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At The Envelope, Tom O’Neil has a no-names-named recap of what went on at yesterday’s New York Film Critics Circle vote. First: the inside story on I’m Not There’s aforementioned non-showing:

I’m Not There did surprisingly well in many top races today. It didn’t win any awards, but it came in third place for best picture after champ No Country for Old Men and runner-up There Will Be Blood. Ditto for its helmer Todd Haynes, who placed third in the directors’ lineup behind the winning Coen brothers and second-placed Paul Thomas Anderson…In the supporting-actress race, Cate Blanchett came in second place.

I don’t know how “surprising” that really is, considering that three of the critics in the room are on the record as giving the film a score of 90 or higher. I think the only surprise is that the staunchest suckers for Haynes’ soulless scrapbook schtick defenders of the film actually let it leave the room without a single honor, and apparently without a fight. But let’s move on…

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Under discussion:

The 40-Year-Old Virgin  (2005)

Little Miss Sunshine  (2006)

Borat  (2006)

Knocked Up  (2007)

Superbad  (2007)

Juno  (2007)

While trying unsuccessfully to get over the whole Amy Adams kudos debacle (did you see she’s just been nominated for best actress by the Broadcast Film Critics Association?), I began wondering about year end lists and how many of them feature at least one obligatory mainstream movie. Typically its a funny but highly overrated comedy, like Borat, The 40-Year-Old Virgin or Little Miss Sunshine, sometimes its an action movie, rarely it’s a thriller or well-made horror flick.

So, I’m wondering what will be the most mainstream best movie of 2007, the one that features on the most year-end top ten lists. I’m so far discounting Juno, because it’s still in its little indie darling stage, and not yet a wide-release hit. Instead, I’m counting on either Knocked Up or even Superbad to take the honor. Already I’ve seen, thanks to Movie City News, both movies featured on a list made by a publication called the Georgetown Voice. But while I figured the former had more cred with critics, it’s the latter that has shown up on more lists by itself, including those of Victoria Times‘ Michael D. Reid and Artforum’s T.J. Wilcox.

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Under discussion:

O Brother, Where Art Thou?  (2000)

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle  (2004)

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo  (2008)

I might be the only man on Earth who had never heard the phrase “jam out with your clam out,” but at least I’ll go into Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay having heard all of its jokes before. The new R-rated (NSFW) trailer for the sequel to Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (via Movie City Indie) is plenty hilarious. I just have the feeling that it gives too much away.

Here are some gags that could have been saved for the actual movie: George Bush smoking pot and saying the words “**** sandwich”; the one-eyed inbred son in the basement, which comes after an obvious set-up, anyway, and which reminds too much of the tow truck driver’s house in the woods from the first movie; and the Ku Klux Klan sequence, which feels ripped straight from O Brother, Where Art Thou? – it will likely still be funny in the movie, despite its being familiar, but there’s no need to make us feel like the movie won’t be fresher than a sack of chicken rings.

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