Ang Lee’s victory as Best Director was something of an upset and first thoughts turn to exploring how Life of Pi must have moved so many Academy members. And while that idea is valid, it’s chased by second and third thoughts.  Thought 1: Aside from its CGI virtuosity (Yann Martel’s novel was once deemed unfilmable), Life of Pi is a meditation on life’s values enacted...

 2012 was the best year for movies in many seasons. Ticket sales were up, and along

 No contemporary Hollywood director is bolder than Ang Lee—at least in the realm of trying new things. With Life of Pi, Yann Martel’s novel about an Indian boy shipwrecked on a lifeboat with a wild tiger is rendered in dazzling 3D. The boy, called Pi, goes down in the stormy Pacific on the way to Canada, where his zoo-keeping family