this, interestingly, was the correct decision: “la la land” is a good, enjoyable film, but not great, and its script is just “average”–nothing original about it. “manchester’s” script is mostly very good, but it is too long by about 20 minutes: definitely needs cutting. “moonlight”, by contrast, is very good throughout, although the third act is not quite as strong as the first two.

actually, the “hell or high water” script is equally good, but “manchester” ably deals with a difficult subject.