Analyze This: Why 'Birdman' Beat 'Boyhood' & More 2015 Oscar Fallout

Sick of all the Academy Awards chatter? We can’t really blame you. If that’s the case, feel free to change the channel, but some of us still had some overall thoughts on the Oscars now that we’ve had a chance to sit and digest it all.

So how did it all turn out? Well, depending on who you are, it either went horribly wrong or it went terribly right. But truthfully, it just went how it went. I’m not sure why anyone would complain about an Oscar year where smaller-budgeted, character-driven indie films like “Whiplash,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Birdman,” and “Boyhood” are up for Best Picture. It’s astonishing in a year where smaller films dominate the awards conversation, pundits lament cultural homogenization. But in a year when the Oscar Best Picture grosses are so low — “American Sniper” outgrossed all of the other seven Best Picture nominees combined — critics are somehow quick to condemn how the Oscars are out of touch with what “real” audiences want. Years ago, these kind...