ONTD Original - What's Your Favorite Screenplay?
While we are all here for the gossip, something we can all connect over is that we love expressions of art in media - film, television, theatre, music. Originally this was going to be a discourse about the impact of the screenplay (television or film) on our userbase but
- I don’t want my intellectual property stolen & recycled on Buzzfeed/Twitter/TikTok. Hire me if you want the fully annotated text!
- Our userbase tends to be born sometime between 1976 (Gen X/Cillian Murphy) and 2004 (Gen Z/Millie Bobby Brown) which is a variety of people to talk about. To single out my own generation (millenial) felt a bit like my countrypeople, exceptionalist.
- I love hearing about other people’s favorites.
I’ve defined a screenplay as the written text for a film or television series. This is to be said that though a screenplay may be excellent, a film may not be the best. Such is life. Below the cut I’ve listed five examples of screenplays or screenwriters, in no particular order, that have had a wide impact. However mine do skew towards the latter half of the 20th/beginning of the 21st Century.
Clueless - Written By Amy Heckerling
1996’s Clueless starts off this list because it truly changed how people saw slang. The script, which was based off of Jane Austen’s Emma, respected and elevated the original material. Though Heckerling was completely ignored by the Academy, Clueless has stood the test of time as something both incredibly fun to watch and inherently quotable. Who in the hell is out here rewatching Sling Blade, which was the winner that year for Best Adapted Screenplay?
Moonstruck - Written by Norman Jewison
While this script DID win the Oscar, I still think it’s one of the best ever written. If you like this movie, I encourage you to watch it while reading the final draft. There is truly no fat on it - it leaps from the page to the screen. Whether it’s because it truly is a modern fairytale sort of love OR because Norman Jewison was a fantastic writer. In 2008 he was nominated for best Adapted Screenplay for Doubt, based on his own play of the same name. I firmly believe in this screenplay because it made Nic Cage seem normal.
Karen McCulluh & Kirsten Smith ( Ten Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde, She’s the Man)
One cannot OVERSTATE the impact that the team of Karen McCullah & Kirsten Smith have had on cinema. While two of their three major endeavors were adaptations of The Bard, they remain iconic in their own right! Their skill and mastery in integrating Shakespeare into 20th/early 21st Century English has not been matched. Making ‘I burn I pine I perish’ sound organic is hard work. Their ability to add dimensionality and respect to young women is a defining characteristic of their work, which is why I think it endures. If you don’t agree, I guess you’re European since all you can be is whelmed.
*BIG SIGH* Aaron Sorkin (The American President, The West Wing, The Social Network)
Look I am NOT SAYING LET SORKIN KEEP DIRECTING SHIT but damn … does he write a great film. You could argue that The American President is just a template FOR The West Wing but it doesn’t matter. Sorkin’s created dialogue and scenes that remain memorable - even turning into TikTok videos of that guy from Teen Wolf, Dylan O’Brien. I have to recognize his work (sadly).
Get Out - Written by Jordan Peele
If you’re a horror girlie or not, Get Out truly is a narrative spectacle. Jordan Peele’s first feature film, it is a tight narrative that keeps the viewer engaged throughout. He tells a definite story with stakes raised higher and higher, his characters and plotlines complex and intriguing. Considered to be one of, if not the best screenplays of the 21st Century so far.
Why didn’t I include Nora Ephron, you may ask? After doing my research, most of her memorable quotes were collaborative, and I didn’t want to erase the work of the full cast/crew on that. Her films do remain outstanding though.
We also need to be contextually critical - some of the older films we may talk about may include things that have been widely discovered to be offensive. However they may have greatly impacted a user. Please be kind to one another if you think a user has mentioned a film that may be offensive or involve someone that is offensive. Also please don’t bring any truly fucked up people’s work into my post. Thank you!
Sources - my mind
a, b, c , d, e, f, g, h , i
- I don’t want my intellectual property stolen & recycled on Buzzfeed/Twitter/TikTok. Hire me if you want the fully annotated text!
- Our userbase tends to be born sometime between 1976 (Gen X/Cillian Murphy) and 2004 (Gen Z/Millie Bobby Brown) which is a variety of people to talk about. To single out my own generation (millenial) felt a bit like my countrypeople, exceptionalist.
- I love hearing about other people’s favorites.
I’ve defined a screenplay as the written text for a film or television series. This is to be said that though a screenplay may be excellent, a film may not be the best. Such is life. Below the cut I’ve listed five examples of screenplays or screenwriters, in no particular order, that have had a wide impact. However mine do skew towards the latter half of the 20th/beginning of the 21st Century.
Clueless - Written By Amy Heckerling
Click to view1996’s Clueless starts off this list because it truly changed how people saw slang. The script, which was based off of Jane Austen’s Emma, respected and elevated the original material. Though Heckerling was completely ignored by the Academy, Clueless has stood the test of time as something both incredibly fun to watch and inherently quotable. Who in the hell is out here rewatching Sling Blade, which was the winner that year for Best Adapted Screenplay?
Moonstruck - Written by Norman Jewison
While this script DID win the Oscar, I still think it’s one of the best ever written. If you like this movie, I encourage you to watch it while reading the final draft. There is truly no fat on it - it leaps from the page to the screen. Whether it’s because it truly is a modern fairytale sort of love OR because Norman Jewison was a fantastic writer. In 2008 he was nominated for best Adapted Screenplay for Doubt, based on his own play of the same name. I firmly believe in this screenplay because it made Nic Cage seem normal.
Karen McCulluh & Kirsten Smith ( Ten Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde, She’s the Man)
One cannot OVERSTATE the impact that the team of Karen McCullah & Kirsten Smith have had on cinema. While two of their three major endeavors were adaptations of The Bard, they remain iconic in their own right! Their skill and mastery in integrating Shakespeare into 20th/early 21st Century English has not been matched. Making ‘I burn I pine I perish’ sound organic is hard work. Their ability to add dimensionality and respect to young women is a defining characteristic of their work, which is why I think it endures. If you don’t agree, I guess you’re European since all you can be is whelmed.
*BIG SIGH* Aaron Sorkin (The American President, The West Wing, The Social Network)
Look I am NOT SAYING LET SORKIN KEEP DIRECTING SHIT but damn … does he write a great film. You could argue that The American President is just a template FOR The West Wing but it doesn’t matter. Sorkin’s created dialogue and scenes that remain memorable - even turning into TikTok videos of that guy from Teen Wolf, Dylan O’Brien. I have to recognize his work (sadly).
Get Out - Written by Jordan Peele
If you’re a horror girlie or not, Get Out truly is a narrative spectacle. Jordan Peele’s first feature film, it is a tight narrative that keeps the viewer engaged throughout. He tells a definite story with stakes raised higher and higher, his characters and plotlines complex and intriguing. Considered to be one of, if not the best screenplays of the 21st Century so far.
Why didn’t I include Nora Ephron, you may ask? After doing my research, most of her memorable quotes were collaborative, and I didn’t want to erase the work of the full cast/crew on that. Her films do remain outstanding though.
We also need to be contextually critical - some of the older films we may talk about may include things that have been widely discovered to be offensive. However they may have greatly impacted a user. Please be kind to one another if you think a user has mentioned a film that may be offensive or involve someone that is offensive. Also please don’t bring any truly fucked up people’s work into my post. Thank you!
Sources - my mind
a, b, c , d, e, f, g, h , i