Still, it was great to hear my name on the air and I’m swooning over my name being lights.

Congrats to Natalia and my fellow finalists!

Any chance you’ll publish the winning loglines?

Spoilers ahead.

Ryan Goslin plays a guy who has real political convictions. We know this because he tells us. Then he has those convictions tested. And then other stuff happens. There’s also a “big twist” with no real set-up, so when it happens, it doesn’t pay off anything. Sure, it’s surprising. But it’s surprising because we had nothing set it up prior.

Now, just writing that paragraph, I realize that you could make an argument for a pay-off within the Goslin character (who was so memorable, I can’t tell you his name). He believed one thing about Clooney’s candidate character, and he has that shattered. But it feels artificial.

Also, the Goslin character has to kind of be an idiot (nice way to say that is “naive”) to think that anyone in the world — politician or otherwise — is perfect. If he’s so experienced in the world of politics (“Ahf dun more campaigns in mah 25-yeahs than most haff done in ah lafftahm”), wouldn’t he be more expectant of that sort of thing? I’ve done ZERO campaigns and I believe half of what a politician tells me.

so that’s why you’re the only one who loved it. Or that’s why other people didn’t love it. It’s a movie that looks like it’s important and about something more than it is, but it’s not. In my opinion.

I definitely enjoyed Source Code, but not to the point where I was expecting it on this list.

Ingrid: Yep!

I’ve read the “don’t pay for notes” argument many times and there’s no convincing some, parody-genius Mazin included. For more open-minded writers willing to do their DD to find a legit consultant, it can be an incredibly useful tool. Period.