"Based on a true story" Best Picture nominees 2005-2014

It's a clever line that I like but doesn't explain these movies, not all of which are popular with the general public. Familiarity has a lot to do with the financing and marketing of these pictures.

the best of this lot:

Munich
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Social Network
Lincoln
12 Years a Slave

oops – omit Frost/Nixon

Going for Social Network as it is, arguably, the most aesthetically ambitious of the ones that I've seen, or at least the most aesthetically non-historical/biopic-y. Ditto The Wolf of Wall Street, I guess, though I didn't like that film at all.

Might have voted for Milk if it had been called/about Dan White instead.

have only seen about half of these but voted 12 years a slave

Frost/Nixon was abominable

voted for lincoln without hesitating much, though i liked milk a lot at the time

its an interesting theory idk, I feel like it def captures the #1 target audience of shit like American sniper or lone survivor really well, but I also think that fiction versions of those could poss be just as successful? like if you used m/l all of the beats of those films in a fictionalized way would the target audience be like 'pfft I don't care that isn't a real story'? maybe I guess. seems also very tied to the marketing of them tbh

also it def doesn't apply across the board cuz something like American hustle I don't think it mattered at all that it was based on real ppl/facts that it was successful

yeah I don't love any of this list, several are like 'watchable', theres some clever stuff in the queen but its also sorta boring

have seen 19, the best of which is easily Munich

holy god I've seen them all except American Sniper and TTOE.

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The Blind Side is probably the least significant.

lol American Sniper deserves at least a "borderline" qualifier

torn btwn Zero Dark Torture and Lincoln

The Social Network and The Wolf of Wall Street are the best by far from this list imo

The Social Network, Capote next.

it's kinda frightening when you look at the Best Original Screenplay lists *just how few* decent entirely original stories there are in movie-world. even the best of them invariably come from pre-existing journalism, real life incidents etc. genuinely original stories are crazy hard to crack obviously but crazy rare. or yeah maybe it's that writers don't write them as often as they know the movies won't get made/financed as Alfred suggests.

'Milk' by a mile.

Munich or WOWS

I assume every story is "based on a true story". Some actual incident gives the writer an idea = p much how every story ever has been written.

Hate this stupid tag so much.

most films could apply it if they wanted to

HOME ALONE - "once my mom left me at home for an entire evening and I was so bored I daydreamed of what I would do to burglars"
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS - "I know a lot of insurance guys who say 'fuck'"
INDECENT PROPOSAL - "People always tell me they wanna fuck my wife"

I call half-bullshit on the Film Comment piece, but mostly because Pinkerton doesn't seem to show the grasp of publishing trends that he has does of films. I mean, the list is interesting, but...

The selection of source material for the Black List screenplays (and other such lists) is more interesting, and I think less studied, than the scripts or eventual films themselves. Nearly all of the movies listed are the kind of books that're heavily featured at the first-in-the-door 'make' tables at chain bookstores. They're midlisty popular non-fic books turned into midlisty movies, albeit occasionally 'elevated' by pedigreed directors. They are not analogous whatsoever to "fat tomes of historical fiction by the likes of James Clavell, James A. Michener, and Leon Uris." They are the books (and stage or screenplays of the books, and movies of the stage or screenplays of the books) that're designed as grab-and-go books. Airport non-fiction, New York Times Bestseller bin, 40% when you tw non-fiction, perfect for your Dad books. Safe, conservative, dilettantish, veneer of intellectualism books. Not bad books, just... dullsville.

40% when you buy two

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Missed poll. Add a vote for Munich.