Read more script for award consideration :: SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board

Excellent. If I may offer some insight, or irrelevant opinion, however way you look at it. These are just feelings of course, as its hard to more precisely analyze a screenplay from its movie.

Beasts of No Nation - I couldn't be happier with this one. The story is so well told, even at the behest of gurus and the book of Hollywood 101 story-telling, that your sympathy for Agu is about as palpable as it can get, even after the film has ended. We're given just enough time seeing Agu in his natural state, being a kid without a care in the world, that the pathos of his descent into premature manhood is sufficiently tangible, but the overall story doesn't lose its structural integrity. The lack of any real insight regarding the details of the overworld politics is a wise narrative choice. We can empathize with this child, and his being exploited by things that are beyond him. Many chastise the ending for being too Hollywood, but I feel it's a perfect ending. A glimmer of fleeting hope maybe someday he'll get to be a kid again. Of course it goes against your better judgement that he's probably already technically a sociopath.

Bridge of Spies - I'm a little on the fence with this one. It is a "perfect" script in that there's almost nothing visibly wrong with it, but I couldn't help leave the theater feeling something was missing. Again, I'm on the fence, because I don't know how much of that had more to do with the predictable casting of Tom Hanks or the writing itself. I can forgive it being a little formulaic when the pacing and structure are almost invisibly perfect, and almost all attempts at wit and sharp dialogue range from fair to a home run. I guess I'd have say fair nomination in the end, but I can't help but feel there were more interesting characters than the lead.

Danny Collins - A little baffled with this one. I was ready to love this film in the first half, (especially considering Pacino hasn't been this good in years), but the end left me with a feeling of, eh, pretty good. I don't know if the director or the editor were to blame, but the moment the sudden ending hit and I was sitting in my seat a little bemused, I couldn't help feel someone either ripped twenty pages out of an awesome script, or the writer bit off more than he could chew and gave up.

Ex Machina - Not a single doubt in my mind that this is a deserving nomination. I felt this script was so good it deserved a better film. The director's "style" was the sort of low key minimalist hum-drum I've seen in a thousand sci-fi films and games, and the lead actor was so boring he literally brought everything to a screeching halt. This film had a wonderful script and two great performances, it could have and should have been better.

Inside Out - What can I say with Pixar. I think at this point the writers for this studio can look at clothe dryer lint and somehow be inspired to make a film that make grown men cry.

Steve Jobs - Not only a resounding YES, but a surprising one. I usually hate Sorkin's writing. It's often too obssesively in favor of dialogue that, while admittedly fun and catchy ends up overdone anyway, whilst neglecting everything else, like structure, pacing and character empathy. And even though there were a lot of pacing and flow issues in the middle that came dangerously close to breaking my immersion, this script just clicked for me. And I don't know why. Steve Jobs seemed like the perfect candidate for that particular sort of unlikable Sorkin character, but I felt his character was elevated above everything I feared. I didn't know whether to like or hate the man and I feel the story benefited from that. And my god that dialogue. I don't care how overlong it was. Dialogue that good can drone on all it wants.

Straight Outta Compton - I don't know what to say here. I saw it, and thought it was, okay. I'm a rap/hip-hop fan and I know all these personalities all to well, at least in regards to now, as 40+ men, but for some reason I had an incredibly challenging time telling them apart in the film. Four guys who act, talk, dress and look the same. Maybe they were like that when they were young? Their characterization never rose beyond what I already knew of them outside the film. The dialogue felt authentic enough I guess. Strange. It's a fun film, but nothing about the writing really stood out as particularly interesting or memorable.

I haven't seen the other ones. This has been a very slow movie watching year for me.