Pop Culture Happy Hour: Our Oscars Omnibus 2015

In Birdman, Michael Keaton (a real-life former Batman) plays a former movie superhero who's trying to get a grasp on his career.

Atsushi Nishijima/ Fox Searchlight

We didn't get to tape our Oscars Omnibus live the way we planned (stay tuned for a make-up date for ticketholders), but we did get to sit down with our friend Bob Mondello to talk about all eight contenders in the Best Picture race. (For more on Selma, Whiplash and Boyhood, we've got particular episodes on those. And you'll find the Boyhood essay I mention at that same link. We also promised a link to Alyssa Rosenberg's piece on American Sniper, so here's that.)

As you can imagine, four people on eight films means you get a lot of opinions in a short period of time, and one of these movies comes as close to making us actually fight as we ever get.

We close the show — even the Oscar show — with what's making us happy this week. Bob is happy that a fine, fine film is available on demand as well as in theaters. Glen is happy about a film he's hesitant to even describe to you. Stephen is happy about an upbeat tune that he isn't including in an upcoming mix for an incontrovertibly valid reason. And I am happy about a few things, happiest of which is this piece by my buddy Joe Reid.

You can follow the blog at @NPRpchh, or each of us: me, Stephen, Glen, Bob, producer Jessica, and our pal Mike Katzif.