“It’s worth mentioning now and forever that the Oscar race has little to do with the reality of great movies. Well, sometimes the two realities converge but the Oscar race is mostly about a race to the middle. You’re looking for something that thousands of people can agree upon is great. We know this can’t possibly be true as Zero Dark Thirty and The Limey and Vertigo and Citizen Kane were ignored or under-valued by this consensus. As was Psycho and Jaws and most of the films I consider great. The Oscar race is what it is, but in too many instances it’s the last thing you want to rely upon for any kind of true measure of a film’s worth over the long haul. Fuck these people.” — sent by a journalist friend when I shared a disparaging view of a presumed Best Picture contender, written by a producer pal.