The National Society Of Film Critics choose Amour as the best film that wasn't whatever the masses liked

By Sean O'Neal | January 7, 2013 | 7:47pm

Aux Features Film

Brought together by the echolocation of their own voices reverberating against the indifferent wall of public opinion, the National Society Of Film Critics once again convened to name the year's movies most worthy of being championed fruitlessly at least one more time by a film critic. As with last year's big winner, Lars Von Trier's Melancholia, top honors went to a beautifully bleak work by an iconoclastic director that has next-to-no chance of winning the Oscars—namely Michael Haneke's Amour, which at least has the chance of being a particularly dark horse nominee this year. The film also claimed Best Actress and Best Director and was generally the belle of the ball, where "ball" means "staring glumly ahead and contemplating the grim human condition."

Among the NSFCA's other breaks with the awards-season status quo: Recognition for Amy Adams giving Philip Seymour Hoffman a helping hand in The Master (which was probably not phrased as such, because the NSFCA is too good for masturbation puns) and—mirroring the New York Film Critics Circle—a best supporting actor nod for Matthew McConaughey's work in Bernie and Magic Mike. "The unpredictable kineticism of Matthew McConaughey's abs really captured postmillennial society's undercurrent of primal uncertainty," an NSFCA member probably explained as his face reddened. Here's the complete list of winners and almost-winners with their attendant vote tallies.