The big surprise of the L.A. Film Critics Assn. awards, which
were announced today, was that the critics group gave its best
picture award, along with the best picture runner-up, to two of
the biggest-grossing movies of the year, "Wall-E" and "The Dark
Knight." The move should drive the clown-suit clad Oscar pundits
crazy, since "Wall-E," despite being a huge critical favorite,
has no chance at an Oscar best picture nomination. (No animated
film has ever won that Oscar.) Passions run high at any critics
gathering, the LAFCA being no exception. This year's meeting was
held at LAFCA President Lael Loewenstein's house, with 39
critics on hand to vote (along with four critics voting by
proxy).  With Sean Penn winning best actor, Sally Hawkins
winning best actress and Danny Boyle winning best director--
Variety has the entire list here--the awards raised some hopes
and dashed some others. There was good news for "The Dark
Knight" (with Heath Ledger winning best supporting actor and
Chris Nolan winning runner-up for