By Dr. Bob Blackwood • Ladies and gentlemen, every year Oscar time comes. Every year I wonder how some films are nominated while others with marvelous performances and well-written screenplays are ignored. I have learned to write it off as simply “show business.” It is a business with the rules constantly changing, sort of like the rules for the number of credit card points you need to get a free ride on an airplane. Therefore, with my wide-brim hat and sunglasses, dressed as I will be for the races at Keeneland Race Track in Lexington, Kentucky, here are my Oscar picks . . .

Set in a Democratic presidential primary in Ohio, the plot is direct, and the tempo is as taut as an over-tightened “E” string. Clooney plays the candidate, but Ryan Gosling is the star of this film, the 30-year-old media guru to the candidate’s experienced campaign manager, Philip Seymour Hoffman. These two formidable actors are playing against the other candidate’s campaign manager, the talented Paul Giamatti, and, at times, against each other.

Dr. Blackwood reviews: "Killer Elite, "Contagion" and "Moneyball."