"The Pursuit of Happyness" -- I wasn't expecting much going in, certainly not a tough, observant, surprisingly unmelodramatic study of striving and single fatherhood in the 80s. Will Smith is quietly excellent in the lead.

"Charlotte's Web" isn't a four-star classic, but I liked it a bit better than Wesley did, if only because I've possibly read the book more recently. (Actually, I've been on an entire E.B. White kick lately, but that's another story.) The movie's another wholesome, sensible adaptation from Walden Media ("Holes," "Because of Winn-Dixie," "The Chronicles of Narnia") -- not remotely close to "Babe," but I still cried like a little girl at the end. Sue me.

"Inland Empire" is still playing at the Brattle. C'mon, I dare you. I double-dog-dare you.

Interesting screening at the Harvard Film Archive Saturday night: "Marrakech Inshallah," an impressionistic documentary about a documentary that addresses culture clashes and artistic imperialism. I think. I haven't seen it, but it sounds fascinating. Filmmakers Steffan and Christian Pierce will be at the screening.

"The Aura" is still playing at the MFA this weekend, and there's an 11 a.m. Sunday screening of Doug Block's terrific documentary "51 Birch Street." Both highly recommended.

Best Motion Picture, Drama
"Babel"
"Bobby"
"The Departed"
"Little Children"
"The Queen"

What's "Bobby" doing here? A sympathy vote for Emilio Estevez, honoring a nice guy who made a terrible movie. Glad to see "Little Children" get a nod, but this really comes down to a tussle between "Babel" and "The Departed" -- i.e., between a global artistic statement and a damn good genre movie. Not much of a contest, eh?

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
Penelope Cruz, "Volver"
Dame Judi Dench, "Notes on a Scandal"
Maggie Gyllenhaal, "Sherrybaby"
Helen Mirren, "The Queen"
Kate Winslet, "Little Children"

So someone did see "Sherrybaby." Wasn't me, but now I and a lot of others will have some screenin' to do. Personally, my favorites in this category are Dench and Winslet, but Mirren is probably unstoppable.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama
Leonardo DiCaprio, "Blood Diamond"
Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Departed"
Peter O'Toole, "Venus"
Will Smith. "The Pursuit of Happyness"
Forest Whitaker, "The Last King of Scotland"

Leo's two cancel each other out, leaving the field open to the sentimental favorite, O'Toole, who actually deserves it.

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"
"The Devil Wears Prada"
"Dreamgirls"
"Little Miss Sunshine"
"Thank You For Smoking"

Tough one. "Borat" deserves it but is too controversial -- and it'll lose the Kazakh and Romanian journalists' votes. "Little Miss Sunshine" has a lot of goodwill behind it. But there are four comedies and one musical here, so only one place for musical fans to vote. "Dreamgirls" takes it.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Annette Bening, "Running with Scissors"
Toni Collette, "Little Miss Sunshine"
Beyonce Knowles, "Dreamgirls"
Meryl Streep, "The Devil Wears Prada"
Renee Zellweger, "Miss Potter"

Streep, no contest. Collette and especially Bening are deserving, Beyonce should be grateful she's even here. And Zellweger? I've seen the movie and can incontestably say she deserves an award for best performance as a cherry tomato with the squints.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Sacha Baron Cohen, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"
Johnny Depp, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
Aaron Eckhart, "Thank You For Smoking"
Chiwetel Ejiofor, "Kinky Boots"
Will Ferrell, "Stranger Than Fiction"

Depp will probably get it, but -- admit it -- it's the laziest performance of the bunch, one that would be an act of contempt coming from any other actor. Sacha deserves it, if only for the amazing control it took to maintain his character in the real world.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Adriana Barraza, "Babel"
Emily Blunt, "The Devil Wears Prada"
Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"
Cate Blanchett, "Notes on a Scandal"
Rinko Kikuchi, "Babel"

Hudson, in a walk. The others are all eminently deserving, though, and Blanchett is outstanding, especially when you consider the variety of her work in this, "Babel," and "The Good German."

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Ben Affleck, "Hollywoodland"
Eddie Murphy, "Dreamgirls"
Jack Nicholson, "The Departed"
Brad Pitt, "Babel"
Mark Wahlberg, "The Departed"

My heart says Marky Mark, my brain tells me Brad.

Best Foreign Language Film
"Apocalypto"
"Letters from Iwo Jima"
"Lives of Others"
"Pan's Labyrinth"
"Volver"

It's the only place they can honor Eastwood -- they can't not give it to Marty this time -- but "Pan's Labyrinth" probably deserves it. Personally, I kind of begrudge Eastwood and Gibson taking up slots that should go to less-heralded directors and films.

Best Director
Clint Eastwood, "Flags of Our Fathers"
Clint Eastwood, "Letters from Iwo Jima"
Stephen Frears, "The Queen"
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, "Babel"
Martin Scorsese, "The Departed"

Clint's two should cancel each other out, leaving Inarritu as the only real competition for Scorsese. Having said that, and as much as I love "The Departed," "Letters from Iwo Jima" may in fact be the best-made movie on this list.

Best Screenplay
Guillermo Arriaga, "Babel"
Todd Field and Tom Perrotta, "Little Children"
Patrick Marber, "Notes on a Scandal"
William Monahan, "The Departed"
Peter Morgan, "The Queen"

Another tough one, with "the Departed" and "Babel" duking it out and possibly letting one of the others slip through. They're all tremendous scripts.

Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat, "The Painted Veil"
Clint Mansell, "The Fountain"
Gustavo Santaolalla, "Babel"
Carlo Siliotto, "Nomad"
Hans Zimmer, "The Da Vinci Code"

Huh? What's "Nomad"? Oh, it's a Kazakh epic -- no, really -- that the Weinsteins are distributing in early 2007, according to IMDb. Sounds like someone in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association owed someone else some favors. Anyway, Santoaolalla will probably win for "Babel," and good for him, but I saw "Painted Veil" last week and can't get Desplat's haunting score out of my head.

Best Original Song
"A Father's Way," from "The Pursuit of Happyness"
"Listen," from "Dreamgirls"
"Never Gonna Break My Faith," from "Bobby"
"The Song of the Heart," from "Happy Feet"
"Try Not to Remember," from "Home of the Brave"

A death-match between Beyonce ("Dreamgirls") and Prince ("Happy Feet"). Don't bet against the little purple guy.

Best Animated Feature
"Cars"
"Happy Feet"
"Monster House"

"Happy Feet" takes it. Where's "A Scanner Darkly" or "Renaissance"? Oh, right, animation is just for children.

I suppose one has to acknowledge that the Hollywood Foreign Press, the organization that hands out the Golden Globes, has become a taste-making force. Whatever. But I am happy to see that a body that does make taste (sometimes the bad variety) liked Emily Blunt in “The Devil Wears Prada.” But where’s Stanley Tucci? Where are a lot of people? Somehow, Maggie Gyllenhaal was nominated for a very good performance in “Sherrybaby,” a no-budget independent film only its makers and movie critics wound up seeing. That’s a kind of star power. (They loved her in “Secretary,” too.) Still, if you’re a tiny or even tiny-ish movie, remember: it’s the Hollywood Foreign Press.

Here are the major movie nominations; more to come. The most interesting things to note are:

"Babel" gets the most nominations -- seven -- in a possible repeat of the "Crash" Important Movie effect. "The Departed" is right behind, with six nominations.

Multiple nominations everywhere. Eastwood is nominated for both his Iwo Jima movies in the director category. Leonardo DiCaprio is nominated for both "Departed" and "Blood Diamond" in the best actor category. Helen Mirren is nominated for playing Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen," Queen Elizabeth I in a TV miniseries, and for "Prime Suspect" too.

The foreign language category contains two films directed by English-speaking Hollywood guys: Eastwood's "Letters" and Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto." I guess we really are the world.

Jennifer Hudson as expected for supporting actress in "Dreamgirls," but Beyonce Knowles as best actress in the same movie? Please. She doesn't embarrass herself, but that's not what awards are for. Oh, I forgot -- it's the Golden Globes; they're not serious.

One more thing: Matt Damon. Robbed.

Best Motion Picture, Drama
"Babel"
"Bobby"
"The Departed"
"Little Children"
"The Queen"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
Penelope Cruz, "Volver"
Dame Judi Dench, "Notes on a Scandal"
Maggie Gyllenhaal, "Sherrybaby"
Helen Mirren, "The Queen"
Kate Winslet, "Little Children"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama
Leonardo DiCaprio, "Blood Diamond"
Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Departed"
Peter O'Toole, "Venus"
Will Smith. "The Pursuit of Happyness"
Forest Whitaker, "The Last King of Scotland"

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"
"The Devil Wears Prada"
"Dreamgirls"
"Little Miss Sunshine"
"Thank You For Smoking"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Annette Bening, "Running with Scissors"
Toni Colette, "Little Miss Sunshine"
Beyonce Knowles, "Dreamgirls"
Meryl Streep, "The Devil Wears Prada"
Renee Zellweger, "Miss Potter"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Sacha Baron Cohen, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"
Johnny Depp, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
Aaron Eckhart, "Thank You For Smoking"
Chiwetel Ejiofor, "Kinky Boots"
Will Ferrell, "Stranger Than Fiction"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Adriana Barraza, "Babel"
Emily Blunt, "The Devil Wears Prada"
Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"
Cate Blanchett, "Notes on a Scandal"
Rinko Kikuchi, "Babel"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Ben Affleck, "Hollywoodland"
Eddie Murphy, "Dreamgirls"
Jack Nicholson, "The Departed"
Brad Pitt, "Babel"
Mark Wahlberg, "The Departed"

Best Foreign Language Film
"Apocalypto"
"Letters from Iwo Jima"
"Lives of Others"
"Pan's Labyrinth"
"Volver"

Best Director
Clint Eastwood, "Flags of Our Fathers"
Clint Eastwood, "Letters from Iwo Jima"
Stephen Frears, "The Queen"
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, "Babel"
Martin Scorsese, "The Departed"

Best Screenplay
Guillermo Arriaga, "Babel"
Todd Field and Tom Perrotta, "Little Children"
Patrick Marber, "Notes on a Scandal"
William Monahan, "The Departed"
Peter Morgan, "The Queen"

Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat, "The Painted Veil"
Clint Mansell, "The Fountain"
Gustavo Santaolalla, "Babel"
Carlo Siliotto, "Nomad"
Hans Zimmer, "The Da Vinci Code"

Best Original Song
"A Father's Way," from "The Pursuit of Happyness"
"Listen," from "Dreamgirls"
"Never Gonna Break My Faith," from "Bobby"
"The Song of the Heart," from "Happy Feet"
"Try Not to Remember," from "Home of the Brave"

Best Animated Feature
"Cars"
"Happy Feet"
"Monster House"

Awards committees may ignore him, but since many of us think there's no such thing as too much David Lynch — and this is a prerequisite for viewing his latest three-hour mind bender, "Inland Empire," by the way — I thought I'd post a few outtakes from my recent interview with the filmmaker.

Q: How are you able to do what you do — establish a kind of surrealistic logic that breaks all the rules of narrative — and yet make viewers accept that the final product is actually artful and at least somewhat intentional even if it appears…?
A: "I understand exactly what you're saying. Because it’s the power of cinema, I think."

Q: But it seems more unique than that. Like in jazz, anyone can string notes together, but only certain level of artist can make it seem as though a bunch of abstract components actually belong together and lead to something truly inspired and transcendent.
A: "For sure. And that’s really good, what you’re saying. I would say that those are the ideas talking. I would be lost without ideas. And when you have one idea, even if it’s just a fragment, it starts becoming the bait to draw other ideas. … It’s almost like you get a piece of the puzzle at a time and it all exists somewhere, you’re just getting it by fragment. There is a whole somewhere, and your job is to translate these ideas to this medium and stay true to the idea. If you stay true to it, hopefully the whole thing will come and hold together. You just don’t walk away until it feels correct based on the original idea."

Q: Do you step back, the way you would with one of your paintings?
A: "Yes, you have to step back. And a lot of times you’re in it so deep you lose objectivity. And when you see the whole, what you think is the finished film, many times, especially with other people, you get a shock. And you say no, that isn’t correct, and you go back to work to make it feel correct."

Q: “Inland Empire” never had a script, right?
A: "It has a final script now, but it didn’t in the beginning. … It came together in pieces, but each beginning piece was shot. But shot not to make a feature film; shot not knowing."

Q: Does it seem odd to you that we have all kinds of blockbusters that show people being exploited and brutalized by the hundreds, yet your films are the ones characterized as weird and demented and dark?
A: "There are many absurdities to life."

Just in case you think all these year-end movie awards are decided at genteel gatherings of mild-mannered academics, here's a link to Bilge Ebiri's hilarious inside scoop on yesterday's New York Critics Circle awards, over at Nerve's ScreenGrab blog. Worth reading if only to see how close "A Scanner Darkly" came to beating out "Happy Feet" for best animated film -- and missed only because Andrew Sarris had to go to the bathroom.

My own experience is that these annual meetings can often be delightfully cranky and eccentric. In fact, last weekend's Boston Society of Film Critics confab felt a little too sedate precisely because Gerry Peary wasn't there to scold us all for being dreadful sell-outs, as he does, with gusto, every year. And I'll never forget my first experience as a member of the National Society of Film Critics: I sat down for the annual meeting next to an August Legend and, after my telling him how much his writing had meant to me over the years, he pointed out another critic across the room and irascibly called him an extremely unprintable epithet. The other fellow's crime, apparently, was panning one of the August Legend's books -- ten years earlier. Say one thing for critics: We know how to hold a grudge.

Here is the American Film Institute’s annual top-10 list, which -- hallelujah -- includes Spike Lee’s “Inside Man.”

Suddenly Paul Greengrass' 9/11 re-enactment is looking like an awards season contender. "United 93" regularly came in second in many of the categories the Boston Society of Film Critics voted on yesterday, and the Los Angeles critics voted Greengrass best director. Now here are the New York Film Critics' Circle awards with "United 93" named best film of 2006.

The other Gotham awards were fairly close to what Boston came up with: Forest Whitaker best actor, Helen Mirren best actress, "Half Nelson" best new filmmaker, "Deliver Us from Evil" best documentary, "Pan's Labyrinth" DP Guillermo Navarro for best cinematography. Not that these spell instant Oscar, but it's intriguing to see such consistency this early. Expect that all to change when the Golden Globe nominations are announced Thursday morning.

So "Apocalypto" ruled the box office this weekend. All right, it didn't rule. Maybe it carved out a tiny principality. Still, $14 million is a nice piece of change for a project most were dismissing a few months ago as a quixotic home-movie from a celebrity who seemed one step away from a tinfoil hat. But, hey, if Oliver Stone can turn it around, so can brother Mel; the reviews were solid to excellent and the curiosity factor was high.

Plus, there's always the sympathy vote. My Friday review got a number of e-mail responses from readers jumping to defend Gibson from the lashings of the liberal media. "I plan to contribute twice," huffed one fellow. Another woman genteely wondered how Gibson could be labeled an anti-Semite if he was only telling the truth. And so forth.

The curiosity factor was probably the main spur, though, and "Apocalypoto"'s opening weekend was, obviously, far below the $84 million debut frame for "The Passion of the Christ" two years ago. The movie's certainly got legs onscreen -- Rudy Youngblood runs like a panther's after him; oh, wait, there is -- but next week will prove if it has legs in theaters.

The holiday house-swap chick flick "The Holiday" scared up $13.5 million, almost as much as "Apocalypto." (What, did couples just go split up and head into different theaters once they'd bought the tickets?) With $8.5 million, "Blood Diamond" was something of a disappointment considering how high Leonardo DiCaprio's flag is flying at the moment; that terrible title might have something to do with it. "Unaccompanied Minors," the unholy stepchild of "Home Alone" and "The Breakfast Club," stiffed at $6 million. This is proof that the legacy of John Hughes is indeed dead, at least until someone can talk Jon Cryer into playing Duckie for a "Pretty in Pink" reunion.

More box office filings here.

It’s easy to be skeptical to the point of seeming jaded about all this Oscar jockeying. But some things about this process remain mysterious. How, for instance, does Clint Eastwood do it? This is the second time in two years he’s thrown a Hail Mary. Two years ago it was “Million Dollar Baby,” which was released at the last possible minute in December, helped along by movie-critic rapture. And now “Letters from Iwo Jima,” the second half of his WWII saga, told from the point of view of the Japanese soldiers, is voted best picture by both the less-than-cutting-edge National Board of Review and the reliably idiosyncratic Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA).

All that stopped Eastwood’s movie from likely domination at the Boston Society of Film Critics was that not enough voting members, including me, had seen it. (I stood futilely by David Lynch’s “Inland Empire.”) “Iwo Jima” was too last-minute for Boston, with Warner Bros., the movie’s distributor, dubiously claiming there was but one touring print. It might have been true but when you’re desperate to see a movie but have one one really inconveniently time to do it that sounds passive-aggressively coercive.

In any case, some of the phenomenon of “Million Dollar Baby” had to do with seeing it early and having the strength of its storytelling take you by surprise. Releasing “Iwo Jima” months after the first half of the saga, “The Flags of Our Fathers,” had a mixed critical reception and tepid commercial showing, smelled of desperation. But the studio obviously has tremendous faith in Eastwood or the director has tremendous faith in himself. Either way: shrewd, shrewd, shrewd.

Here’s the Los Angeles Film Critics Association list courtesy of Dave Kehr’s website.

Here’s a shock: “The Departed,” Martin Scorsese’s hit about Boston mobsters and the cops they corrupt, was a hit with the Boston Society of Film Critics, too. The thriller was voted best picture and, the society named Scorsese best director and William Monahan’s adaptation of the Hong Kong cat-and-mouse picture from which “The Departed” has been adapted, best screenplay. (The group doesn’t distinguish between original and adapted scripts.) Mark Wahlberg, as a hot-blooded police sergeant in the film, was named best supporting actor. Alec Baldwin, who played a comically stressed out state police detective in the film, was the runner-up.

“United 93,” a re-imagining of the doomed flights on September 11th, came in second for picture, and the movie’s director, Paul Greengrass, was second to Scorsese. Its cast was also was voted best ensemble. (The cast of “The Departed” came in second.) The screenplay runner-up was Peter Morgan’s script for the “The Queen,” which dramatized the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death from the points of view of Queen Elizabeth and Tony Blair. Michael Sheen, playing Blair, was the other runner-up in the supporting actor category.

That film’s star, Helen Mirren, was voted best actress for work in the title role. Her fellow dame, Judi Dench, came in second for her un-damely performance as a schoolteacher infatuated with a co-worker in “Notes on a Scandal.”

Forest Whitaker was voted best actor for his performance as the Ugandan tyrant Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland.” Ryan Gosling, as the crack addicted history in “Half Nelson,” was the runner-up.

Gosling’s co-star, Shareeka Epps won best supporting actress for her performance as a steely middle schooler. The first-time actor beat out runner-up Meryl Streep, who played the domineering magazine editor in “The Devil Wears Prada.”

The foreign film winner was Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth,” a dark fantasy set in Spain not along after Franco’s rise to power. Pedro Almodovar’s “Volver,” about several generation of Spanish women, came in second. Del Toro’s director of photography, Guillermo Navarro, won the cinematography award.

The director of “Half Nelson,” Ryan Fleck, also won the society’s new filmmaker award. The documentary award was a tie between “Shut Up & Sing,” Barbara Kopple’s look at the Dixie Chicks under siege, and Amy Berg’s “Deliver Us From Evil,” about a pedophile priest and his victims. The runner-up was “51 Birch Street,” Doug Block’s examination of his parents’ crumbling marriage.

The Boston Society of Film Critics also recognized the area’s best film series, and best discovered/rediscovered films. The film series winners were: “At Home and Abroad: The Vietnam War on Film/ From Both Sides: The Korean War on Film/ On All Fronts: World War II on Film,” at the Harvard Film Archive; “Centennial Starlets: Anna May Wong and Janet Gaynor,” at the Harvard Film Archive; “50 Year of Janus Films,” at the Brattle; “Major and Minor Notes: A Billy Wilder Centennial,” at the Harvard Film Archive; and “Man in the Dunes: Hiroshi Teshigahara,” at the Brattle.

The discovered/rediscovered film winners were: “Army of Shadows”; “The Fallen Idol”; “Lucky Star”; “The Phantom Carriage”; and “The Red Badge of Courage.”

The society also bestowed commendations to Ted Barron, who served as the Harvard Film Archive’s interim curator and to the local filmmaker, curator, and scholar John Gianvato, for his book “Tarkovsky: Interviews.”