i really like leo, and i think he deserved to win an oscar at least twice in his career (for gilbert grape and for blood diamond), but matthew's performance in dallas buyer's club was clearly the best acting job this year and he deserved it. it's rare that the academy gets it right, so i was pleasantly surprised this year that he won. matthew has really spread his wings as of late as an actor. i always thought he was on keeanu reeves' level of acting until that last few years when he had some outstanding performances in movies like "mud," "lincoln lawyer", and "dallas buyer's club."
as for the best picture, i haven't seen "12 years a slave" so i really can't comment on if it deserved best picture or not. i will say as far as best picture worthy movies, there were slim pickings this year. i enjoyed "wolf of wall street" but i don't think it was best picture worthy. i thought "american hustle" had some great individual acting performances, but again, wasn't an overall great movie. "gravity" definitely deserved all of the technical awards that it won, but again, the movie itself wasn't all that great. for me personally, i think "dallas buyer's club" was probably the best movie i saw last year and i was pulling for it, but it got 2 awards for both lead and supporting actors, so i'm happy. i didn't get to see "her" yet, but i heard that was pretty good as well.