Unlike past years, none of the ten best picture Oscar nominees in 2024  were adapted from a play or musical. But could any of them be adapted into one?  

Answering this question, which I do for each of the ten below, is an exercise (much like last year’s) that helps clarify for me not just what makes a good movie, but also what makes a good play – as well as suggesting the differing strengths of the two art forms, and perhaps even offering insight into the common elements in any worthwhile work of art. This is not to say I agree with the nominators for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences about all their choices, nor necessarily with the ultimate awards given out at the  96th Oscars, which will be held on Sunday, March 10, 2024.  

My rundown of each of the ten incorporates the results of last week’s poll asking which best picture nominee Would Be Best and Worst on Broadway?

American Fiction

“American Fiction” could work on stage, as it does on screen, as two stories in one — a smart, funny satire of the way the white establishment pigeonholes Black artists, and a warmhearted if cool-eyed family drama. It doesn’t hurt that it stars Jeffrey Wright, who is as much a theater as a movie actor. (My review of the movie.)

Anatomy of a Fall

A man is found dead by his blind son in the snow below their chalet. Was it an accident; did he commit suicide; or did his wife murder him? “Anatomy of a Fall” is a combination police procedural and courtroom drama but primarily a psychological portrait of a relationship. This gets high marks in the poll as a potential play, which makes sense for practical reasons: It has a small cast, it takes place in just a few locations, it relies heavily on dialogue (in three languages, French,English and German; how would Broadway handle this? Make it all in English, or provide open captions?) It does what plays do well, focus on the development of character – or, more precisely, on your shifting view of the characters. 

Barbie

This blockbuster film that builds a story around a 65-year-old doll is hands-down the top choice in the poll as the best possible musical (by more than three-quarters of the respondents.) The songs are already written; the sets and costumes are already theatrical, in several senses of that word. (Far fewer thought it would make a good play.)

I was won over by the opening scene — a meticulous spoof of the opening of “2001: A Space Odyssey” — which might be hard to mount on stage. Turning the film in a stage musical could give the creative team a chance to trim the meandering plot, perhaps stick as much as possible to musical numbers.

The Holdovers

Paul Giamattti portrays Paul, a strict, pedantic, much-hated teacher of classical history at a New England prep school whose headmaster has forced him to remain on campus during Christmas break in 1970 to supervise a handful of students with nowhere to go, along with the school’s grieving head cook, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, whose son has just been killed in Vietnam. Paul forms an unexpected bond with Angus, a smart,  rebellious, smart aleck of a  student portrayed by newcomer Dominic Sessa. 

“The Holdovers” was the top pick in the poll for best likely play. It certainly comes the closest of any of the ten movies to adhering to the three Aristotelian unities of time, place and action, and it follows a familiar theatrical plot of the characters slowly revealing secrets. With no fancy flashbacks or special visual effects, it relies on the acting, which is superb, making credible, funny and heartwarming the relationships among the characters, especially the central three.

Killers of the Flower Moon

This 206-minute movie directed by Martin Scorsese would be a disaster on stage (as poll takers affirm) because the cinematography is its main appeal, not the storytelling, which is long and repetitive with a misplaced focus. It turns a white man (portrayed by the miscast Leonard DiCaprio) into the main character in the true story of the members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma after the discovery of oil on their land made them strikingly rich – and targets of atrocities.

Maestro

Leonard Bernstein would seem an ideal subject for the stage, either a play or a musical. He was, among other things, a consummate theater artist. The movie is full of his music.

But “Maestro” focuses on the relationship between Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre, portrayed by Carey Mulligan; I agree with those who say it’s really her film.  His musicianship is only one of two subplots – the other being his sexuality, which arguably is the more prominent. And, in a further irony,, director Bradley Cooper seems less interested in the audio than the visual — the arty changes from color to black-and-white; the prosthetic makeup

I think Broadway audiences would rebel at the approach that the movie takes.

Oppenheimer

The epic, important and fascinating story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb would make a great play. Many polltakers disagreed; it got the most votes as likely to make the worst play. Yes, a moment-by-moment adaptation of the movie would be a challenge because of the emphasis on visual effects, and the fancy flashbacks, But the acting is phenomenal. The central character, and the complexity of the issues that his life story embodies, seem ripe for theatrical treatment. (The story has already been made into an opera:  “Doctor Atomic”  by American composer John Adams, which debuted in 2005.) The film’s division into three parts could remain more or less the same: Oppenheimer’s youthful development as a scientist and a man of conscience, with a complicated love life;  his leadership of the massive effort to build the atomic bomb; the literal, psychological and political fallout from the bomb.

Past Lives

This sweet intimate drama follows two childhood friends from Korea in the two dozen years after Na Young (Greta Lee) has immigrated to North America, married an American (John Magaro), and become a New York playwright (!), while Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) stays behind, becomes an engineer and (quietly) pines for Na Young (who changes her name to Nora.) It is a semi-autobiographical film written and directed by Celine Song, who is in fact a New York playwright (most notably of “Endlings” and “The Seagull on The Sims 4.”)  With a small cast, unflashy visuals and a simple plot, Song does in her debut film what plays do very well – engage you in the characters’ lives, their dreams and regrets. I think this could work as a chamber musical as well, which could employ a mix of American and Korean music to suggest cultural complications.

Poor Things

 Emma Stone stars as Bella, whom a mad if well-meaning scientist (William Dafoe) brings back to life with a baby’s brain. Hungry for adventure,  shockingly impulsive and sexually uninhibited, she develops into an unusually independent woman for the time, which seems to be the end of the nineteenth century.   I found this to be a skin-deep story that could work as either a play or a musical if the show cast a flamboyant star (or a star in the making) as Bella, and focused its attention (and its budget) on a series of over-the-top sets and costumes. 

The Zone of Interest

The best picture nomination was among five handed to this film about the domestic life of Rudolf Höss, his wife Hedwig and five children, as they make a home in a cottage on the grounds of Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp where the real-life Hoss served as commandant.  One of the nominations was for sound, which I suspect is the only one that it will win, since the sound offers one of the very few indications of the horror that’s going on just over the garden wall.  The point of the movie seems to be how muted and banal the “action” that unfolds in front of us;  what matters is happening off screen.How could this airless exercise in arthouse filmmaking possibly translate to the stage?