So… Babel, huh? The continent-sprawling picture’s Golden Globe victory last night for Best Motion Picture in the Drama category ran counter to much Internet speculation, certainly, but also probably put the final nail in the coffin with respect to Children of Men‘s chances for sneaking in the back door and snatching some sort of significant Oscar nominations.

Meanwhile, the film critics of Los Angeles — which in the collective L.A. Weekly poll gave director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s movie more votes for Worst Film of the Year than Top 10 consideration, and placed it outside the Top 50, behind both Superman Returns and Jackass Number Two — are likely bitching or shaking their heads today, or both. Me, I’m shrugging. It is what it is — a good movie, about what I expected, wrapped loosely around Iñárritu’s typical “chaos theory” narrative gimmicky. Amongst some fine acting it was Riko Kikuchi who for me stood out as quite good, but at 142 minutes there are large swatches of sluggishness, and not quite enough payoff. I do dig Gustavo Santaolalla’s eerie score, though, even if my girlfriend would arch her brow at that one.

Still, the Best Picture Oscar nominees look to be, what — Babel, The Departed, Dreamgirls, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen, right? I’d place Babel squarely in the middle of that pack, so another surprise victory on Oscar night wouldn’t have me reaching for the razorblades or anything…