10 Best Picture Winners Everyone Is Far Too Harsh On

The haters are wrong: Argo, the Best Picture winner at the 85th Academy Awards, is a triumph of a movie a very worthy Best Picture winner.

Detractors seem to write Argo off for two reasons: its slight story and its historical inaccuracies. The first reason is confusing, since the Academy is always criticized for only awarding message movies so shouldn't we be celebrating a more blockbuster-like film being given the big prize? As for the historical inaccuracy, that is a valid criticism, but lots of good movies are historically inaccurate.

Argo boasts a clever script filled with hilarious dark humor and brilliant comedic performances from Alan Arkin and John Goodman. It's very well-directed and frequently, especially at the end, it's painfully suspenseful and one of the most stressful viewings in recent memory.

Also, what on earth was meant to win? Amour was probably a valid choice for most, but Beasts of the Southern Wild is largely forgotten, Django Unchained is bloated and self-indulgent and Les Miserables wasn't even that popular. Life of Pi was good but also repetitive and tedious at times, while Lincoln suffered from being painfully overlong. Silver Linings Playbook was excellent but not quite Best Picture-level, while if Zero Dark Thirty, that hollow, mechanical and pro-torture bit of American propaganda had won the big prize, it would have been an international embarrassment.

Like it or not, Argo was a deserving winner out of the nominees selected.