Heroes for our time? No, heroes for the opposite of our time:

• "The International" (Clive Owen tries to bring down an international bank just as we were trying to prop ours up.)
• "Up in the Air" (George Clooney fires people as unemployment hits 10%.)

Getting and spending we lay waste our powers:

• "Up"
• "L'Heure d'ete"

They think they're the heroes of their story when they're the villains of their story:

• "Observe and Report"
• "The Informant!"

They can't change that history, can they?:

• "Star Trek" (in which they blow up the planet Vulcan)
• "Inglourious Basterds" (in which they kill Hitler in June 1944)

Flunkying for the rich and famous isn't all it's cracked up to be:

• "Funny People"
• "Me and Orson Welles"

Movies about the people you care about before they did the thing you care about:

• "Coco Before Chanel"
• "The Damned United"

"Someone's hiding some Judaism..." OK, maybe not:

• "A Serious Man"
• "Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg"

Don't worry; we'll care about your art after you die:

• "Seraphine"
• "Bright Star"

Body doubles:

• "Avatar"
• "Surrogates"