What I've seen, I'd roughly go

1. La La Land
2. Hacksaw Ridge
3. Manchester by the Sea
4. Hell or High Water
5. Arrival

2 and 3 are too fresh in my mind for their positions to be solid. Those could flip with each other, though I highly doubt I would end up putting either above La La Land. Hell or High Water is closer to Hacksaw/Manchester than it is to Arrival.

Certainly of the two lead acting performances I've watched this weekend, Casey Affleck >> Andrew Garfield.

I didn't totally hate Arrival, by the way. I just thought that it squandered a good concept and isn't really anything Oscar-worthy. I was very intrigued by the start of the movie, it kept up my interest for the first half, but the second half and particularly the final act were not good. To me it's the clear worst of the five that I've seen.

By the way, without having been able to get through this whole field yet, this is already a cinch to be true. Last year was stacked. Unless the ones I haven't seen from this year yet are a lot stronger than I'm expecting, I would also take the lineup of two years ago over this year. Birdman/Whiplash/Imitation Game/American Sniper/Grand Budapest Hotel all ranged from really good to great.

Agree completely, and I didn't even think that year was anything particularly special.

Last four years have been:

2016 > 2014 > 2015 > 2017

with pretty big gaps in between each of those years.

I was so out of the loop a few years ago on movies that I haven't seen almost any of the nominees from 2014. The only Best Picture nominee I've seen was Her, which I didn't really like that much.

As it happens, I do have most those nominees saved to my DVR, so I guess it's just a matter of sitting and watching most of them.

call me lame but anyone have a river for oscars?

I realize this doesn't help you immediately, but it's well worth the few bucks to buy an antenna so you can at least always pick up the major networks in HD.

(Sorry, no idea on babbling brooks.)

Yeah, at GFs house in podunk CO, didnt plan ahead

Also realized I forgot to record it lol. Well done all around

You don't have a cable service where you can tell it to start recording over the internet?

I have direct tv. I looked around for about 5 mins and gave up. At this point it feels kind of worthless anyways. Oh well!

I'm forcing her to watch GOT as punishment for no cable

Really surprised nothing for La La Land yet.

Also force GF to watch Raw tomorrow imo.

It's been a dull Oscars so far. I dig Jimmy Kimmel and he's doing a good enough job, but the speeches have been whatever.

There's La La Land on the board. I do hope that Emma Stone wins later, even if that's an uninformed opinion since I haven't seen her opponents' performances.

Ive got LaLaLand as significantly better than everything else on the board and I think Emma Stone should take actress as well

1 for 5 now. Really surprised.

I'm not really an award show guy, but my wife has it on and I'm sneaking a peak every few minutes. I enjoyed the bit where they brought the people in off the tour bus.

I especially liked when Kimmel snubbed Matt Damon when he was introducing everyone, but my wife had no clue about their feud that has been going on for a long time. So I am trying to find a site that had the timeline because its really entertaining. If anyone here isn't familiar, I highly recommend looking into it

I disapprove of the ruffles on Ryan Gosling's tux.

Glad that La La Land is continuing to pick up steam. Hope it takes down at least a couple of the majors.

The Kimmel and Matt Damon feud is by far the best part of the show.

Umm What!!!???!!?

...I nearly shut my TV off and went to bed since the show is running so late.

WTF.

ahahahahahahhahah

That was so ****ing awkward.

I stand corrected.

That was....something.