Recent Original Screenplays

[ohcleverhansyou]

A few friends and I were discussing movies over dinner, and one of my friends made the claim that all good movies in the past five years were adaptations. I found that extremely stupid, but ultimately I could think of precious few examples of good, original movies to prove him wrong.

So after, I looked on wikipedia for the list of Oscar winners for best original screenplay. That gave me some good ones (Hotel Rwanda, Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Crash, Good Night and Good Luck, Little Miss Sunshine, Babel, Pan's Labyrinth). But now I'd like to know more, just for my own reference. What are some really good, non-Oscar nominated, US or foreign, original movies?

[Reaganista]

finding nemo

[aria]

meet them spartans

[Apocalyptic Raids]

Being John Malkovich
Taxi Driver

not from the past five years but excellent nonetheless.

[ohcleverhansyou]

meet them spartans

All I could think about during our little debate was that damn movie. Ugh. Well, and Garden State. Weird.

[simplephotographinthesun]

three kings
punch drunk love (i think the pudding part is the only adapted element)
2046
in the mood for love
before sunrise/sunset
collateral (not sure exactly if this is adapted or not)
pleasantville
breaking the waves

and more i can't think of.

[MattSharpIsCool]

Juno
Michael Clayton
There Will Be Blood (it's very loosely based on a novel, so eh)

[Kage]

Eraserhead, Videodrome and Man Bites Dog.

[thedeadwalk!]

Apocalypto
28 Weeks Later
The Aviator
Blood Diamond
Cloverfield
Grindhouse
Fido
The Host
Hot Fuzz
Hard Candy
Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2
Knocked Up
Kung Fu Hustle
The Machinist
The Proposition
Shaun of the Dead
Spanglish

All of these received an 8 or more from me over the past five years. I'm mostly sure they're not adapted from something else. Also, there's some non-American films, which I'm pretty sure the guy was referring to.

So, uh, are we limited to the past five years, or what?

[Reaganista]

ben hur

[ohcleverhansyou]

Ah, not really limited to the past five years anymore. I have enough movies to rub it in his face haha. But I'm still interested in original screenplays.

[Meatplow]

Some Kind of Monster

[Kage]

\m/

Oh, a good original that was actually from the past five years is Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

[Smokey D]

Adaptation. Charlie Kauffman is awesome (also did Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Science of Sleep is also a good screenplay.

Actually wait. Does Adaptation count as an original screenplay? It's a screenplay about adapting a book into a screenplay.

[thedeadwalk!]

It was nominated under Adapted Screenplay. But, the fact that a fictional character was nominated alongside Charlie is original.

[EightMilesHigh]

Adaptation was great.

[ohcleverhansyou]

I really want to see it.

[RunAmokRampant]

Juno
Michael Clayton
There Will Be Blood (it's very loosely based on a novel, so eh)

They've all been Oscar nominated I think.

[Apocalyptic Raids]

Adaptation was great.
true

[Joe]

isn't City of God (Brazilian) original? That was an amazing movie

[MoJo_JoJo]

isn't City of God (Brazilian) original? That was an amazing movie

Based on a novel, still a great movie though.

We Anderson has made some pretty excellent scripts in his time. The Royal Tennenbaums springs to mind, albeit loosely based on J.D Salinger's Glass family.

[EightMilesHigh]

One just sprung to mind (Jono might like this)

http://thecia.com.au/reviews/p/images/proposition-poster-0.jpg

Western set in Australia in the 1880s about three brothers. Directed by John Hillcoat, starring Guy Pearce, Emily Watson, Ray Winstone, and John Hurt, and written by Nick Cave.

[thedeadwalk!]

The Proposition
Just kidding, but not really.

'Tis a good one. :)