Marco and I were talking the other day about how the Best Screenplay Oscar never seems to fit.
Exhibit A: Juno. Great movie. Feel good without pandering. The kind of movie you want to give an award to. But the academy didn’t really know what to award it for, so Diablo Cody ends up with a statute, even though Ellen Page carried the film on her back.
Exhibit B: Lost in Translation. An instant classic. Surely Sofia Coppola deserved some kind of honor for making this film, but again, the academy doesn’t know what to do, so they give her a screenplay trophy when the script was the least of her accomplishments.
What Marco and I decided was that there needs to be a Best Filmmaker Oscar. For the film with that certain je nais c’est quoi where everything comes together to make a movie you’ll never forget.
Of course, while we’re at it, the Academy could stand to take back the trophies for Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Chicago, Return of the King, Crash…
Anyway, apropos of nothing, these are a few of my favorite scenes…
“Baby. You are gonna miss that plane.”
“What’d she whisper to you?” “She called me a dirty word.”
“I never even saw these assholes before!”
“You have nothing, nothing to threaten me with. Nothing to do with all your strength.”
“How am I not myself?”
“The plane has crashed into the goddamn mountain!”
“What happened to Jacqueline? “She didn’t really love me.”
“I’m gonna show you a world without sin.”
“There were Japanese surfers there. And the guy was playing really, really, really great music.”
“It says here on your chart that you’re fucked up. Uh, you talk like a fag and your shit’s all retarded.”
“Beneath this mask, there is an idea, Mr. Crede. And ideas are bulletproof.”
“There aren’t evil guys and, and good guys. It’s just — It’s just… It’s just a bunch of guys!”
