I’ve said before I would like to see Tom Cruise calm down and make films that don’t involve shoot-outs or CG or alien worlds or the energizer bunny’s legs furiously pumping. Adult, moderately budgeted, life-sized movies. I’d like to see him in a remake of Louis Malle‘s Damage. It’lll never happen.

The Boston Society of Film Critics has given Zero Dark Thirty their Best Picture trophy, ZDT‘s Kathryn Bigelow has taken their Best Director award, and ZDT editors William Goldenberg and Dylan Tichenor have also been honored by the BSFC. So this is starting to look like another Social Network-type deal, right? The critics groups praising ZDT almost unanimously and the rank-and-file Academy people going “okay but we’d rather give our Best Picture prize to something warmer and more emotional.”

Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln also took three prizes — Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor, Sally Field for Best Supporting Actress and Tony Kushner for best screenplay. (I’m good as long as the film itself and Spielberg don’t win anything.) Bigelow’s has also won Best Picture from the New York Circle of Film Critics, the National Board of Review and the NYFCO.

The Boston crickets also went for Ezra Miller for Best Supporting Actor in The Perks of Being A Wallflower. They gave the Best Cinematography to The Master‘s Mihai Malaimare Jr., their Best Documentary award to How To Survive A Plague, and their Best Animated Film prize to Frankenweenie

LAFCA has given its Best Picture award to Michael Haneke‘s Amour.

Earlier: I have to go for a hike now, but the Los Angeles Film Critics Association has given Paul Thomas Anderson their Best Director prize for The Master. Which means they’ll be giving The Master their Best Picture award…right? I’m off for Runyon Canyon. I’ve earned a semblance of a life.

Earlier: The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has split its Best Actress vote between Silver Linings Playbook‘s Jennifer Lawrence and Amour‘s Emmanuelle Riva — a tie.

Earlier: The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has defied conventional wisdom by giving its Best Actor prize to Joaquin Phoenix for acting as an alcoholic alien reptile in Paul Thomas Anderson‘s The Master.

I wrote the following on 9.27: “I suspect that one of the things that Paul Thomas Anderson whispered into Joaquin Phoenix’s ear when they began working on The Master was ‘don’t be overly literal or derivative but think of Dwight Frye‘s Fritz character in the 1931 Frankenstein…think of his grovelling manner, those gleeful little giggles, the little serpent with the tongue flicking in and out.”

LAFCA also gave their Best Screenplay award to Chris Terrio for Argo. (The runner-up was David O. Russell for his adaptation of Silver Linings Playbook. Hey, doesn’t LAFCA realize that Silver Linings has too many problems to be given any awards to? The LAFCA members who voted for SLP need to check with Glenn Kenny and Kris Tapley and all the other Silver Linings sourpusses and get their heads straightened out, for fuck’s sake.)

Earlier: With all due respect I strongly disagree with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s decision to give their Best Supporting Actor award to Beasts of the Southern Wild‘s Dwight Henry. His character is called Wink, and all he does is drink, rant at Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis), lecture, admonish, drink and rant some more.

Here’s how I put it 11 months ago after seeing Beasts at Sundance: “Henry’s dad, who cares for Hushpuppy in his own callous and bullying way, is a brute and a drunk and mostly a drag to be around, and after the fifth or sixth scene in which he’s raging and yelling and guzzling booze, there’s a voice inside that starts saying ‘I don’t know how much more of this asshole I can take.'”

1:25 pm Update: Today I turned in my Broadcast Film Critics vote just before the noon deadline, and top three selections were (in this order) Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook), Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln) and Nate Parker (Arbitrage).

I’m down with LACFA giving Amy Adams their Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in The Masters. (Les Miserables‘ Anne Hathaway was the runner-up.) And good on Tim Burton‘s Frankenweenie for winning LAFCA’s Best Animation. Skyfall‘s Roger Deakins took the Best Cinematography award.
Dror Moreh‘s The Gatekeepers won for Best Cinematography. (Runner-up: Searching for Sugar Man.

The morning light in Santa Barbara was almost oppressively milky, hazy, foggy. Pretty close to bleachy. It was, in short, a Janusz Kaminski day, and I hated it. I’ll always hate it. I hated it before I was born. I am the Captain Ahab of milky-white-light haters. So generally to hell with Kaminski and his Lincoln lensing.