30 Oscar losers that should have been Oscar winners
By Emily Scott
Emma Donoghue (Room) losing to Adam McKay and Charles Randolph (The Big Short) – Best Adapted Screenplay (2016)
The Winner
The Big Short, a movie about the housing crisis. Feat. Bale, Carrell, Gosling, and Pitt as four of the white guys, in a sea of other white guys. The writer, Charles Randolph, also wrote Love & Other Drugs.
The Loser
Room, the movie about a kid whose whole world is a tiny room – the one he was born into after his mom was kidnapped, raped, and impregnated. The adorable and talented Jacob Tremblay plays Jack, and Brie Larson won a well-deserved Best Actress Oscar as Ma. Emma Donoghue, the writer, also wrote the book it’s adapted from.
Why It Was Wrong
Some might say you can’t compare these movies. It’s like apples and oranges. And it’s true that they are very different. Room is an intense, small-cast story driven by emotion. The Big Short is a flashier, larger-cast work that is driven by plot. But I will make the argument that you can compare them. Here’s why.
Remember that old adage, “show, don’t tell”? Well, it’s good advice. If you have to put Margot Robbie naked in a bathtub in your movie to explain its complex premise, you are doing it wrong. #Sorrynotsorry. But interjecting random people who have no relation to the story into your script in order to explain the housing crisis is straight-up lazy. Explain the housing crisis through your story. If you can’t, maybe you shouldn’t be the person making this movie. And you certainly shouldn’t be the person winning an Oscar for it.
Donoghue adapted her own novel into an emotionally nuanced, subtle, and heartwrenching work. The thing that was so striking about the book, Jack’s voice, was perfectly translated to screen. Ma’s journey was incredibly rendered. And the relationship between Ma and Jack was perfectly captured in the tiny, claustrophobic room. Meanwhile, McKay and Randolph didn’t trust their audience enough to just tell the story. They threw in eye candy in an assumption that they wouldn’t pay attention otherwise. I know it’s a small part of the movie, but it’s unforgivable. And Room was better anyway. Advantage, Donoghue.