Alfonso Cuaron‘s Gravity (Warner Bros., 10.4) is a brilliant, visionary and groundbreaking film, and a great gift to exhibitors because it makes the theatrical experience an absolutely necessary component. And if it gets nominated for Best Picture, great. But at heart it’s a “ride” movie. And as a film about a woman alone trying to survive in space it’s obviously a close relation of J.C. Chandor‘s All Is Lost (Lionsgate, 10.18). And when you compare the two, Lost is a case of less-is-more — a richer thing thematically (the story of a 70-something sailor trying to stay alive by his resourcefulness is more metaphorically affecting than one about a 30-something female scientist trying to remember or figure out spacecraft technology) plus it’s aimed at intelligent over-30 adults while the $80 million Gravity is aimed at the ADD generation. Which is more exciting, entertaining and more visually breathtaking? Obviously Gravity. Which is the deeper, more meditative, and more stylistically audacious for the no-dialogue element alone? All Is Lost. Which is also a film that you have to see in a theatre.