Dracula Presents: The Twelfth Annual Golden Stake Awards

“Perfectly balanced as all things should be.”

“What did it cost?” “Everything.”

“Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good.”

Adapted Screenplay
The first of the two writing categories, this category looks at screenplays adapted from other media. Pretty self-explanatory.

Annihilation: Annihilation is an adaptation of a novel by a guy named Jeff VanderMeer and was the first of his “Southern Reach Trilogy.” The film does not necessarily have the greatest dialogue put to film but I still feel its screenplay deserves a lot of recognition as it manages to bring some really smart science fiction to the screen. The basic nature of “the shimmer” is consistently fascinating and the film does a great job of withholding easy answers without seeming needlessly oblique.

Burning: This Korean film is actually based on a Japanese short story called “Barn Burning” by the acclaimed novelist Haruki Murakami. This would be another screenplay that isn’t dialogue focused but that’s in part because it manages to say a lot without overtly having its characters speak. It has a very well thought out, in inarticulate, central character and really tries to bring you in on his psychology as various developments occur. It’s also a film that does a pretty good job of establishing a mystery and then making you wonder both what the solution to it is and whether you should have been trying to solve it at all.

The Death of Stalin: Though ultimately based on history The Death of Stalin is officially based on a French graphic novel called “La Mort de Staline” by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin. I’m not sure if that graphic novel was comedic like the film is but whoever came up with the idea of making a comedy about Stalinist Russia certainly had a lot of chutzpah. Even doing a straight dramatic adaptation of this story would have been difficult as it involved a whole lot of soviet bureaucracy and events that happened behind closed doors but finding the dark humor in it all really made this a tough feat.

If Beale Street Could Talk: James Baldwin is one if the greatest writers of the 20th Century and yet this is the first time that Hollywood has tried to adapt one of his novels for the big screen, and what a job they did. If Beale Street Could Talk does not follow the usual rules of screenwriting in terms of structure or message but it doesn’t flaunt them openly either. It also manages to use certain tricks that often go wrong like the use of voiceover beautifully and it includes a lot of great scenes that don’t necessarily advance the plot but do flesh out the lives of the characters.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: I wouldn’t say that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the best superhero movie of the year but it’s probably the best written one. That is in many was a function of it not being beholden to some of the usual expectations and formulas involved in some of the bigger live action movies. The film does a very good job of quickly introducing the Miles Morales character to mainstream audiences and it has a handful of smart structural tricks like each Spider-Man introducing themselves in the same way and it doesn’t overwhelm itself with meta in-jokes like a lot of movies from the Lord/Miller stable.

And the Golden Stake Goes To…

Original Screenplay
Usually when deciding these things either the adapted field or the original field proves to be the stronger but this year the two seems to be relatively even.

Eighth Grade: Eighth Grade is one of those movies that seems easy to write at first glance but the more you think about it the more you realize it’s massively challenging. Movies about teenagers almost always come off as phony, especially when it comes to young teenagers but this one really seems to get it right. Its dialogue manages to capture the cadences of youthful slang and it also manages to avoid descending into nostalgia and making its protagonist more impressive than she is.

The Favourite: “Costume dramas” are usually based on the famous novels of centuries past but this one takes its cues directly from history. The power struggle between Abigail Masham and Sarah Churchill for the favor of Queen Anne depicted here is more historically accurate than you might think, but it never feels like a stuffy recitation of true facts. The screenplay never shies away from anachronistic speech and it doesn’t get more bogged down in the politics of the time than it needs to be. And of course the biting dialogue of the participants really makes the film a joy to watch.

First Reformed: Paul Schraeder is an accomplished director but he’s an even more accomplished screenwriter going back to his time writing movies for Martin Scorsese. On top of that he was at one point a very sharp film critic who once wrote an influential book about the work of filmmakers like Robert Bresson and Carl Theodor Dreyer and this seems to be what he’s drawing on with First Reformed, which is clearly the best movie he’s made in decades. With the film he fearlessly updates the spiritual angst of the characters in those movies but for a new age with new problems.

Roma: Roma is a movie that’s generally going to be at something of a disadvantage because it is not a film whose storytelling is overly driven by dialogue. However, there is more to screenwriting than simply dialogue; there’s also structure, there’s theme, there’s staging, it’s almost always there on the page to some extent. The basic ideas and details behind the film were envisioned by Cuarón in the screenplay before filming even began.

Tully: Diablo Cody was nominated for a Golden Stake in its very first year for her hit film Juno. After that film it seems like she had a real chance to take the film world by storm and while that never really happened she has kept on working consistently since then and her latest film Tully is probably her best film since her debut. The film seems to capture the indignities of caring for a newborn and of modern motherhood in general and it also manages to avoid falling into clear genre conventions and in doing so really keeps you guessing what’s going to happen.

And the Golden Stake Goes To…

Ehhhhh.

It's a quality trailer, but in retrospect it's a fairly straightforward approach given the material that the movie gave them. In my nominations I was really looking to pick trailers that did something unique in the way they were cut.

Next to “Best Line”, “Best Trailer” is the category that Dracula is most notoriously bad at. Best Trailer of the year was obviously Bohemian Rhapsody. Goddamn movie made $800 million worldwide thanks to this gloriously well-put together trailer

Most Underappreciated
The underappreciated category is where I go with my various “hot takes” about movies that I think got a raw deal on some level. It’s not necessarily a raw deal at the box office, though it could be, and not necessarily a raw deal amongst critics in a Rotten Tomatoes way, but just a movie that I feel deserved to make a much bigger splash than it did and which I think had the potential to do so.

Blockers: Blockers is probably definitive proof that the wave of R-rated comedies that emerged about a decade ago is pretty much over because if this can’t revive the genre probably nothing will. It had the relative misfortune of opening the same weekend as A Quiet Place, which sucked up a lot of the critical discussion as well as the box office take. That is unfortunate because I still really like this “sex comedy with a heart” format and this one mostly does it very well.

Borg Vs. McEnroe: This movie about the tennis rivalry between Björn Borg and John McEnroe sounded like a pretty interesting project when it was announced and I was eager to see it last year. Then I found myself waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Eventually it was dumped into theaters unceremoniously in April and never made more than $300,000 or got much press. I kind of get why this happened as it wasn’t really artistic enough for the arthouse crowd and it was a little too not entirely in the English language for the sports movie crowd, but the movie has some pretty good performances from all involved and finds an interesting contrast between its main characters.

Game Night: Technically speaking, Game Night is the third highest grossing (non-action) comedy of the year behind Crazy Rich Asians and Night School. That would seem to suggest that it’s fairly well appreciated but it is in fact only the fortieth highest grossing movie of the year but despite its respectable box office and occasional critical acclaim it still kind of feels like it never got its due. The movie is a funny comedy which also manages to be a rather fun, not exactly action movie, but sort of like a crime/thriller parody which seems to impress everyone who sees it.

Isle of Dogs: And here is where I’m in the rather uncomfortable position of blaming “political correctness gone awry” for something. Isle of Dogs is a movie that seemed to be well on its way to being another popular and critical success for Wes Anderson until a couple of think-pieces were written accusing it of being problematic in relation to its treatment of Asian culture. I have no problem with those think-pieces, I think they brought up some points that were worth considering, but I do have a problem with the fact that the movie seemed to be completely radioactive after that point with no one interested in contemplating the film through any other lens.

Solo: A Star Wars Story: Solo: A Star Wars Story is probably the last movie I expected to have to defend as underappreciated but here we are. Financially the film actually did a lot better than you’d think from its reputation. It’s the tenth highest grossing movie of the year and if not for the massive expectations for a Star Wars movie and the headaches that apparently happened behind the scenes that would be a pretty good haul. It’s really its critical reputation I want to look at because I frankly thought it was a pretty decent movie. Alden Ehrenreich does about the best job I can imagine anyone doing in that role and there are a lot of fun touches and actions scenes in the film and frankly I think worse movies have gotten a pass a lot more easily.

And the Golden Stake Goes To…

Best Action Movie
The Golden Stakes roughly correspond to the Marvel era of action cinema and yet this is the first year where the category is this heavily dominated by superhero movies (there was one year where they were three for five). To date I’ve only allowed four superhero movies to actually win the award: The Dark Knight, X-Men: First Class, Man of Steel, and Captain America: Winter Soldier.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: The original Ant-Man was something of a proof of concept for the character and his shrinking powers and they further developed this by adding the giant man powers in Captain America: Civil War, and with Ant Man and the Wasp they were finally able to really use the character to his full potential and deliver an all-around more action packed cinematic experience than the first movie. That car chase in particular is one of the more impressive action scenes in all of the MCU and was really close to winning Chase of the Year despite stiff competition in that category.

Avengers: Infinity War: Avengers: Infinity War currently stands as the third most expensive film ever made behind Avengers: Age of Ultron (which wasn’t sharing costs with another sequel) and the insane boondoggle that was Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides but you see every cent on the screen and it’s a whole lot better than both of those movies. The film manages to combine the powers of the various characters really well and Thanos proves to be a force that really brings out the best in all of them.

Black Panther: Black Panther is usually discussed in terms of its representational politics first, its world building second, and its merits as an action movie last. In fact the action sequences and special effects are some of the weaker elements in the movie and do bring it down… but having said that, it’s action scene deficiencies can be exaggerated a bit as well. There are still some really strong action moments here like the Buson chase, most of the battle at the end, and the bit where Martin Freeman is piloting the airplane remotely.

Deadpool 2: The original Deadpool had some interesting things going for it but the weakness at the center of it was that it didn’t have the budget it needed and it in many ways just felt like a second rate superhero/action movie. Deadpool 2 rectified that in a big way. John Wick alumnus David Leitch was brought on to direct and the budget was nearly doubled and you could see the difference onscreen with highlight action scenes like the convoy attack, the opening sequences, and the climactic attack on the pray away the mutation school.

Mission Impossible: Fallout: The soul non-superhero movie in the mix is in fact the sixth installment of the long running Mission: Impossible franchise, which has managed to stay relevant all these years despite major changes in the action movie landscape and a lot of competition that comes at the genre from much different directions. In many ways the film feels like an excuse to string together insane stunts that Tom Cruise needs to perform in order to feel like he’s still alive.

And the Golden Stake Goes To…

Best Horror Film
As you would guess, a category for the best horror movie of the year. For the record I am not considering the following movies to be horror films for the purposes of this award: Annihilation, Bird Box, Mandy, or Upgrade. I also haven’t seen Overlord.

Apostle: This has been something of a landmark year for Netflix movies getting serious attention, but for every Roma there are a bunch of movies like Apostle which debut on the platform and never get talked about after a week because they don’t really have any kind of campaign behind them. This movie, from Gareth Evans isn’t perfect but it works as a kind of more serious take on The Wicker Man and has a handful of horror images that are worthy of note.

The First Purge: I thought the original The Purge was a pretty dumb exercise and while the sequels are also dumb in their own ways they are increasingly dumb fun. The latest entry might be the best if only because it is almost recklessly willing to play around with loaded political imagery in-between the various violent incidents. It’s certainly not as smart as it thinks it is and yet I do think there’s something entertaining about seeing a major horror series try this hard to be provocative rather than merely jump-scary.

Hereditary: The A24 studio has earned something of a reputation for high quality independent horror movies like The Witch and It Comes at Night and while Hereditary is no The Witch it does hold its own and maintains the studio’s reputation. The film begins as a sort of riff on the story from some of the later Paranormal Activity movies and then becomes this really dark family drama before turning into a pretty hardcore satanic horror movie that really gives you that feeling of evil by the end.

A Quiet Place: When A Quiet Place opened early in the year I liked it but was a bit lukewarm in my enthusiasm. In retrospect I think I might have been a little too hard on it. It loses a certain something when the CGI monsters show up but most of the rest of the film really is a very solid bit of world-building with a tense family story at the center and just a generally scary premise behind it. I’m sure if I knew Bird Box was in my future I would have given it more points in comparison.

Suspiria: Choosing to remake a movie like Dario Argento’s Suspiria is pretty much opening yourself up for criticism given the high esteem that horror fans place that movie in and I don’t think Luca Guadagnino was exactly rewarded at the box office for his courage, he did nonetheless make a pretty unique horror movie. Guadagnino made entirely different stylistic choices than Argento and put more of an emphasis on setting and less of an emphasis on tone but manages to deliver on the gore just the same.

And the Golden Stake Goes To…

You definitely made tbe right choice with horror.

As for comedy, of your nominees, I think you made the right call, but for me, the funniest film of the year was easily The House That Jack Built. I'm not sure what that says about me.