The winners from the New York Film Critics Circle, who voted this morning:

Best Film: Greta Gerwig‘s Lady Bird. HE comment: No argument as Lady Bird is one of the HE’s Big Four along with Call Me By Your Name, Dunkirk and The Post. Obviously a huge boost for this A24 release along with Gerwig, Ronan and (in a roundabout pushback way) the unfairly overlooked Laurie Metcalf.

Best Director: Sean Baker for The Florida Project. HE comment: Due respect to Baker, but his fine Orlando accomplishment did not produce a greater, grander film than Call Me By Your Name or Lady Bird. This is fetishy contrarianism for its own sake. The spirit of the LAFCA Lox & Bagels & Red Onions Food Appreciation Group has invaded the NYFCC.

Best Actor: Timothee Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name. HE comment: Yup, you betcha. Does this indicate a Best Picture win for Luca Guadagnino‘s film?

Best Actress: Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird. HE comment: 110% agreement.

Best Screenplay: Phantom Thread by Paul Thomas Anderson. HE comment: You think so? I need to think this one over.

Best Supporting Actor: Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project. HE comment: Although my personal preference is for Michael Stuhlbarg‘s performance as the supportive dad in Call Me By Your Name, Dafoe is very good as the Orlando flophouse manager. I respect his work enormously. If he takes the Oscar, c’est la vie.

Best Supporting Actress: Tiffany Haddish in Girls Trip. HE comment: WHAT? Lady Bird‘s Laurie Metcalf shoulda won it. Or, failing that, I, Tonya‘s Allison Janney.

Best First Film: Get Out (d: Jordan Peele). HE comment: Great, whatever, fine.

Best Foreign Language Film: BPM (Beats Per Minute) (d: Robin Campillo). HE comment: Strongly disagree. Andrej Zvyagintsev‘s Loveless is a more formidable accomplishment — masterful chops, compassionate, humanist. In my Cannes Film Festival review (which was titled “Punch Me In The Face“), I called Campillo‘s film” a strident, oppressively didactic period film…a tough, well-made thumbs-upper, okay, but at the same time the relentless political-talking-points dialogue gradually numbs you out, and then drains you of your will to live.”

Best Non-Fiction Film: Faces Places (d: Agnes Varda). HE comment: Didn’t see it.

Best Animated Film: Coco (d: Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina). HE comment: I don’t do animated.

Best Cinematography: Mudbound (dp: Rachel Morrison). HE comment: Sure, no problem, fine work.

Seven and a half years ago I wrote that “anyone who takes long showers is a soft sister — a person looking to hide inside the warm amniotic fluid of his mother’s womb, which is what a nice hot shower feels like. Long-shower takers are babies, whiners, cowards — they’re the same people who hide away inside an alcoholic or nicotine or drug cave. Your average enterprising, disciplined, hard-working types take four- or five-minute showers, at the longest. If you’re really hard-core you’ve finished in less than three. No exceptions, no excuses — either you get it or you don’t.”

Aaron Sorkin is not my idea of a whiner or a coward, and his taking eight showers a day to invigorate his writing process does not run afoul of endorsed Hollywood Elsewhere behaviors. Sorkin isn’t hiding in his mother’s amniotic sac — he just using steamy water to get his creative juices going. Taking eight showers is a process, and is no different than bobbing and jabbing in a boxing ring once an hour to sharpen your game.

The full Sundance 2018 slate (110 films, 99 world premieres) was announced earlier today, including premieres. I think I’ll tackle it in stages — premieres and doc premieres today, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow and the next day.

The bottom line is that if a movie sounds too Sundance-y, I’m going to say “naaah” for now. Which doesn’t mean I won’t eventually warm to it. I just think that Sundance-y movies are too sensitive, too deferring to the p.c. norm, too touchy-feely. They’ve become a self-defined genre or brand unto themselves.

The premieres that Hollywood Elsewhere is most looking forward to:

Beirut (Director: Brad Anderson, Screenwriter: Tony Gilroy) — A U.S. diplomat flees Lebanon in 1972 after a tragic incident at his home. Ten years later, he is called back to war-torn Beirut by CIA operatives to negotiate for the life of a friend he left behind. Cast: Jon Hamm, Rosamund Pike, Shea Whigham, Dean Norris.

Colette (U.K. – director: Wash Westmoreland) — A young country woman marries a famous literary entrepreneur in turn-of-the-century Paris: At her husband’s request, Colette pens a series of bestselling novels published under his name. But as her confidence grows, she transforms not only herself and her marriage, but the world around her. Cast: Keira Knightley, Dominic West, Fiona Shaw, Denise Gough, Elinor Tomlinson, Aiysha Hart.

The Catcher Was a Spy…naaah….Come Sunday…naaah….Damsel…naaah.

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot (Director: Gus Van Sant) — John Callahan has a talent for off-color jokes…and a drinking problem. When a bender ends in a car accident, Callahan wakes permanently confined to a wheelchair. In his journey back from rock bottom, Callahan finds beauty and comedy in the absurdity of human experience. Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Jonah Hill, Rooney Mara, Jack Black.

Futile and Stupid Gesture (Director: David Wain) — The story of comedy wunderkind DougKenney, who co-created the NationalLampoon, Caddyshack and AnimalHouse. Kenney was at the center of the 70‘s comedy counter- culture which gave birth to SaturdayNightLive and a whole generation’s way of looking at the world. Cast: Will Forte, Martin Mull, Domhnall Gleeson, Matt Walsh, Joel McHale, Emmy Rossum.

The Happy Prince (Director and screenwriter: Rupert Everett) — The last days of Oscar Wilde are brought to vivid life. His body ailing, Wilde lives in exile, surviving on the flamboyant irony and brilliant wit that defined him as the transience of lust is laid bare and the true riches of love are revealed. Cast: Colin Firth, Emily Watson, Colin Morgan, Edwin Thomas, Rupert Everett.

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Millions of us are sick to death of watching Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark / Iron Man for the umpteenth time. Sick of it, sick of it, sick of it. But the flying billionaire, debonair quipster, dashing adventurer and hotdog philanthropist is returning all the same, and you know what? You’re all going to have to sit there and take it. Four years after the events of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, the Avengers join forces with the Guardians to battle Josh Brolin‘s Thanos, who wants…who gives a shit what he wants?

Costarring Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Olsen, Sebastian Stan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Bettany, Cobie Smulders, Benedict Wong, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Scarlett Johansson, Benicio del Toro, Tom Holland, Anthony Mackie, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Letitia Wright, etc. Every last one of these guys collecting a big, fat Marvel paycheck. Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo from a screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, Avengers: Infinity Wars opens on May 4th.

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Adam Sandler: Do you read any of the reviews or any stuff about your performances?

Jennifer Lawrence: Only when they’re good. No, I don’t. Normally, I promote a movie, you put the work in to promoting it, ask people to go see it, and then it’s just kind of out of your hands. I normally just kind of let it go. Dating [Darren Aronofsky] was different, because we’d be on the tour together. I’d come back to the hotel, and the last thing I want to talk about or think about is a movie. He comes back from the tour, and that’s all he wants to talk about. I get it; it’s his baby. He wrote it; he conceived it; he directed it. I was doing double duty trying to be supportive partner while also being like, ‘Can I please, for the love of God, not think about mother! for one second?’ And then he would start reading me reviews, and I finally was like, ‘It’s not healthy…I’m not going to do it, because if I read it, I start getting defensive.’ Especially because it’s my man. I don’t want to sound in an interview that I’m defending what we’re doing in any way. It’s awesome, what we did. The people who hate it really hate it. But it’s nothing that needs to be defended. If I read a negative review, I just feel defensive.”

Posted on 9.15.17: “Is mother! in fact about ‘the madness, the mob, the awfulness, the vulgarity, the end, the abominations, Dr. Phil, the poison, the ego monsters and rampant obscenities and tables of half-drunk 20something girls wailing with laughter in bars…about every unfortunate social horror of the 21st Century?

“It’s a film about dark, malicious things happening to a home and more particularly to a shaky marriage between Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, but it’s not some primal, oozy, goo-gloppy horror flick but — surprise! — a nervy, wild-ass provocation that actually qualifies as ‘thoughtful’. Really. Five or six people can see mother! and come out with five or six different takes, and all of them valid.

“Obviously all horror flicks are signifiers of subterranean cultural undercurrents, but most stand and deliver as visceral experiences. The best ones slip into your bloodstream and before you know it you’re them. Or they’re you. mother! is visceral as hell, but you can’t watch it and not think ‘uhhm, this is about more than what I’m seeing on the screen…this might actually be about everything that’s happening on the planet right now.’ Or not. Up to you.”

No details about what particular behaviors sent Matt Lauer‘s career crashing into the rocks, but former MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann tweeted this morning that NBC knew about Lauer’s sexual misconduct prior to getting whacked yesterday and that the network had chosen to “enable” and “bury” the issue rather than take action.

“Matt Lauer was [remorselessly] vindictive and tyrannical to everyone at NBC News and management repeatedly enabled him and buried the issue,” said Olbermann tweeted.

TMZ “sources” have said that “virtually everyone at NBC was in the dark that Lauer was on the chopping block.” And yet, TMZ says, “NBC had [allegedly] been investigating Lauer for weeks and wanted to get ahead of The New York Times and Variety, which were preparing stories on Lauer and alleged sexual misconduct.”

The woman whose complaint triggered Lauer’s firing and her attorney met with NBC Human Resources and legal depts. on Monday, 11.27 at 6 pm, during which time she officially vented. A Variety report says that Lauer was quite the hound within his realm.

At the same time Prairie Home Companion creator-headliner Garrison Keillor, 75, has been cut loose by Minnesota Public Radio, but the term in this instance was “improper conduct,” or allegations of his “inappropriate behavior with an individual who worked with him,” according to a statement from the radio network. The AP quoted Keillor saying that he’d been canned over “a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version M.P.R. heard.”

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Late this morning we watched four musical segments from Michael Gracey‘s The Greatest Showman (20th Century Fox, 12.20). Lasting about 15 minutes, the footage contained four songs — “The Greatest Show,” “This Is Me,” “From Now On” and a song I can’t remember the title of. Then it was over to the Four Seasons for a nice lunch and then a performance of “This Is Me,” sung by Keala Settle with accompaniment from songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who also wrote the lyrics to Justin Hurvitz‘s La La Land score. The performers were introduced by Hugh Jackman, who stars as showbiz impresario P.T. Barnum. The Greatest Showman opens in 22 days — no screening invites yet.

(l. to r,) Benj Pasek, Hugh Jackman, Justin Paul, Keala Settle.

Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey.

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No details about what particular behaviors sent Matt Lauer‘s career crashing into the rocks, but former MSNBC anchor Keith Oldermann tweeted this morning that NBC knew about Lauer’s sexual misconduct prior to getting whacked yesterday and that the network had chosen to “enable” and “bury” the issue rather than take action.

“Matt Lauer was [remorselessly] vindictive and tyrannical to everyone at NBC News and management repeatedly enabled him and buried the issue,” said Olbermann tweeted.

At the same time Prairie Home Companion creator-headliner Garrison Keillor, 75, has been cut loose by Minnesota Public Radio, but the term in this instance was “improper conduct,” or allegations of his inappropriate behavior with an individual who worked with him,” according to a statement from the radio network. The AP reported that he’d been canned over “a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version M.P.R. heard.”

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Earlier today the National Board of Review handed three big fat awards to Steven Spielberg‘s The Post — Best Picture, Best Actress (Meryl Streep) and Best Actor (Tom Hanks). Everyone presumably understands by now that Call Me By Your Name operates on a much loftier aesthetic plane than the Spielberg film, and that it’s much more emotionally nourishing. But the anti-Trump political metaphor was hard to vote against, I suppose. The Post is a smartly written, highly stirring newspaper drama from the old school, and I for one loved the way it made me feel. But Call Me By Your Name is a masterpiece. I’m sorry but it is.

Lady Bird‘s Greta Gerwig won the Best Director trophy, and Laurie Metcalf (who plays Saoirse Ronan‘s stubbornly willful mom) who won the Supporting Actress prize. The Florida Project‘s Willem Dafoe won for Best Supporting Actor, and the Get Out cast took the Best Ensemble prize. Call Me By Your Name‘s Timothee Chalamet nabbed the NBR’s Breakthrough Performance award.

Paul Thomas Anderson took the original screenplay award for the richly perverse creation known as Phantom Thread, and Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber won the adapted screenplay award for The Disaster Artist.

The NBR choices for 2017’s Top 10 Films included Baby Driver, Call Me by Your Name, The Disaster Artist, Downsizing, Dunkirk, The Florida Project, Get Out, Lady Bird, Logan and Phantom Thread. They gave The Post their Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Actor award but didn’t include it among their top ten? And…wait, they blew off Darkest Hour, The Shape of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri? How will Pete Hammond and Tom O’Neil explain that one? Guys?

The magnificent Coco won the Best Animated Feature prize. Brent Scowcroft…I mean Brett Morgen’s Jane took the Documentary Feature award. Foxtrot, which I still haven’t seen, was named Best Foreign Language Film.

Freedom of Expression Awards went to John Ridley for Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992, and to Angelina Jolie for First They Killed My Father.

Wonder Woman helmer Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot took the NBR’s Spotlight Award.

The NBR awards will be handed out on Thursday, 1.4.18.