Don't know if you read Jeff Wells' Hollywood Elsewhere blog -- it's a good ornery read, nicely plugged into the studio news, rife with rumors 'n' fact -- but Wells is in Boston for a spell (he has family here) and he's not too happy about it. He just blogged about the dire experience of seeing "Sweeney Todd" in a critics' screening at the AMC Boston Common, which, according to Wells, doesn't compare with watching it in Los Angeles at a screening room in or near the studios' home offices.

Well, no, it doesn't and it never will. I was at the "Todd" screening, too, and while there were a few focus problems in the beginning, by and large it was typical of press screenings in Boston and, I'm betting, everywhere outside of L.A. and New York. Which is to say about as good as you can expect from a non-union projectionist who either doesn't care about creating the very best audio-visual experience, or doesn't know how, or isn't pressured by his bosses to provide one. Where Wells heard a muddy sound mix, I heard acceptable music and dialogue (my larger beef was with Helena Bonham Carter's singing voice: She doesn't have one). Where he was driven into conniptions by the "exit" light bleeding onto the screen and the (in his opinion) low wattage of the projection beam's throw, I was reveling in Burton's gloomy, diseased color scheme. What's the difference between perfect and imperfect murk?

I guess I don't share Well's horror because I'm jaded: The state of movie theater projection in 99% of the country is simply and purely pathetic. The multiplex corporations have long since broken the projectionists' union and chased away the only people who knew or cared about what they were doing, and your average booth is run by a button-pushing kid whose main job is selling you overpriced Junior Mints. The focus is often less than crisp, the sound levels are random, the masking or curtains can be screwed up -- and if there's a problem during the showing itself, good luck finding a human to deal with it.

The worst part about this? Audiences don't care. That's right: You don't care. I or Jeff Wells or Jim Verniere at the Herald or any other persnickety film critic can huff and puff about how lousy the movie looks, but a theater manager has no incentive at all to make changes for the better if the customers aren't voting with their wallets. On the contrary: I've been in a theater where the film was so misaligned the actors' heads were cut off at the neck and watched the audience sit there, unmoving, like sheep. You pay that much for tickets and popcorn, you think you'd want a professional-level show.

We've been brainwashed to be passive, though, and what other choice is there? Since the closing of the Copley a few years back, there are now only two -- count 'em, two -- movie theaters in Boston proper: The Common and the Fenway. And both of them have a tradition of half-assed movie projection.

Look at the comments going back and forth at the bottom of Wells' article and you'll see a lot of moaning about the city's slipping prominence as a movie town. If you don't count the Coolidge and the theaters in Somerville and Cambridge (and don't even get me started on the woeful Harvard Square), the complainers are right: Boston's no longer even on the second-tier. When I was a kid, there were dozens of theaters in the city, but they're all gone, single-screen dinosaurs that couldn't keep up. Now if someone in, say, the South End wants to see a decent indie film or one of the upcoming Oscar nominees, he or she has to schlep to Kendall Square or Coolidge Corner. Which, if you haven't got a car, is a problem.

So much easier to just stay home and watch a movie on DVD, right? Or just BitTorrent it like the students who used to support adventurous moviegoing here now do. Because forward-thinking exhibitors have bailed from Boston and because the two companies who've stayed -- the Fenway's Regal and the Common's AMC -- don't want to spend the money to hire the professionals to provide a better-than-average moviegoing experience, the business is slowly digging its own grave. And digital 3D isn't going to save it.

Oh well. At least the "Sweeney Todd" screening wasn't as bad as the one for "About Schmidt" at the Fenway a few years back. That time the reels were out of order and the movie burned up in the gate. Trust me, if they don't care how they show a film to the critics, they're not going to care how they show it to you.

All right, about those National Board of Review awards (see previous post): They're pretty whack. The top prizes aren't terribly controversial: "No Country" as Best Picture, Julie Christie for "Away From Here," Amy Ryan for "Gone Baby Gone." Clooney as Best Actor? Well, okay; I like George in the movie but obviously the NBR folks didn't get to see Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood."

But the Ten Best of 2007 (which doesn't count "No Country," so really they're putting forth a Top 11) is seriously problematic. "The Assassination of Jesse James" and "Into the Wild" have major flaws, "Atonement" and "The Kite Runner" are exactly the sort of deluxe coffee-table movies made for awards and not as challenging as they could and should be, and "The Bucket List" is just bad. And why are "Juno" and "Lars and the Real Girl" on this list and not on the "Ten Best Independent Movies" list, which includes "A Mighty Heart," "The Namesake," "In the Valley of Elah," and "Waitress"? If nothing else, here's the proof that the distinction between a "studio movie" and what the industry calls an "indie" no longer exists.

Let the games begin. Following is a full list of the awards announced by the National Board of Review, traditionally the Oscar season starting gun. Analysis to follow tomorrow, though I gotta say Clooney, Burton, and Casey Affleck just got taken a lot more seriously.

Best Film: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Best Director: TIM BURTON, Sweeney Todd
Best Actor: GEORGE CLOONEY, Michael Clayton
Best Actress: JULIE CHRISTIE, Away From Her
Best Supporting Actor: CASEY AFFLECK, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Best Supporting Actress: AMY RYAN, Gone Baby Gone
Best Foreign Film: THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
Best Documentary: BODY OF WAR
Best Animated Feature: RATATOUILLE
Best Ensemble Cast: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: EMILE HIRSCH, Into The Wild
Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: ELLEN PAGE, Juno
Best Directorial Debut: BEN AFFLECK, Gone Baby Gone
Best Original Screenplay: DIABLO CODY, Juno and NANCY OLIVER, Lars and the Real Girl
Best Adapted Screenplay: JOEL COEN and ETHAN COEN, No Country For Old Men

TOP TEN FILMS OF 2007
(in alphabetical order)
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES
ATONEMENT
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
THE BUCKET LIST
INTO THE WILD
JUNO
THE KITE RUNNER
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
MICHAEL CLAYTON
SWEENEY TODD

TOP FIVE FOREIGN FILMS OF 2007
(in alphabetical order)
4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS
THE BAND?S VISIT
THE COUNTERFEITERS
LA VIE EN ROSE
LUST, CAUTION

TOP FIVE DOCUMENTARIES OF 2007
(in alphabetical order)
DARFUR NOW
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON
NANKING
TAXI TO THE DARKSIDE
TOOTS

TOP INDEPENDENT FILMS
(in alphabetical order)
AWAY FROM HER
GREAT WORLD OF SOUND
HONEYDRIPPER
IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH
A MIGHTY HEART
THE NAMESAKE
ONCE
THE SAVAGES
STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING
WAITRESS

Career Achievement ? MICHAEL DOUGLAS
William K. Everson Film History Award ? ROBERT OSBORNE
Career Achievement in Cinematography ? ROGER DEAKINS
The BVLGARI Award for NBR Freedom of Expression ? THE GREAT DEBATERS and PERSEPOLIS