Also lost amid the clash of year-end titans is this hypnotic human drama from first-time director Debra Granik. If there were an ounce of taste left in Hollywood, the magnificent Vera Farmiga would be a front-runner for the Best Actress Oscar along with Transamerica's Felicity Huffman and Walk the Line's Reese Witherspoon. Yes, she's that good. Farmiga plays Irene, a blue-collar woman trying to juggle her roles as wife to Steve (Clint Jordan), mom to two boys and supermarket checkout cashier with her full-time avocation as a cokehead. Granik, who wrote the mercilessly blunt script with Richard Lieske, doesn't spare the graphic details. Shot by Michael McDonough, who brings a poet's eye to high-def video, the film is a low-budget winner. And Farmiga, named actress of the year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, delivers a tour de force.

“Alison”

On Elvis Costello’s country-tinged ballad, the lyric does not get too sentimental in recalling an ex who had since been with one of the singer's "little friends" and is now married. Some believe the song is about murder, due to lines like “Sometimes I wish that I could stop you from talking,” "Somebody better put out the big light" and, of course, "My aim is true,” which became the title of Costello's debut album. In 2002, Costello told Rolling Stone, “It isn’t [about murder]. It’s about disappointing somebody. It’s a thin line between love and hate, as the Persuaders sang.”