I enjoyed "Lincoln", and felt like it said a lot of things that needed to be said. It seemed like a lot of the Mudcat discussions about "Lincoln" and the Civil War. I'll bet Bobert hates it, because he doesn't like Lincoln at all.

Only thing, it was a lot like "1776"--right down to the intransigent New York delegation and the Congress singing (my kids love "1776", so I've seen it a lot). Historians have pointed out that Spielberg's "dramatic tension" is deceptive, because by the time of this vote, slavery had been dismantled, and that no one was going to restore it if the amendment didn't pass.

I think it's going to be a hard film for the Academy to ignore, if only because of the subject matter (and, by this time, half of the Academy have probably worked for Spielberg).

"Zero Dark Thirty" is one of those films that gets better as you think about it. "Lincoln" was about doing the right thing, but "ZDT was about moral ambiguity. We'll see which Hollywood likes best this year.

I thought "Moonrise Kingdom" and "Beasts of the Southern Wild" were better films than the others I'd seen (only five of the ten so far). I have heard so much good and bad about "Les Miz" that I am going to have trouble enjoying it...