2016 Best Original Screenplay

After watching two movies that were nominated for the 2016 Best Original Screenplay award I believe they picked the wrong winner. Manchester by the Sea directed by Kenneth Lonergan, stole the win. The film told the story of a man suffering from his own past traumas having to care for his nephew after his brother died. Needing to decide if he will take custody of his nephew as his brother wanted. The film that raised the most questions and was more entertaining to watch had to be The Lobster directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. It was a story of a man in a world where if you don't find your partner you get turned into an animal and sent out into the forest. The main character sets his own path as he runs away and gets into more trouble then he asked for. It was a bizarre concept to begin with, but as the movie went on it just got weirder. But you couldn't peel your eyes from the screen, just waiting to see what's next. While both movies were good in their own regard, The Lobster had more life. Not only was the plot more entertaining, but the characters had more interesting characters. There were few/if any dull characters, some were dark, goofy, weird, it was a whole mixture which added more to the story.

Manchester by the Sea winning the award for best original screenplay was a big leap for streaming services. As it was made by Amazon, this was the first streaming movie to receive an Oscar. Casey Affleck who plays the uncle played out a heart wrenching performance. He was so subtle with small facial expressions and the tone and words he uses show so much of his character when you read between the lines making his character great. You could feel his pain all the way through the movie.  That pain made clear in the flashbacks showing that his actions lead to the death of his children and the end of his marriage.  Even though some may not agree with his choice in not staying, he still tried so hard to make the right choice for his nephew and to not completely disrespect what his brother wanted.  All the scenes flow together and almost feels as though you're eavesdropping. It all feels so real, though at the same time just as dull. It started with the first twenty or so minutes of the film where nothing was happening and I felt as though I was missing something. Then when it did pick up it was interesting, yes, and gave a beautiful story. Though sitting through it at times it became boring almost and so I would go on my phone to just do something else with it in the background till it picked up again.

The far more entertaining and (far out) film has to be The Lobster. Judged on stupid attributes for having a relationship with someone such as short sightedness and nose bleeds. They end up not looking for companions but for someone to live with and to raise a child with and to save you from choking. If you don't conform to society's standards you are shunned and are looked at as an animal.  The dark comedy made you want to continue watching.  It shows that people only looked for someone if there were something similar between the two.  There were no  ‘opposites attract” and it was so instilled in the way they lived their lives that they had to find a match with someone that shared something similar.  People are not able to have physical pleasures while being single unless you were an animal, so without a match you had to go live your life out as an animal of your choice. At the last scene where they are sitting across from each other in the cafe it left me questioning, do they have anything else in common?   The movie ended with you wondering what choice the main character made.  Did he choose to cause physical harm to himself to be blind so he could have that one thing that made them a match as society viewed couples or did he see in those final moments sitting across from each other that they had nothing else in common and choose to walk away? 

In my opinion there is one big similarity between the two movies and that is both movies had people “faking” something to fit in with someone.  The Lobster you had characters that changed their behavior and caused physical harm to themselves just to show that they belonged with someone.  The scene that brought out the similarities to me when watching The Manchester by the Sea was the luncheon between the mother and son.  In that scene the mother was struggling so much just to hold herself together in front of her finance.  It made it seem that without him there she would have immediately gone for a drink.   So it left the question, could she be herself in front of him, is she pretending to be someone she is not to hold on to having a relationship? 

Another similarity can be drawn between the uncle in The Manchester by the Sea and the main character in The Lobster.  While the uncle made it clear he could not pretend to be okay with moving back to a town that brought so many bad memories rushing back, did the main character make the same choice?