I liked The Master very much and thought Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman did a great job. Daniel Day Lewis absolutely deserves best actor for Lincoln (and I would be fine if Hoffman got best supporting for The Master).
I did not consider the commentary brutal at all (although it is honest), even if I liked Les Misérables and Argo better than he did. Beasts of the Southern Wild sucked and it is nuts to pretend otherwise. Zero Dark Thirty would be my pick for best picture (although I suspect Lincoln will win). I liked Django Unchained, but it is basically a rehashing of Tarantino's previous work and it does not deserve best picture.
As a spy thriller Zero Dark Thirty is an amazing movie. I highly recommend it. While long, it is riveting and well executed. Kathryn Bigelow does a great job as a director.
There are enhanced interrogation techniques featured in the first half of the movie (water boarding, stress positions, sleep deprivation, etc.). While not Abu Ghraib, it is definitely unpleasant to watch. The question is, did such techniques lead to the finding and ultimately the killing of Osama Bin Laden? While only those involved know absolutely for sure, the evidence strongly suggests it did play a role. Political posturing aside, we know such techniques were used and we know that intelligence was obtained from it. You can be against torture and even enhanced interrogation, while acknowledging such techniques might in fact work on occasion. Kathryn Bigelow as a director and producer was trying to make a good film that was reasonably accurate in a broad sense (and given the nature of the subject matter, the classified nature of a lot of this, and the needs of dramatization, it is not a documentary). I do not think she had a political axe to grind.
This film is not critical or promoting of Barack Obama (he is barely mentioned) and I do not recall GWB being mentioned at all. The film shows that people who actually make successes such as this happen are those nameless (and often un-thanked) individuals devoting their lives behind the scenes.
I doubt this film will beat Lincoln for best movie. Lincoln by its nature and subject matter (and the passage of time) is less controversial and has broader appeal. Lincoln is also a very good movie (and it will be sad if Daniel Day Lewis does not win best actor). Still, Zero Dark Thirty is a great movie.
