With the conclusion of the 87th Academy Awards last night, people are abuzz about all films that were nominated particularly the big winner, “Birdman.”

To start, Neil Patrick Harris did a fantastic job hosting, even topping last year’s performance by Ellen Degeneres. Harris opened the show with a spectacular tribute to film in a music number “Moving Pictures.” The song was written by Kristen and Robert Lopez, the duo responsible for “Frozen’s” “Let It Go,” (which coincidentally won last year’s academy award for best song). While not as funny as Seth Macfarlane or as recognizable as Ellen, NPH’s grand showmanship skills, wide ranging singing voice and humor allowed him to pull off the night wonderfully.

Best Picture: “Birdman,” or “The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance,” was a terrifically directed film with a deep cast that certainly deserved best picture (in my view, only “The Grand Budapest Hotel” could put up an argument). The fact that the majority of the movie was filmed in one continuous tracking shot was revolutionary, reminding me of the steadicam shot in “Goodfellas.” Michael Keaton gave a fantastic performance in the film, as did Edward Norton. I felt Michael Keaton was the perfect choice for the lead role, considering he also had experience playing a extremely well known superhero (Batman) that set the tone for much of his career.

Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne portrays Stephen Hawking brilliantly in this adaption of the physicists life in “The Theory of Everything.” Redmayne portrays Hawking’s struggle with ALS along with his great intellect perfectly in the film. Outside of Redmaynes performance however, I really didn’t find this movie to be that amazing. While it’s an incredible story the film just wasn’t executed as well as it could have been.

Best Actress: Julianne Moore won for “Still Alice,” in which she plays a woman struggling with Alzheimers. I haven’t in fact seen this movie but from the few clips I’ve seen, it really looked like Moore hit the nail on the head in this role.

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette won for her moving role in “Boyhood.” I honestly thought “Boyhood” was the most overrated, pandering film of the year. I understand that it’s amazing that the film was shot over 12 years, but the film simply didn’t live up to the hype.

Best Supporting Actor: JK Simmons of “Whiplash” took this award home, and I couldn’t have been more pleased about it. Simmons is a fantastic actor who has deserved this sort of recognition for a long time. His performances in “OZ” and scores of other projects really make him one of Hollywood’s most underrated actors. But Simmons’ role as a tough-loving music instructor really was the role of a life time.

Oh, and on the topic of Sean Penn’s green card quip while awarding Best Picture. Yea that was a great joke. People need to lighten up and learn how to take a joke every now and then, like my god. Gotta say though, all in all, a pretty pretty pretty good Oscars. Not the best, not mediocre, it was just pretty good.