Ugly is the new Biutiful.

Through largely dropping his now trademark interwoven, non-linear syuzhet and wiping all but a hint of the familiar counterpoint of the American dream from the script (mere talk of a ski-ing holiday in The Alps as opposed to a model career, middle-class family planning or adventure tourism), Biutiful is a leaner and also meaner Alejandro González Iñárritu film – more visceral and possibly more disturbing than any other.

And this shift is not, it seems, an anomaly.

Even this year’s Academy Awards – the self-congratulating farce that they are – featured a swath of bleak contenders. With Black Swan, Blue Valentine, Rabbit Hole and The Fighter there is a discernable move towards the raw, the mournful, the fierce and the vulnerable.

And A Winter's Bone is still yet to come to my local screen.