Different strands, characters and stories emerge, building up a cracked picture of China as a Wild East of lawless violence and cynicism.
Notable snubs included Lenny Abrahamson's Room, which scored three nominations, including for its star Brie Larson, but failed to crack the picture and director races despite advance buzz; as well as Brooklyn and The Danish Girl, which were expected to factor into the international feature category but didn't make the cut.
His debut as an author came in 1956 with "The Crack in the Picture Window" (Houghton), a broadside at sprawling suburban housing developments.
Typical of the invective against homemakers in the 1950s and 1960s was a 1957 best seller, "The Crack in the Picture Window," which described suburban America as a "matriarchal society," with the average husband "a woman-bossed, inadequate, money-terrified neuter" and the average wife a "nagging slob".
But that reasoning does not account for the costs inflicted on taxpayers by the status quo, with underwater borrowers hunkered down in houses deteriorating around them. Rose Webster-Smith, 35, absorbs daily the sight of a crack marring the picture window in her living room, though she is powerless to fix it.
"While we are seeing a strong domestic picture, cracking the productivity conundrum would really help cement the recovery.
One night, soon after the Snowden story broke, I was in a crack house taking pictures of addicts by candlelight.
With a surprise showing in the Producers Guild nominations, and other attention on its performances and look, "Skyfall" may be Bond's best chance at cracking the best picture list.
She's primarily interested in "craquelure" — cracks in the picture surface indicating friction, either gradual (the inevitable contraction of paint) or sudden (violent ruptures, around which lines cluster in concentric circles).
And now that several animated films have cracked the best picture list – including "Up" and "Toy Story 3" – animation "should no longer be accorded what amounts to a consolation prize," Mr. Harris writes, adding: "A separate award feels redundant in a great year — and worse than that in an off year".
