The WGA loves "Midnight in Paris."
The last of the major specialty awards took place over the weekend, with next weekend bringing us the Big Gold One. The Writers Guild of America handed out their prizes and for once “The Artist” did not send a group of joyful folk up on the stage. Yes, that’s right, “The Artist” didn’t win an award. Okay, due to WGA rules, it wasn’t eligible. So that means…uh, yeah, it’s still dominating.
The prize for Best Original Screenplay went to Woody Allen for “Midnight in Paris,” and astonishingly, he apparently came to the New York side of the ceremony (they simul-produce an East Coast and West Coast ceremony) to accept his award. Wow. That’s a rarity. I have to confess, I saw “Midnight in Paris” last week and my feelings range from disappointment to outright hatred. I didn’t even want to finish watching, but stuck it out. I won’t go into all my reasons for disliking it, but I’ll just give you one–I can’t stand movies where the couple who are engaged clearly can’t stand each other and have nothing in common. I spent the whole movie thinking, “Why are these two together? And why does she have to be such a shrew? And by the way, she has nothing in common with Michael Sheen’s character either?” So nice career Woody, congratulations on the box office success this year, but I would have given the award to “Margin Call.” Much tougher subject matter, more elegantly written product.
“The Descendants” made a Best Picture reminder bid by picking up the Best Adapted Screenplay award. I’m sure it’s a very good movie, I’m sure it’s a very good movie. I actually bet it’s a better movie than “Moneyball,” but I have to think that would be harder to adapt. It’s a nonfiction book about statistics (also one that leaves out several key figures in the rise of the Oakland As, but hey, it’s not a documentary). Carving a heart-warming story out of that seems pretty difficult. So good job, Steve Zaillian! Oh, and you too, Aaron Sorkin.
And here we are, ballots due tomorrow, and we’re just days away from Oscar…
