Charlie Stratton‘s In Secret (Roadside Attractions, 2.21.14) costars Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Felton, Oscar “Llewyn Davis” Isaac and Jessica Lange. Formerly called Therese, it’s an adaptation of Emile Zola‘s classic 1867 novel “Therese Racquin.” Florian Hoffmeister‘s cinematography seems dark, but you can’t go by a YouTube trailer. Pic was a special presentation at last September’s Toronto International Film Festival. Did I catch it there? Of course not. I don’t like to think about the stuff I miss.

Deadline‘s Nellie Andreeva is reporting that three schlock-horror guys — screenwriter Scott Kosar (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror) and producers Eli Roth (Hostel franchise) and Eric Newman (The Thing) — are finalizing a deal with History to produce a kind of Biblical-era horror project about Jesus of Nazareth performing exorcisms before he started preaching at age 30. Jesus would be presented, I gather, as a young, sandal-wearing version of Father Karras. A cool handsome guy with a cosmic gleam in his eye and a destiny he hasn’t quite figured out yet. The project will be called The Lost Years.

How much you wanna bet that the sons and daughters of the right-wing loons who protested 25 years ago when Martin Scorsese‘s The Last Temptation of Christ depicted a fantasy married life between Jesus and Mary Magdelene…how much do you want to bet that these same crazies are going to be completely fine with Jesus the Exorcist?

When Amazon starts deploying its unmanned drone deliveries, you know that anti-social teens in the blighted areas are going to try and shoot them down and steal the merchandise. Or they’ll shoot them down just to shoot them down. It’ll become a huge “urban” sport. I see a surge in popularity for high-powered BB guns. Or perhaps a development of home-created, low-tech attack drones. And you know that with all kinds of BB pellets and small-calibre bullets flying through the air a lot of apartment windows are going to be cracked and some people are going to get hit. This was my first thought as I listened to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announce the drone plan during a 60 Minutes interview with Charlie Rose.

A guy who was right in the thick of today’s New York Film Critics Circle balloting (which took almost five hours to complete) shares the following: “For four ballots the Best Picture vote was essentially a tie between American Hustle and 12 Years A Slave, and then Hustle finally won in a run-off vote against Slave. So it basically took five ballots. (N.Y. Post critic Lou Lumenick reports it actually took six ballots, although one of these was “disqualified on a technicality.”)

Inside Llewyn Davis was a contender all day long but it didn’t have the votes. At least it did better than The Wolf of Wall Street, which didn’t compete vigorously in any category.

“The Best Supporting Actress vote went on for three ballots, and was a very close match between Hustle‘s Jennifer Lawrence and 12 Years A Slave‘s Lupita N’yongo. Nebraska‘s June Squibb was in there but not very strongly.

“The Best Director voting went intially for Steve McQueen, David O’Russell, Alfonso Cuaron and the Coen brothers but McQueen and Russell were very close with the most support…and then McQueen took it on the fourth ballot.

“There was no strong challenge against Cate Blanchett for Best Actress although there was some support for Adele “whatsername” (i.e., Exarchopoulos) and Hustle‘s Amy Adams.

“Robert Redford‘s Best Actor trophy was decided on a second ballot. The bulk of the first-ballot votes went to Redford and Slave‘s Chiweitel Ejiofor. A certain level of support was also there for Oscar Isaac, Bruce Dern and Matthew McConaughey.

A vested but very sharp publicist friend who saw Wolf of Wall Street yesterday is wondering also if Leonardo DiCaprio‘s wild-ass performance as Jordan Belfort will necessarily result in a Best Actor Oscar nomination. “For me the movie is off the rails, in a good way — I dug it — but it may be too nuts/druggie for the Academy,” he writes. “And DiCaprio’s performance lacks any type of shading or nuance or subtlety or emotional range — it’s pretty much all gonzo, all the time, and the character is an unredeemable prick. Fun to watch but it may be a challenge for the oldies and women. I think it’s a well-constructed three hours, and Jonah Hill is amazing. The SAG Film Society audience at DGA laughed throughout but applause at end was tepid, even when Dicaprio’s name came up. I know that goes counter to what was reported from the SAG screenings that happened last weekend. I’m also hearing the HFPA was very negative on Wolf — many found it offensive, which means absolutely nothing as they like to have Leo and Scorsese in the room.”

12:15 pm: David O. Russell‘s American Hustle has won the Best Picture award from the New York Film Critics Circle. I wouldn’t have called this — it’s quite a surprise. 12 Years A Slave was obviously a contender but…well, we can guess what happened and why. I can’t wait to hear the backstory. How strong was Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street? How staunch was the resistance to it? A voice is still telling me that Hustle won partly due to an “anything but 12 Years A Slave because it’s too punishing to sit through” sentiment. I don’t know anything, haven’t been told this. Hustle is a very good film. I’m just talking about insect antennae vibrations.

11:29 am: Robert Redford, HE’s personal favorite, has won the NYFCC’s Best Actor award for his performance in All Is Lost. Okay, now he’s rock solid with the Academy. He’s not going to get bumped. An Academy guy told me last night he thinks Wolf of Wall Street‘s Leonardo DiCaprio might not push his way in after all…what?

10:53 am: The generic, across-the-board default choice for Best Actress — Blue Jasmine‘s Cate Blanchett — has prevailed among NYFCC members. Congrats to Cate, and a respectful salute to her (and Woody Allen‘s) decision to perform that third-act scene with unmissable underarm perspiration stains. Earlier: I’m going to lose it if the NYFCC “softie” contingent pushes through a Best Actress won for Philomena‘s Judi Dench.

10:46 am: Twitter outrage about N’yongo snub + white guilt kicks in among New York Film Critics Circle, and the beneficiary is 12 Years A Slave helmer Steve McQueen winning for Best Director. Fine, approved — they got this one right. Obviously this indicates a 12 Years A Slave Best Picture win but…

10:17 am: American Hustle‘s Jennifer Lawrence takes the Best Supporting Actress award. No strong argument against this but I was expecting 12 Years A Slave‘s Lupita N’yongo to win. There is clearly a level of anti-Slave sentiment poking through here. Again — no dispute with Lawrence winning, but the soul and ache and gravitas delivered by N’yongo is undeniable. I for one would have voted and lobbied for her.

This John Curran film, due for release next year, covers roughly the same turf as the forthcoming Reese Witherspoon-Jean Marc Vallee version. Costarring Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver. I tried to see it at Telluride and…I forget what happened. No excuse.

The latest Wolf of Wall Street complication is that despite the feverish, super-ecstatic, Marty-firing-on-all-cylinders quality, the soft-minded farts are going to go “no, no…too cold, too vulgar…the new Casino…doesn’t make us feel good.” Every year Academy deadwood types pooh-pooh brilliance and vote for the soft consensus alternative. A filmmaker friend saw it Monday evening and posted the following on his Facebook page: “Wolf is everything you’d expected it to be and everything you’d hope it would be. It’s got Tom Wolfe on the brain and Hunter S. Thompson in its veins. You get the sense as you’re watching it that Marty Scorsese has never been happier in his career making a movie. It’s got verve and energy and there isn’t a split second that is not somehow engaging you and daring you. It seems to be the work of a man much younger than the maestro in question.”

In an interview with HitFix/In Contention‘s Kris Tapley, dp Emmanuel Lubezski praises Gravity‘s Alfonso Curaon and To The Wonder‘s Terrence Malick as directors who “don’t use cinematography as an illustration to text,” Lubezki says. “I would say 99 percent of the directors don’t know the value or don’t know the power of visual storytelling,” he explains. “[But] for Alfonso and Terry, cinematography and visuals are not a branch, are not a part of the movie, but are the movie — as important as the actor, as important as the location, as important as the music.”

And yet any honest person who’s kept up with Malick since his return to filmmaking 15 years ago (and who has contemplated the three Malick films shot by Lubezki — The New World, The Tree of Life and Into The Wonder) would have to admit that Malick has all but destroyed his once-potent mystique because he’s placed too much emphasis on the purely visual. He doesn’t give enough consideration to script and dialogue matters, and seems to have more or less abandoned conventional narrative. This plus his now-customary prolonged fiddle-faddling in post-production has fed a growing notion that Malick is a gifted but flaky eccentric — i.e., Mr. Wackadoodle.

If the members of the New York Film Critics Circle have any balls at all (which of course they don’t), they’ll follow the lead of the Gotham Awards and give their Best Film of the Year trophy to Joel and Ethan Coen‘s Inside Llewyn Davis, a desaturated, somewhat morose but note-perfect, chiselled-to-perfection masterpiece that people will be savoring 25 or 50 years from now, which is more than you can say for…I don’t want to go there right now.

The NYFCC will convene tomorrow morning at 10 am, and should be finished voting by 1 or 2 pm, I’m guessing.

If the NYFCC doesn’t give their top award to Davis they should at least consider giving it to Spike Jonze‘s Her or Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street. Then again this is a group that gave their Best Picture award two years ago to that minor curio known as The Artist, and in so doing joined hands with the BFCA, SAG and HFPA. The NYFCC used to be a tough outfit with backbone, but they’ve turned mushy in recent years. How did Crocker Jarmon put it? “Gone soft as an old banana.”

The Gothams’ Best Actor and Best Actress awards went to Dallas Buyers’ Club‘s Matthew McConaughey and Short Term 12‘s Brie Larsen. The Best Documentary award went to The Act of Killing….what? The Breakthrough director award was won by Fruitvale Station‘s Ryan Coogler, and Michael B. Jordan, star of Fruitvale, took the Breakthrough Actor award.