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What I most love about this trio of films (sidenote: I still claim that the best film of the year is Exit Through the Gift Shop) is how differently the filmmakers approach the world of the film. In Inception, Nolan literally creates a world — several, in fact — and the purpose of the film is to envelope the audience in that world. This is done quite effectively, as you really feel like you are entering the dream world of whoever's head you happen to be in. Sorkin and Fincher take a very different approach, as The Social Network is the most story-centric of the three. The entire time I was watching it, I felt like I was being led, as if I was a donkey and Mark Zuckerberg a delicious carrot. Sorkin and Fincher were always a few steps ahead of me, and I was always excited to catch up. Black Swan, by contrast, glues you to your seat as it seems that Aronofsky and writers Heyman, Heinz and McLaughlin are attacking you. Black Swan is difficult to watch not just because of what we are seeing, but because of how viscerally and starkly it is shown to us. Even the sound design, which is at times deafening, adds to this effect.

So there you have it, three outstanding cinematic experiences, any of which I would be happy to see win the Oscar. Everything else is just a runner-up in my book, which is not to slight the other nominees, as some of them are very good. But none of them come close to achieving the level of these three.

4. 127 Hours

If I were to make a list of the most brilliant and visionary directors of the last decade, Danny Boyle would be second on the list only to Darren Aronofsky. Despite not being a writer, Boyle is truly an auteur in that he imprints all of his films with the same gorgeous and slick style. If you don't like his form of visual panache, you won't like Boyle (and I have friends who hate Boyle) but there is no denying that the man is a gifted story teller. 127 Hours has the smallest scope of any of his films, focusing almost entirely on a single character in a single location, and yet it is utterly gripping, a compelling and at times disturbing film. Boyle drives this film, but James Franco anchors it, giving a remarkable performance that is simultaneously full of fear and bravery. 127 Hours is, if nothing else, an unforgettable experience.

5. True Grit

I am not the biggest fan of the Coen brothers, and in fact their two most acclaimed films — Fargo and No Country for Old Men — are my two least favorite in their oeuvre. But this dark Western with comedic undertones was really something special. The performances are really what elevate this film, as this is the film Jeff Bridges should have won his Oscar for (can we flip so that Firth won last year for A Single Man and Bridges wins this year? Because that makes more sense) as a larger-than-life but still very human alcoholic gunslinger. The glint in his eyes — or should I say, his eye! — is full of menace, but also betrays the emotions he is wrestling inside. The fact that Hailee Steinfeld matches him in intensity scene for scene is astonishing, and she takes what could have been a one-note role and makes it one of the more memorable of the film.

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