More gold-worthy cinema from Mexico

As my "Movies 101" partner Nathan Weinbender has noted below, Friday will see at least one more film, "The Revenant," that is attracting pre-Oscar attention.

For those who aren't familiar with Mexican-born director Alejandro González Iñárritu, we need to start with last year: Nominated for nine Academy Awards, González Iñárritu's film "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" ended up winning four of the major categories — Best Cinematography, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture.

But the man's career started long before that. He's responsible for such films as "21 Grams" (2003), "Babel" (2006) and "Beautiful" (2010).

My favorite of his films, though, has to be "Amores Perros" (2000), a three-part fable of contemporary Mexico that helped make González Iñárritu — along with Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro — one of the chief revivalists of Mexican cinema.

So, actually, the fact that "Birdman" was so good, and that "The Revenant" is being so well received is hardly a surprise.