There's no use in complaining, but I'll do it anyway.

Yesterday's announcement of Academy Award nominations garnered typical reactions of surprise and disdain. The popular consensus on Most Glaring Omissions: "Selma" director Ava DuVernay and star David Oyelowo. At least the movie itself landed in the Best Picture race.

DuVernay's snub is disappointing, but hardly surprising. The Academy's Best Director category is almost always a topic of confusion and frustration. Remember all the bluster about Ben Affleck missing out in the category for "Argo" a couple years ago? It was also the year Kathryn Bigelow got squeezed out for "Zero Dark Thirty." In Hollywood, the directing game is still a boy's club.

Oyelowo's snub, on the other hand, makes little sense. His performance as Dr. Martin Luther King will be remembered long after this year's Oscar ceremony. Blame Steve Carell of "Foxcatcher," donning a fake nose and a weird voice to eke out a Best Actor nomination. I love Carell, but that's nowhere near an Oscar-worthy performance.

Jake Gyllenhaal of "Nightcrawler" didn't make the Best Actor cut either, and the movie only mustered a screenplay nomination. It's a dark and cynical movie, so nobody should be particularly stunned by its absence. The Academy, despite the occasional love for something like "No Country for Old Men," tends to prefer safer entertainment.

Which brings us to the year's biggest award season flameout; Angelina Jolie's "Unbroken" failed to crack into any major category. Advertising for the movie practically screamed, "GIVE US OSCARS," but reviews were mixed and the movie never gained momentum in the race. Consolation prize: More than $100 million at the domestic box office. Take that, "Whiplash" and your measly $6 million!

Personal disappointment goes to the omissions of "The Lego Movie" in Animated Feature and "Life Itself" in Documentary Feature. That's two of my 10 favorite movies of the year missing what most considered safe nominations.

And while I have mixed feelings about "Gone Girl" in general, it's odd how screenwriter Gillian Flynn missed out in Adapted Screenplay. Yes, it's based on her own book, but the difficulty of bringing that story to the screen seemed tougher than the traditional biopic route of "The Theory of Everything" or "The Imitation Game." Again, women too often get ignored in such categories.

My favorite surprise of the morning came in the same Adapted Screenplay category. Paul Thomas Anderson's "Inherent Vice" made it in the race, despite a rather mixed reception to the movie among critics and industry folk. I wasn't able to see the movie before I wrote my "Best movies of 2014" article, but it's a film that would definitely make my revised list. That being said, its purposefully convoluted story isn't everyone's idea of entertainment.

Overall, this year's Oscar nominations are the typical mix of audacious and safe picks. My two favorite movies of the year, "Boyhood" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel," made strong showings, but honestly, those were the only two movies anybody really agreed upon this year.

Here's my ranking of the Best Picture nominees:

* "Boyhood"

* "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

* "Birdman"

* "Selma"

* "The Imitation Game"

* "The Theory of Everything"

Outliers: "American Sniper" just opened in Coeur d'Alene today, and I still haven't seen "Whiplash."

Like most, I'm hoping for Michael Keaton ("Birdman") and Julianne Moore ("Still Alice") to take the top acting honors, and I'll be happy to see the inevitable dominance of "Boyhood" in most of its categories, including Best Picture. Despite all the usual disappointments of Nomination Morning, the right movie should ultimately win.

Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.