[Chief Rum]

I thought and still think that Gravity was the best movie of the year last year. But 12 Years A Slave was terrific and #2 on my list of movies from 2013, so I am definitely not disappointed with the choice.

I always seem to lose out, as it is rare that the movie I think was the best in a given year is actually given the Best Picture oscar.

Last year, I had Zero Dark Thirty, which lost to Argo (another very good movie).

In 2010, I thought both Inception and The Social Network were better than The King's Speech.

In 2007, I felt Michael Clayton was better than There Will Be Blood (a movie that gets tons of love here; it's just too ugly for me).

Slumdog Millionaire in 2008 was the last movie I actively thought was the year's best actually won it, and before that, The Departed in 2006.

Some other ones over the years that frustrated me: Chicago over Gangs of New York, A Beautiful Mind over LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring, Amercian Beauty over The Sixth Sense (although I really do love American Beauty), Shakespeare In Love over Saving Private Ryan (I still kinda throw up in my mouth over that one), The English Patient over Fargo, and the one that goes way, way back for me, Forrest Gump (an admittedly great movie) over Pulp Fiction and The Shawshenk Redemption.