"Drama is tension versus obstacle ... I need to find that event and I will. I just don't know what it is" - Sorkin
Sounds like the making of a classic.
This is the essence of screenwriting. It applies to every line of every scene of every story. Sorkin does what he does so well because he understands this.
Here was David Mamet's take on it:
"Every scene must answer three questions: Who wants what? What happens if he doesn't get it? And Why Now?"
Biopics tend to suck because biographical narratives are not dramatic narratives, in this respect. Fiction can be crafted so that this works every time. Of course, the avant-garde screenwriting intelligentsia out there think they're above it all, which is why their movies are naturalistic pieces of crap not worth paying to see.
Let's pick a scene completely out of the blue from a movie and see if it answers the questions. You can do this exercise any time, watching anything, and you'll find that the degree to which it answers the questions is usually correlated to how good the story is.
Clarice Starling introducing herself to Hannibal Lecter. She wants his help in finding Buffalo Bill. If she doesn't get it, she won't find the Senator's daughter. If she doesn't find Buffalo Bill soon, the Senator's daughter may die. Lecter wants Starling's help in getting out. If he doesn't get it, he will miss an all-too-infrequent chance to escape or at least better his condition. If not now, he doesn't know when his next chance, if any, might be. Yet her fatal flaw is that she is afraid she will fail and isn't enough of a poker face to prevent Lecter from figuring it out, while his fatal flaw is that his psychosis drives him to play mental games with Clarice because of that perception rather than being cooperative to improve his chances. Both characters have to grow in order to overcome the obstacles before them, but mostly the protagonist, Clarice. What a fantastic scene, and drama coming from both sides, in full conflict. And it works.