A scene from the movie “How to Blow Up an Oil Pipeline.”
(NEON)
Cord Jefferson, “American Fiction”
Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, “Barbie”
Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”
Tony McNamara, “Poor People”
Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest”
Should win: “American Fiction.” I wonder when, in Jefferson's trial, he confronted the bear trap contained in Percival Everett's 2001 novel “Erasure.” That book, like Jefferson's script, hinges on a dead end. A black author named Monk longs to write about more than just the color of his skin, but to do so, he has to point out the bigotry that has him locked in a box. Smartly, Jefferson decided to keep (and update) the satire as he fleshed out the moments in Monk's life that have nothing to do with race, particularly a romance that he expanded from brief to heartbreaking.
Should Have Been a Contender: Ariela Barer, Jordan Sjol and Daniel Goldhaber, “How to Blow Up an Oil Pipeline.” Three years ago, the Swedish academic Andreas Malm published an incendiary paperback that insisted that strategic nonviolence is unlikely to do much to save the planet. The writing team of Ariela Barer, Jordan Sjol and Daniel Goldhaber transformed their call to action into a thrilling thriller. Part manifesto, part microbudget “MacGyver,” this script puts Malm's arguments in the mouths of eight young activists who have gathered in West Texas to achieve the film's title. “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” doesn't assume the audience agrees with these climate advocates, but it wants us to listen.
