2007 Diva Cup Awards: Best Original Screenplay

And the nominees are...

Diablo Cody, Juno
Overwritten? Perhaps. But it's not every day that we are blessed with a debut screenwriter with such a strong and distinctive voice. Every one-liner is a winner.

Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen, Superbad
The teenage sex comedy- such a popular genre in the 80's- gets a much needed (and hilarious) re-vamp for the 2000's.

Steven Knight, Eastern Promises
An engrossing tale of the Russian mob. Any faults with the film can't be blamed on the script; it's top-notch.

Kelly Masterson, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
It's a simple heist thriller, but newcomer Kelly Masterson structures it so well that nothing is ever what it seems.

Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, Hot Fuzz
The perfect send-up of Hollywood's most popular genre- action. Bonus points for the human statue: I laughed everytime he was mentioned.

If Only There Were Six: Judd Apatow, Knocked Up Could have used a couple of trims, but a good majority of what is written is some of the funniest comedy of the year.

Rest of the Top 10: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, The Lives of Others...Gerard Stoeteman, Paul Verhoeven, Black Book...Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton...Bill Kelly, Enchanted

BRONZE
Superbad

SILVER
Juno

GOLD
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

The Fall Blahs

Whenever I do my annual Diva Cup Awards and start figuring out my Top 10 list, I always tend to throw in one or two crowd-pleasing comedies along with the usual list of hot Oscar films or great ones that should have been nominated. In 2002, I included My Big Fat Greek Wedding; In 2003, it was Bad Santa and The School of Rock; 2004 saw Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story make my list; 2005 is perhaps my most infamous because I placed the J. Lo-Jane Fonda comedy Monster in Law at #2 over The Constant Gardener, Mysterious Skin and Grizzly Man; 2006 has been the only year where my silliest choice, Borat, was also picked by many other critics.

2007, on the other hand, has me kind of worried, because a lot of my Top 10, so far, is mostly filled with the crowd-pleasers, while the serious Oscar fare is falling behind. If I had to pick a Top 10 right now, here's what it would look like:

1. Hairspray
2. Hot Fuzz
3. The Bourne Ultimatum
4. Paprika
5. Zodiac
6. Knocked Up
7. Gone Baby Gone
8. Superbad
9. Talk to Me
10. Michael Clayton

See what I mean? And it's not like I haven't seen any of the "good" films yet this year. In fact, it's quite the opposite: I've seen more films from this year at this point than in any other year. It's just that what I've seen hasn't excited me in the ways my Top 10 has. American Gangster was a good film, but nothing we haven't seen before (my rant here); I generally liked Into the Wild, and the ending was fabulous, but I couldn't get over the fact what a whiny, spoiled brat the main character was and how much more interesting it would have been if, in my opinion, we followed it from the perspective of his parents; Once had decent enough music, but it was a flimsy film at best with no structure, nothing interesting to say and a sadistic pleasure in killing any chances of dramatic tension (my rant on Once here); Both Rendition and Across the Universe were painful to sit through (my rants here); Even films I genuinely liked, such as Gone Baby Gone, Michael Clayton and Eastern Promises were missing a little something that prevented them from being rated higher.

So what am I hoping for? A good, solid drama that will knock the socks off me and make me believe in the Oscar season again. Hopefully, with No Country For Old Men and Atonement coming out soon, one of them will be that film.