The Contenders

We have fancy DirectTV, which I mostly hate, but I discovered that they're playing lots of current Oscar-nominated films, and so I watched Joseph Gordan Levitt and Bruce Willis in Looper. Potential spoiler alert, ok? OK? Did you hear me? Spoiler alert?

One of the things I liked about this film is that it is set in the future, but to them it's the present and they think a lot about their future, because in their present time travel hasn't been invented but in the future it has been, and people from the future come and affect people in the present.

Another thing I like, potentially more, (SPOILER ALERT) is that it's a film that recognizes that cycles of violence must be broken, and does something about it.

But maybe the thing I like best is that this is the time of year that I try to see as many Oscar-nominated and Independent Spirit Award-nominated films as possible, and here, so far, is my list:

argo
skyfall
silver lining playbook
beasts of the southern wild
perks of being a wallflower
lincoln
moonrise kingdom
cloud atlas
hope springs
les mis
pitch perfect
this is 40
the hobbit
take this waltz
late quartet
the sessions
looper

And here are the ones I have yet to see, and with the exception of django unchained, I hope to see most of them, even the ones I don't really want to see, like the best exotic marigold hotel. And I'm hoping that my friends in film unions will invite me over to watch screeners! (hint)

the master
quartet
zero dark thirty
life of pi
amour
flight
django unchained
hitchcock
the impossible
anna karenina
promised land
the best exotic marigold hotel
arbitrage
hyde park on hudson
rust and bone
smashed
the deep blue sea
the guilt trip
killing them softly
compliance
the paperboy
on the road
seven psychopaths
dark knight rises