Inside the Los Angeles Film Critics Association vote for the best movies of 2018

Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" has scored early plaudits from critics' organizations, including best picture of the year from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. Times critics Justin Chang and Glenn Whipp, members of the L.A. organization, sat down to discuss what the critics picks say about the season so far.

Justin Chang: As of this writing, Glenn, I imagine that "Roma," Alfonso Cuaron's shimmeringly beautiful portrait of his 1970s Mexican childhood, is just a few more prizes away from being dismissed in some quarters as a tediously overrated awards season front-runner. I can hardly fault our colleagues for rallying around a black-and-white Spanish-and-Mixtec-language neorealist epic - one that needs all the acclaim it can get to overcome resistance from the subtitle-averse and Netflix-allergic sectors of the motion picture academy.

You and I were both present for Sunday's six-hour L.A. Film Critics Assn. meeting,