Oscars: Best & Worst

Best: Julianne Moore Finally Gets An Oscar - About damn time.

Worst: Playing Off the Winners - New year, same complaint. Stop playing off 'the little people.' Seriously, Matthew McConaughey's speech last year rambled on for, like, two hours and no one in the orchestra started playing. Just let the winners say what they want to say, because when you start playing them off as they're thanking their late spouse or parents or making mention of the important work of helping people in crisis, it just makes you look like a bunch of jackasses, especially when the movie star winners are allowed to take up however much time they want. Good on the director of Ida for just powering through (and through... and through)

Best: Ida! - My favorite film from 2014 won, yay!

Worst: Terrence Howard - WTF was that?

Best: Alexandre Desplat Wins - I've been rooting for Desplat ever since his work in Lust/Caution. His win was well deserved and about time (now if only AMPAS could get around to throwing a bone Roger Deakins' way).

Worst: Neil Patrick Harris as Host - Sorry to say it, love NHP generally and think he's been a great host of other awards show, but this was flat from beginning to end.

Best: Eddie Redmayne's Win - That was adorable.

Worst: The Sound of Music: Look, The Sound of Music is a fine film and I like Lady Gaga (and she killed it in this performance) but, guys, we did not have time for that.

Best: Glory (Performance & Win) - Wonderfully staged and performed. The musical performances this year were just about the only thing that made this year's show worth it, and Common and John Legend's speech was wonderful and poignant (though, seriously, who "Woo!"s during a speech about the ongoing, horrible issue of racial inequality?)

Worst: Don't Drag David Oyelowo Into This - So, after all the hubbub about the Oscars and the industry being too white and too lacking in diversity, some genius decided the thing to do was write a joke taking a shot at one of the very few films from last year that actually starred a person of color in the lead role and then get a clearly uncomfortable David Oyelowo to do the dirty work of delivering the punchline? Lame.

Best: John Travolta: Good for him for having a sense of humor about himself. I doubt there are many other people in that audience who would have been quite as game. Also that Ben Affleck/Benedict Cumberbatch joke was one of the few NPH got to tell that was actually funny.

Worst: Birdman Wins Best Picture: I don't think Birdman is a bad film (I thought it was a good one, actually), but Best Picture? No. Not even close.

Best: Everything Is Awesome - The number definitely lived up to its name, from Lonely Island to Tegan & Sara to the Lego Oscar statues to Batman. This was one of the most entertaining "Best Song" performances ever.

Worst: Neil Patrick Harris' Predictions - This ongoing joke was painful and the payoff was not even remotely worth the approximately 14 hours leading up to it.

Best: Patricia Arquette's Speech - I fully expect that that shot of Meryl Streep cheering her on is going to become the new go to gif for whenever someone makes a particularly salient point on the internet.