Mark Boal‘s Zero Dark Thirty screenplay has won the Writers Guild of America’s award for Best Original Screenplay. This may or may not have been intended as a rebuke to the Stalinists who tried to take ZD30 down with charges that Boal and Kathryn Bigelow‘s film endorses torture, but it feels like one from this corner. This is the kind of recognition that this film needed and richly deserved. Congrats to Biggy-Boal, Megan Ellison and everyone else who gave their all to this film. Presumably this paves the way for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar win.

Earlier: Chris Terrio‘s Argo screenplay won the WGA’s Best Adapted Screenplay award. Jesus, this is boring. In the wake of this Bilge Ebiri tweeted the following: “Congrats, Hollywood award-givers. In a year with so many amazing films, you’ve managed to form a consensus around the merely okay yet again.” Kris Tapley replies: “It’s so silly to expect otherwise. ‘Generally agreeable’ wins in a competition where so many are polled.”