Oscar 2015 - Directing

I'll start this year's directing nominees with the most probable winner: Richard Linklater for "Boyhood". Again, I have to say that this is not a good year at the Oscars. Well, I don't like Linklater ... it's the same thing over & over again in every life drama ... a sort of Woody Allen but without the comic part and much more melancholic. Well ... to take care of a 12 years project isn't probably that simple on the other hand ...
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for "Birdman" might be the only surprise here. Actually, lately I keep seeing news that give him as the winner. I have my doubts on that, based on what I've noticed in the previous years as Academy preferences on this section + unlike Linklater above, Inarritu is far here from what I consider to be his best directing to this date = "Amores Perros". It's true that "Birdman" is not an easy movie and the directing is not bad, but even so ...
In "Foxcatcher" Bennett Miller delivers a sort of artistic documentary, a very ... dark one. I won't dig now into the story, which is quite tragical. But I can say that you can feel throughout the whole duration that something bad is going to happen. Even the calm scenes have something tensed in them. I guess achieving that is the main thing you can tell about how this is directed. About the rest, for me seems that the actors have the most important contribution. But about this, another time ...
If I would have to pick who gets the Oscar, I won't hesitate to name Wes Anderson for "The Grand Budapest Hotel". Despite everything I heard, I can't say this is the best movie by Wes Anderson. I stick to "Moonrise Kingdom", which overall I consider better. I have to admit though this is the best directing by Wes Anderson. And probably the best example of his own specific style.
Morten Tyldum with "The Imitation Game" is the outsider here. It's not that the directing is bad, but there's nothing special to notice about it. Again, as I was saying when writing about editing, it seems too "old school" for me ...