​David Edelstein's Oscar picks

What to look for at tonight's Academy Awards? Cue David Edelstein!

Well, here we are again -- but where are we? On the brink of what's going to be a weird Oscar night.

The outrage over the all-white slate of major nominees will be the evening's subtext, and probably its regular text, too. Now, I sympathize with the Academy's top brass. They have an African-American president. They gave an honorary award to Spike Lee. They picked Chris Rock to host. It was their mostly white, male, over-50-year-old voters who let them down.

That's right, a lot of them look like me.

Except I'd have voted to nominate "Creed," star Michael B. Jordan, and director Ryan Coogler, instead of just the white guy in that movie, Sylvester Stallone.

And I'd have voted for Idris Elba in "Beasts of No Nation," among others.

So who is in contention?

Leonardo DiCaprio: Nominated many times, no wins, always comes back harder. In "The Revenant," he hauls his broken body, snuffling and grunting, over miles of frozen tundra. Give him his Oscar, already!

And I hear "The Revenant" will win, too, and many people love it. I found director Alejandro Inarritu's mix of show-off, macho technique and bogus Native American spirituality downright icky. "The Big Short," "Spotlight," and "Room" -- all robbed.

See "Room," if for no other reason than Brie Larson, who's, by the way, a lock for Best Actress.

Alicia Vikander is the Supporting Actress front-runner for the transgender weeper "The Danish Girl," though I'm rooting for Jennifer Jason Leigh and her fiendish smile through broken teeth in "The Hateful Eight."

Finally, I hear Stallone will win for the aged Rocky Balboa in "Creed," which is kind of nice. He was nominated for the original "Rocky," but though the movie won, he lost Best Actor to Peter Finch for "Network." Rocky should win in this arena, too.

Making up for past omissions -- that's what the Academy does well.

Given the omissions this year, they'd better get busy!

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