Thoughts on Zero Dark Thirty?

It's pretty good. Chastain carried the film like a champ.

An all-timer. Bigelow was seriously snubbed. So much so that everyone else who says they've been snubbed in the last ten years needs to step in line behind her.

After I saw Widows, I've been thinking about asking the question here about which films would work better in a miniseries format. Zero Dark Thirty has always been the quintessential example for me. Don't get me wrong, I think as a film it's pretty damned sublime (although I do slightly prefer The Hurt Locker for being more character-focused), but I think the story would've been better served as a ten-part miniseries, with each episode chronicling a year in the hunt for Bin Laden.

That said, what Bigelow and Boal were able to accomplish in a single film is pretty damned staggering. The two-minute opening sequence, which plays a gutwrenching medley of transmissions and recordings from the September 11 terrorist attacks over a black screen, might be one of the most unforgettable openings of the decade. And when the film itself begins, Bigelow never lets up until the end credits roll.

Despite being populated with a strong supporting ensemble, the film is also reliably placed on Chastain’s porcelain shoulders, and she doesn’t bend at all under its gravity. Maya’s stoicism, which rarely falters until the film’s conclusion, is almost emblematic of America in the War on Terror: a stony facade that hides gnawing self-doubt and regret.

All in all, a great film that, along with its Oscar-winning predecessor, pretty much defines Kathryn Bigelow as the War on Terror's answer to Oliver Stone.

Absolutely brilliant, one of the finest of the decade. Simply impeccable work from Bigelow and Chastain.