I must not have been high enough to appreciate Nightcrawler. The premise was cheesy as hell, and anyone as creepy as Gyllenhall was in that movie in real life would have been ostracized or arrested.

In recent history, Best Picture has gone to several movies that I foundd incredibly artless: Forrest Gump, Crash, Shakespear in Love, Titanic.

I think I kinda hate the Oscars now.

Good for you on Imitation Game. Good story and acting but it felt melodramatic in both the acting and direction and I kept asking myself why. But I disagree on Best Picture - I liked Birdman better. Boyhood is a heroic effort but didn't quite hit the mark (especially for its length). If I had to guess, I think Selma won't win because 12 Years a Slave did (not that I think that's good thinking but that's the Oscar voters for you), Imitation versus Theory will cancel each other out, Whiplash is one very few saw, Birdman is great all around but probably too loony for the voters, ditto Budapest. So who does that leave? American Sniper.

I'd feel way more outraged about Selma's inevitable (and unjust) loss if the studio behind it seemed to be even halfheartedly trying to run a best picture campaign.

I couldn't watch Boyhood. I tried watching it on a plane (transcontinental - the definition of captive audience) and I just couldn't go with the writing at all. The kid's behavior didn't make any sense to me ( and the adults were all set up in old archetypes that practically screamed themselves off the screen. I wasn't interested in taking a journey though such a smarmy NPR-intellectual-for-your-parents-type lens.

Linklater should win Best Director for Boyhood because of the shear enormity of filming a movie over 12 years time. Few would ever attempt such a thing, much less pull it off. I never imagined something like that could be done. Having said that... Boyhood just wasn't all that compelling, and should not win Best Picture. Best Director, yes. Best Picture, no.

Of the movies nominated, Best Picture should go to Selma, but it won't because the Academy voters are mostly old white men. Instead, I predict Birdman, which a lot of old white actors will relate to.

Nothing from the best Foreign Language category? I know there's only so much time in the day; but Ida? was the best movie of 2014. It was an absolutely perfect film, I'd love to see it at a theater as nice as the Cinerama.

@myself - that question mark does not belong after Ida.