Movies win Oscars based on box office success, critical response, and the precursor awards. Right? Yes and no. There are other, more surprising, factors at play.

Picking through some of 2012′s most celebrated movies, says Aaron Beatty, is a troubling trip back. Three films stand out as bellwethers of the year’s disappointments.

TV is the new cinema — such is the prevailing sentiment of the time. But this casual acceptance of television’s coup-d’état as fact demands a little counter-programming.