Mob Mentality Deep Dive: What Made This Script Win? [Podcast]
John Scramm interviews three of the Kinolime community readers - Cindy, Paul, and Steve about their experience reading scripts and specifically about their favorite screenplay from this year’s feature length competition, "Mob Mentality." The screenplay is about a 13-year-old boy who believes he is the reincarnation of mobster John Gotti. They discuss what drew them to the script, their favorite scenes and the development of their favorite character.The conversation also covers how they discovered Kinolime and the value of their platform for undiscovered screenwriters.
Full Transcript: Mob Mentality Deep Dive: What Made This Script Win?
Participants:
John Schramm - Head of Development, Kinolime
Cindy Nothig - Community Member & Reader
Paul Knauer - Community Member & Reader
Steve Rosso - Community Member & Reader
Paul: Mob Mentality is just. I mean, a 13-year-old who thinks he's the reincarnation of John Gotti. Boom. That's all you need to hear to understand the entire script. It's such a simple comedic premise that you get it right away. And so, yeah, once I saw that premise, it's like, "Okay, definitely on my list. I had to read this one.
John: Hello Kinolimers. We're here to talk about Mob Mentality, screenwriting, Kinolime—all things. So let's welcome today on the Kino Lime podcast: we have Stephen, Paul, and Cindy. Guy, welcome. Hello. Thanks for coming on.
I’m John Schramm, head of development here at Kinolime. Tell us a little bit about where you're from, and we'll start maybe with Cindy, if that's okay.
[1:04] Cindy: My name is Cindy, I’m from St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. I'm a grandmother and animal activist. I love to write. I write poetry. I write supernatural, otherworldly. I actually am going to try to get a screenplay into you guys for the next round. I basically just write, read, and love to read. Love horseback riding.
Paul: My name is Paul Knauer. I'm actually a screenwriter out of the Kansas City area. I used to work in radio for quite a long time and switched to screenwriting about 10 years ago. I've been writing full-time since then. So I started with sitcom scripts and then transitioned into features. Basically, I write absurdist comedies and thrillers with some horror features also in my portfolio. So I love to write, love to talk about screenwriting, and found Kino Lime last year. I was really excited to get into reading scripts. This year, I started reading the treatments and just seeing the level of treatments that were involved in the competition—as a screenwriter, I was super excited about the ideas that I was seeing. So yeah, really happy to be here today and happy to contribute in any way that I possibly can to the great work that you guys are doing. Thank you.
John: Thank you. And Steve?
Steve: Steve Rosso. I grew up in New Jersey, lived in New York for a while in the city, and now I'm out on Long Island in New York. So right where it takes place. My son is 11, so in a couple of years, he'll have friends the same age as Nate is in the script. I work in television—I've been working in television for a long time in the backstage thing. Nothing in production. For a long time. I've been a stand-up comedian for about 25-30 years at this point. I've written about three or four full-length spec scripts and a couple TV pilots as well. So I'm looking forward to submitting to the contest at any point, anytime next year.
John: That's right. And we're going to have some details coming out to everyone at home about our Feature Film 3.0 competition, which will launch at the top of 2026. We also have a short film competition—screenplay competition—that we're going to be launching next month. So go to kinolime.com and check out all the info and updates there. And speaking of Kino Lime, I'd love to know—I know, Paul, you just mentioned it before—but we'd love to hear from Cindy and Stephen: how did you guys find out about Kino Lime? What's been your impression thus far?
Cindy: I discovered it on Facebook—your advertisements on Facebook, and I think it is amazing what you're doing. As you have said, it's really difficult to get into this business unless you're a well-known name. Like, I mean, everyone knows Stephen King. He could sell dog crap. You know what I mean? Like, I mean, just the name connected to it. And the fact that the audience is the ones that decide—that is a major bonus. I mean, you've opened doors that would never be open for people. You know, it's a struggle—a real tough struggle. And yeah, you guys are doing amazing work for people. You're broadening, I guess, the spectrum. There's a lot of great writers out there that will never get the opportunity. But again, thanks to you, your company, and your dedication to help them— we appreciate you.
John: We appreciate you. Steve, how did you find out about Kino Lime?
Steve: I believe that the first place I saw it was on YouTube last spring. So it was right after the last contest had ended. So I had just finished something, I was looking into where I could potentially send or enter it, and I found Kino Lime on YouTube talking about the process and everything. And when I went to the website, I'm like, "I just missed it." But that gave me plenty of time to think about the next year. So once the season started, I was really ready to start reading everything I could and just get an idea. And same thing Paul mentioned—I found so many good, worthy scripts to be in the final.
I was like, "Oh, they're going to have a tough time picking from a lot of these." Definitely. And the access, definitely, as Cindy said, just the thought of trying to get in someplace has been so daunting over the years, every time I've written something. And even when I was in college, I interned at a talent agency and nobody from there would even accept any outside submissions—nothing that they don't already know. Like, "Well, you guys kind of know me. I interned here." They're like, "No, no outside submissions." So just—where do you send stuff when you finish writing it? You don't know. And a lot of times you enter a contest and then you never hear anything. You don't know who read it. You don't know anything about it. And with kinolime, just the fact that you read all the scripts and you can build up these credits and then get feedback from someone is amazing. It was so nice to actually hear from someone—oh, what they think, what they thought of a part of your script, what they thought you could do better. So it's been a really interesting experience and it's been great.
John: It's a chicken and egg thing, right? It's like you need to get some representation to get your scripts looked at. But how do you get representation and get in that inner circle? And, you know, we just believe in the power of original voices and unknown talent—undiscovered talent, I should say—because look at Mob Mentality. I mean, that screenplay blew me away when I first read it. And we'll get into that in a second. But Paul, I'd love to hear just quickly how you found out about Kinolime.
Paul: I participate in several online screenwriters’ groups where we just trade scripts and trade notes and things like that. It's been really, really super helpful. Highly recommend it for screenwriters, especially if you're just getting started. But one of the things they do on that particular site—it's called Simply Scripts. I don't know if it's okay to mention it or not.
They had posted that, you know, "Here's Kinolime, they have this contest, and here's what's going on." So I decided to check it out. And of course, you know, we're all naturally pessimistic. There are so many people when you get into screenwriting—so many people kind of reaching into your pocket, trying to make a dollar off of your desperation.
And so I just started checking out what you guys were doing. And, you know, just from the very first connection there, I see that you guys are doing a free screenplay contest. You're not even charging anything to do it. So that kind of got my attention.
And like I said, then I started reading some of the—I didn't find it, you know, soon enough to be able to enter myself. But I saw a lot of value for me reading the treatments to see what was working, what wasn't working. And then once I got into the scripts, I think as a screenwriter, you should always be reading scripts anyway
[8:45] John: We just had Fred LeBeau on—he wrote "While You Were Sleeping." So that's going to drop soon. You can check it out. And besides being a big Hollywood writer, he taught at NYU and other universities. His first advice to me when I met him was to read screenplays, watch movies, and read the screenplay in front of you while you're watching the movie to see, you know, the differences. So I'm glad you really hopped on to that value-add of reading the screenplays on the forum and through the website to learn about writing and see what other people do.
Paul: It is. It's a great tool just for learning. And then when I realized I was earning Kino Lines for it and then I could see what I could get for the Kino Lines, I was totally sold. I think that's kind of one of the hidden secrets. And I'm trying to tell as many screenwriters as I possibly can, because I think Steve kind of touched on it just a little bit. But the ability to earn Kinolimes just for what you should be reading anyway, and then to get coverage service for it, so just for reading six treatments, I'm going to sound like a salesperson here, but I really, really love it.
Just for reading six treatments and six scripts, I was able to earn enough Kino Lines to get your enhanced coverage service. And I don't know if a lot of people that are reading on the website know about that. But I hope that the people watching this can discover that because it's a tremendous value—to be able to convert your time, and like I said, something you should be doing anyway, into coverage or a call with an executive.
John: I know. Go read, and we're going to read your screenplay and give you notes. Like, you read—yeah, it's a no-brainer. It's a no-brainer. And speaking of reading, right, let's talk about our favorite screenplay. My favorite screenplay, arguably. I don't want to discredit everyone else, but Mob Mentality really got to me. Like, I laughed just because growing up, I went to school with those type of kids, and I'm from that hood. But let's talk about Mob Mentality. So what initially drew you all into picking that screenplay to read during the competition? Was it during the final three, during the top 26? What drew you into Mob Mentality?
Paul: For me, it was one of the first ones that I read, and it came off of the treatment. There were several of the scripts that the central idea just popped out of the treatment. "Decmposer" was really your final three for sure. All of the central ideas were just like, you know, obvious hooks that you were like, "Man, I wish I would have thought of that premise—it’s a great premise."
Mob Mentality is just—I mean, a 13-year-old who thinks he's the reincarnation of John Gotti. Boom. That's all you need to hear to understand the entire script. So it's such a simple comedic premise that, yeah, you get it right away. And so, yeah, once I saw that premise, it's like, "Okay, definitely on my list. I had to read this one.” I wanted to see what happened to Nate.
John: Sure. I want to hear from Stephen. What drew you in and what made you pick Mob Mentality to read initially?
Steve: So obviously from my standup background, I'm always interested in comedy. Everything I write, even if it's not a straight comedy, is always going to have comedic elements in it. I just can't keep that out of the voice of a lot of the characters that I have. So I'm always looking for comedies first to see which ones might, you know, compare either to mine or to other comedies that I've seen. So from the premise, I was like, "A lot of potential right away." I was like, "Sounds good."
I read through all the treatments first because I actually didn't know that I could read the whole full scripts at first. So I kind of compared everything just from the treatments. And to be honest, with Mob Mentality, I've heard this about comedies in general—you just sometimes don't get the voice from the treatment. And I was like, "Oh, I thought this was going to jump out at me more." Then I realized you could read the actual script. And it was one of the first ones I read once I could do that. And once the voiceover starts and you see how they have the narration coming from him and it's just juxtaposed to all the action, I'm like, "There's the voice. You can hear it now." Exactly. "Now it's singing. Now you can actually hear the dialogue." When it's—oh, that's just such a difference when you read the full script of it. So yeah, totally—once the premise had hooked me in, I was like, "Oh, I really want to know more about it," but then the full script really got me where the treatment was like, "Okay, I don't quite get it."
John: Treatment writing is an art. Like the late, great David Lynch would say, he would say your currency is your screenplay, right? He doesn't do treatments or outlines or, you know, he doesn't do pitch decks. It's like, "My currency—you like my movie? Here's the screenplay. That's the blueprint." You know, we put a lot of time in the treatment, I get it, but yes, I agree. It's tough to get that voice from a treatment. And yeah, from page one, you just pick it up immediately with the voiceover—him looking at the cement truck and talking about the first time he could kick his dad's ass. I mean, it's just, you know, such a hook. What was some of y'all's—yeah, no, it keeps going. It keeps going.
Paul: Well, it's the consistency of the voice, you know, it's like page one to page 104.
It's the same tone on every single page all the way through. And with comedy writing, I see—I read a lot of scripts and I see with comedies, it's so difficult for writers to keep that consistent tone and that consistent feel from one page to the next, from one scene to the next. This script finds its voice on page one and it holds it all the way through 104. And I think that's absolutely one of the strengths of the script.
John: One hundred percent—couldn't agree more. Very, very consistent. What was some of y'all's favorite scenes or moments from Mob Mentality? Like what was it when you were just like, "I can't believe he went there. This is great." Cindy, maybe tell us something that stuck out to you from Mob Mentality.
Cindy: The lemonade stand—him going around offering protection. The ice cream vendor. And when he decided to take Pudge under his wing, you know, he's seen the value. Yeah. And I think, too, when the scar on the neck was revealed to the daughter.
[15:23] John: It's not just a comedy that just is like joke after joke. It had like depth. Yes. Heart, family themes. I mean, it was really well done in that regard.
Steven, what about you?
Steve: The first couple of scenes where you're just being introduced to the world is perfect. Like there's the right tone. It's the right setup. It's like everything is there so that you know exactly what's coming in the rest of the script, not action-wise, but tone-wise. And you just—they set the stage for the whole thing.
John: That's a great—before you continue, I think for our listeners at home, I think that's a great lesson to learn: to grip your reader early on like the writer here at Mob Mentality. If you read the first five, ten pages, you get it. You get the character, you get what's going on, you get the world, everything in the script in particular. Just such a fantastic job of roping you in very early. So read the first five, ten pages of Mob Mentality. Tell us what you think. Sorry, Stephen, continue. Anytime there's a lesson that I can throw out to the writers, I love to just chime in.
Steve: So then a little further in the first third, also, when he first meets Pudge in the new school, he defends and he takes a beating. He just keeps coming back for more. Like that whole scene was really good. And then he's laughing and smiling and the teachers come up. "What happened?" "Nothing. What do you think? Nothing happened. What are you talking about?" Exactly. "I ain't no rat. I ain't no rat to say anything."
[16:48] John: And Paul, what about you?
Paul: Yeah, Steve, that's a great scene to point out, because that's such a good script moment right there. When you really start to understand how you're going to be able to understand Nate and how he thinks, that moment that he's just taking it on the chin for this kid that he barely even knows—he's just basically met him in this moment. It's a great character moment. And I really do think that it sets up that whole relationship between Nate and Pudge that I think is going to carry the entire project.
Those two working together through the whole movie is going to be, I think, one of the touch points that people are really going to be able to hold on to and watch the two of them interact because it really is—Eric does a great job of setting up that relationship and then carrying it through, you know, different relationship points and testing that relationship and then eventually breaking that relationship and—yeah, anything related with Nate and Pudge is the strength of the script.
Steve: Along with the relationship with his parents too, like to me that dichotomy of his tradition—like the tradition of his family then versus his new thing also, but the Pudge relationship is definitely.
Paul: I thought another great moment was right at the end of Act One turning into Act Two where he gets the confirmation from the medium who's basically, you know, "Oh, yeah, you are John Gotti." I thought that was a great screenwriter's moment right there because Eric was basically giving us permission to buy into the central premise and now here we go. Now we're going to run with the rest of the story from here. And that is—as Cindy was saying—going straight from that moment then almost immediately into all of the John Gotti-type actions with the lemonade stand and the ice cream truck. It was a great transition and really fun part of the script.
[18:47] John: And I love that, because I think, you know, growing up in the '90s, you know, as a kid, you know, the mob movies were everywhere, right? You had "Sopranos" for TV and then you have "The Whole Nine Yards" and "Mickey Blue Eyes" and, you know, "Get Shorty" and "Analyze This"—which are fantastic—but we've had some distance from the mob genre now, right? And I think this is the perfect time to come back in in a—you know, with respect to the genre, but you know, but also in a way flip it on its head a bit and kind of like, you know, attack it—subvert it in a way from a comedic side and poke holes at the funny little expected clichés we see in mob movies, but then twist it. And I love the reincarnation angle myself. I've done a past life regression before—I'm really knee-deep in that. So when I saw the combination of like mob and reincarnation, I was hooked. And I just love how he brought it into that and what it's like to be a kid—to be confused about your identity, you know, it's just—it was really.
I died in the Revolutionary War. I was shot in the gut. I mean, we can go on about that. It was a crazy experience. I love—I mean, yeah, don't get me started on reincarnation, but I totally feel it. And they bring up the points too in the script where everybody's like Cleopatra or, you know, Napoleon, but then I think the—I forget the woman's name—the past life regressionist said, "Oh, I just did someone who's like a barkeep." Yeah, just a barkeep and whatever, you know, so it is fun how they bring it back to that. And I thought the parents were hysterical, by the way. I want to hear about supporting characters. We know we all love Nate, but what did y'all think about the parents?
Cindy: They thought their poor little boy was sick. You know, like they were saying about meds—meds, meds—kept going to psychiatrists—meds, meds, meds. They were hoping to convert him into who they were, but he knew who he was, you know.
Paul: They had a great dynamic and I'm really happy that, you know, they were the kind of parents who don't just medicate their kids and get rid of them. They let them be who they are, but their back and forth with each other—the two parents—was a good dynamic. Not just with him. Yes. Yeah, it was great to see them struggle a little bit too, but not in such an overt way. You know, I mean, it was like they were supportive in that fun comedic way, but you could also see their struggle with the whole premise around their son and what he thinks. So I thought it was a really good way to set it up to be able to mine so much comedy out of it just by making them that supportive but, you know, as any parent would be, is like, "Is my son crazy?" Yeah.
John: They were super funny and they were supportive and loving and, you know, it's kind of—I love that they had the right blend of comedy. They felt a little caricature-ish, but in the best way, you know, they also felt real, which I loved.
John: Well, we just wanted to say thank you so much from here at Kino Lime for the three of you amongst, you know, many hundreds and thousands of others who have been voting and reading, you know, that you're so dedicated to Kino Lime and what we're doing. And this is our way of like setting a little appreciation—like come on the show, talk about story, and we're going to be doing many more of these in the future. And we just want to say thank you so much for reading and voting and being avid Kino Limers. It really means a lot to us that you are giving us your time, your knowledge, your creative energy. So thank you so much.
[22:30] Cindy: Thank you. What you're doing is—there's not enough thanks for what you're doing.
John: We look forward to interacting with you in the forums and all the other screenplays coming out. Like I said, we have our short film competition that we're going to be launching the submission phase next month in August with the voting starting after that. So look forward to your thoughts on the short films and then the 3.0 competition starts top of 2026.
