Pro: Surprise is a commodity in an awards season and Rian Johnson's "Looper" was just that: a surprise. It may be genre but it's a dense piece of work with a lot of thematic virtue. Johnson is slowly earning his stripes and certainly has a lot of respect in the screenwriting world, so one day his time will come. And how fun would it be for a sci-fi journey like this to be his first trip to the show?

Con: It's still a sci-fi film, which carries some built-in bias, unfortunately. It can also be dismissed too easily as "merely" an entertainment. If it were in serious contention elsewhere, maybe it would have more of a leg up in this race. But while hope may not be lost, there really is kind of a shred of it if anything.

- Kristopher Tapley