Sunday, February 21, 2010

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN THE FIELD OF EXCELLENCE: The Writers' Guild of America honored its folks for year 2009 last night, and some interesting stuff:
  • Hurt Locker takes the original screenplay award over Avatar and Serious Man. Basterds, which is apparently getting a big push in the category for the Oscars, wasn't nominated by the WGA. Up In The Air takes adapted, and it's increasingly looking like that'll be its consolation prize on Oscar night.
  • Our friend Daniel Radosh shares a WGA award for his work on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, which tied with SNL in the comedy/variety writing category.
  • A tie for best comedy episode between the pilot of Modern Family (not "Fizbo?") and 30 Rock's "Apollo, Apollo." Family also takes best new series (over Glee and Good Wife), and 30 Rock best comedy.
  • Perhaps most interesting is that while House didn't make it into the overall drama series writing category (won by Mad Men), it picked up the win for best drama episode for this season's premiere with House in rehab (over a pair of Men episodes). Could be a sign that Laurie will finally win his much-overdue Emmy, especially since there's unlikely to be a strong Lost competitor in lead actor.
  • The Simpsons beat The Simpsons, The Simpsons, The Simpsons, and The Simpsons for outstanding animated writing. (Amusingly, though, Seth McFarlane hosted the West Coast festivities).

20 comments:

  1. Can we talk about UP IN THE AIR, though?  Finally saw it last night, and while everything about it was *good*, I don't see the greatness -- and that's especially because we don't have any inquiry into what actually happens to the thousands of people who Bingham fires, other than that one we hear about towards the end. And unlike Michael Clayton, there's just such little self-questioning about the role he's chosen to play ...

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  2. Also, Tarantino was ineligible -- not a member of the Guild.

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  3. Carmichael Harold10:22 AM

    Adam, I agree about UitA being good but not great.   Partially b/c I felt that Clooney's character was a guy whose starting emotional level struck me as so unbelievable as to almost be a reductio ad absurdum.  Since I couldn't really buy his character, his movement away from near sociopathy didn't feel all that meaningful.  Secondly, I felt the scenes with the real-life unemployed, though I appreciated some of them, were kind of tacked on to make the movie feel current and in-touch. But the lack of follow-through that you point out made it actually seem kind of out-of-touch and patronizing.

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  4. I agree the performances in UITA are better than the movie as a whole, but I think the screenwriting deserves credit--while Ryan Bingham comes from the book, Natalie was created for the movie, and it's her journey that gets resolved and gives the movie its weight.

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  5. Eric J10:47 AM

    Are only prime-time series eligible for the Animated category? Because there are several episodes of Phineas and Ferb that I would put up against any recent Simpsons.

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  6. Does it really get resolved?  What do we know about her [I'll keep this spoiler protected and just refer to it as a] decision that demonstrates that she's any wiser now?

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  7. spacewoman12:47 PM

    Isaac and I had the same reaction when we finally saw it.  Good movie, very entertaining, but a disappointment after all the inflated reviews.  The best thing about it was Anna Kendrick.

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  8. I don't agree with all of his criticisms, but I think Will Leitch does a good job of pointing out some of the problems with the movie: http://leitch.tumblr.com/post/306584802/up-in-the-air-1-there-are-two-stories-going-on

    I also thought Anna Kendrick was the best part, although I do always love me some Clooney.

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  9. Joseph J. Finn3:58 PM

    Animation writers are covered only from series to series, negotiated individually (except at Fox, where all animated series are WGA covered automatically under their agreement). I can't find any indication that any Disney animated series have WGA agreements.

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  10. Becca4:12 PM

    I don't totally know how it works, but I'd guess being signatory to the WGA is quite expensive, since the guild demands fairly high payments for their writers, amongst other working conditions issues. Cable networks can't afford 'em.

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  11. There's also a separate category for childrens' programming, which might be part of the issue.

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  12. She plainly realizes there's more to life than work (and certainly than firing people) and that this isn't what she should be doing.  Both she and Bingham are stuck in different ways at the start of the film--she's become unstuck--she may well get stuck again, but not yet.

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  13. But she was only in Omaha for the boy in the first place.

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  14. Benner6:01 PM

    If Up in the Air beats In the Loop for adapted screenplay . . . 

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  15. Billiam9:17 PM

    I wonder how bad 30 Rock would have to become for it to not win "Best Comedy" at every award show.

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  16. Wouldn't Basterds have been in the Adapted category since it was based on an Italian exploitation flick or sumsuch?

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  17. isaac_spaceman12:06 PM

    These are the Writers' Guild awards, though.  30 Rock, with all of its circular dialogue and layered crosstalk (and several characters who are themselves writers) is far more a writers' show than, say, Modern Family, in which the writing is more spare and in which there is more room for the performers.  And, incidentally, if it's not as funny as it once was, it's still not "bad."

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  18. Apollo, Apollo is pretty darn good.  Lizzing/Jacking, Dennis Duffy, "1-800-OK-Face,"  "I was looking right at your mouth!"  

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  19. Joseph J. Finn4:40 PM

    An interesting question; the Academy gave it an Original Screenplay nod, apparently detemining that while it was influenced by the USA title of Quel maledetto treno blindato, the plots have almost nothing to do with each other(besides the standard "small team sticking it to the Nazis" trope).  Judging by the descriptions of both on Wiki and IMDb, that sounds about right.

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  20. Adam C.4:59 PM

    Yes, what JJF said.  This misunderstanding is slowly gathering urban legend status. 

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