Yesterday, the New York Film Critics Circle — the most influential critics group in the country — awarded its best film of 2006. And remarkably, the film it chose was in fact the best film of 2006 — United 93, the stunningly wrenching docudrama about the morning of September 11. This is good news, because it instantly makes United 93 a very credible candidate for a Best Picture nomination. The inside money has the Oscar going to Dreamgirls, a musical that opens Friday. But a movie like United 93 scrambles the whole award business going in, because it is unquestionably not only the most worthy film from a high-minded Hollywood point of view but it’s actually the best. The problem is that people have real difficulty getting themselves to see it. That’s not a problem once the movie begins, however, because it is so gripping and so un-exploitative. So we’ll see.