Danny Boyle's directing is often a little too pop-culturey and self-aware for my tastes, but things just click in this one, helped in large part to J. Franco's balls-out performance. Pacing was great, there was really no need to know more about the backstory or the aftermath. A strong contender for picture of the year for sure (I'm still partial to Black Swan at this point, but there's still mucho Oscar-baiting to go before the year is done)