Dazzling and powerful, Lady Gaga’s Shallow from A Star is Born looks certain to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Best Original Score

Will win: If Beale Street Could Talk
Should win: If Beale Street Could Talk
Also nominated: Black Panther, Isle of Dogs, Mary Poppins Returns

Nicholas Britell’s soundtrack for If Beale Street Could Talk has steadily emerged as the favourite to win the Academy Award for Best Original Score and, although the category is far from clear-cut, it’s easy to see why. The sadness of its piano chords and its slow, aching strings are uplifted by soft melodies which affirm the film’s message. As far as competition goes, Marc Shaiman’s soundtrack to Mary Poppins Returns is the obvious choice, but Terence Blanchard’s stellar work for BlacKkKlansman is certainly worthy of merit, even though it appears to have flown under the radar this awards season.

The soundtrack to If Beale Street Could Talk has slowly emerged as favourite in the Best Original Score category.

Pick of the Flicks

A film review website.

Oscars 2019 Predictions – Best Adapted Screenplay

Oscars 2019 Predictions – Best Original Song, Best Original Score