Popdose: Women on the Verge

Robin Wright may be The Conspirator in Robert Redford's new film, as Michelle Williams goes west in Meek's Cutoff.

Popdose: The Unsung Sidney Lumet

A look at some of the less familiar chapters from a career highlghted for me by 1975's Dog Day Afternoon.

Popdose: Insidious and more

No fooling--Insidious, from the makers of Saw, gets things bumping in the night. Plus, Hilary Swank is The Resident, and the phantasmagorical Santa Sangre, both on DVD.

Popdose: Tangled on DVD/Blu-ray

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your home theater system...

Popdose: Frankenstein Live Onstage at the Movies

"It's alive!"...or was at least live at BAM last week. Let me explain. I'll throw in a "Bluview" besides.

Live Design: All aboard Priscilla

Down but not out from a bothersome sinus infection I rebound with Priscilla, Queen of the Desert as Ellen Lampert-Greaux reviews Arcadia.

Popdose: The Man from Nowhere on Blu-ray

The Korean megahit explodes onto Blu-ray...who will survive and what will be left of them?

The Spring issue of Cineaste, online and on sale

The new issue is up for buying and browsing. Including: my review of the Warner Archive DVD-R of The World, the Flesh and the Devil with Harry Belafonte and just two other people.

Live Design: Broadway and Treasure Island

Shiver me timbers! A seaworthy play of Treasure Island here in Brooklyn, plus two new plays on Broadway. "Yo ho ho back to the theater we go..."

Popdose: Jane Eyre and The Boys

Plus some Monsters. All in all a busy week. Congratulations to my friend Rosemary Rotondi on a job well done on the Boys in the Band doc Making the Boys, for which she was senior archival researcher. "A good month," she commented--Inside Job, which she also worked on, won the Oscar.

And, bonus, Popdose on when aliens attack.

Popdose: Burlesque on DVD/Blu-ray

There are worse things than fumbling the national anthem at the Super Bowl or tabloid crackups, Xtina. There is Burlesque.

And the winner was...

...me, with 17-24, not great (I think my personal best was 22) but enough to win my Oscar pool in a year where no one film dominated, except perhaps Inception in the below-the-line categories. Tom Hooper's win and Roger Deakins' loss were sore points, mitigated by the shut-out of the overrated and overnominated True Grit and the near-checkmating of the puzzlingly embraced Black Swan. The King's Speech beating out The Social Network means more bleating and posturing from the near-dead Harvey Weinstein (that he's recutting the film to earn a yet more lucrative PG-13 after his bold no-cuts stance on Blue Valentine is outrageously schizophrenic hypocrisy) but it's not a Crash/Brokeback Mountain fiasco.

Otherwise a nice night to be out again with my peeps (first time since 2008) and no major complaints about the elegant and dark-toned, to the point, pro forma telecast, which did fit in more names than usual for the In Memoriam tribute (sorry, Tura Satana!).

My losses: Best Director (grrr), Animated Short, Live Action Short, Cinematography (double grrr), Costume Design, Score, and Sound Mixing.

My Oscar ballot

You'll find one up at Popdose. As for my picks:

Picture: The King's Speech

My Preference: The Social Network

Actor: Colin Firth

Actress: Natalie Portman

(My Preference: Annette Bening)

Supporting Actor: Christian Bale

Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo

(My Preference: Amy Adams)

Director: David Fincher

Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network

Original Screenplay: The King's Speech

(My Preference: The Fighter)

Animated Feature: Toy Story 3

Foreign Language Film: In a Better World

Documentary Feature: Inside Job

Documentary Short: Strangers No More

Animated Short: Day & Night

Live Action Short: Na Wewe

Art Direction: Alice in Wonderland

Cinematography: Roger Deakins

Costume Design: The King's Speech

Editing: The Social Network

Makeup: The Wolfman

Original Score: Inception

Original Song: "We Belong Together"

Sound Editing: Inception

(My Preference: Unstoppable)

Sound Mixing: The King's Speech

(My Preference: Inception)

Visual Effects: Inception

Popdose: Thelma and Louise on Blu-ray

Twenty years later and on the road again with Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon. That Thunderbird never looked better.

Live Design: Other Desert Cities

Visit with Linda Lavin and the actress formerly known as Stockard Channing (all that work, sigh) today through Feb. 27 at Lincoln Center.

Popdose: Animal Kingdom on DVD

Meet Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver...but don't get too close...

Popdose: Unknown quantities

Liam Neeson in a new thriller, and an emotional rollercoaster for the characters in Mike Leigh's Oscar-nominated Another Year.

Popdose: I Spit on Your Grave

Twice...on DVD.

Popdose: John Williams, Woody Allen

Two items of note this week (this week, sigh): A tribute to John Williams on his 79th birthday, with my two cents on his score for The Fury, and my review of the new Blu-ray of 75-year-old Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.

Popdose: Loser Oscar Nominees

Or why Way Back co-star Ed Harris isn't smiling. "Best Makeup?"

Remembering John Barry

Popdose recollects. I wanted to write something more heartfelt than a couple of comments--he was my favorite living composer, though he had been silent for 10 years--but as you may have guessed something happened in the chasm between posts. And that something is that we welcomed my son, Ryan, on Jan. 15. He's as delightful as his big sister Larissa but integrating another member into the household has been challenging. What this means for the blog (a hair under five years old now) and my writing/reviewing career in general I can't say, though long-time browsers will note the falloff that occurred when I became a first-time parent. With two to corral, well, we'll see...but in any event enjoy the YouTube links I provided. Barry was a legend, and his death leaves me even more reflective as I contemplate my new arrival and all he brings.

Popdose: Top 10s for 2010

"Put me on this list or I'll murderalize ya," growls Fighter star Mark Wahlberg. You got it, pal.

Centennial + 1 celebration

Delighted to update this year-old post. TCM celebrates Luise Rainer, 101 and still going strong, tonight.

Popdose: Notable DVDs in 2010

In which I assess the state of the market, and tick off a few worthwhile releases, but mostly just spotlight the cover art from the Warner Archive's welcome release of The Green Slime.

Popdose: Bitter Feast on DVD

Yum yum! A new foodie horror film from Larry Fessenden and company (The House of the Devil, I Sell the Dead).

OFCS winners announced

The Online Film Critics Society continues the coronation of The Social Network. An OFCS win, Oscars likely--what more could Mark Zuckerberg want? Maybe not the attendant bad press, but $50 billion from Goldman Sachs and the Russkies should salve the pain.

Popdose: The Gloom-O-Meter

In which I take the emotional temperature of several so-called "holiday" movies, including a pair of particularly downbeat Ryan Gosling titles, Blue Valentine (pictured) and All Good Things. Cheer up, mister!

The National Film Registry strikes back

...with The Empire Strikes Back, Airplane!, and Saturday Night Fever all making the grade this year. Does this mean George Lucas can't tamper with future Empire incarnations anymore?

OFCS nominees announced

That would be my peeps at the Online Film Critics Society. Social Network, Toy Story 3, etc. Glad to see A Prophet (pictured) up there for best film not in the English language; in any language it's tops.

Popdose: Lead reads

New books that can still be picked up in plenty of time for Christmas--why not give the gift of Hammer horror this season?

Popdose: Remembering Blake Edwards

Days of wine and roses, and glow in the dark condoms, with the director of Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Pink Panther, and Victor Victoria.

Popdose: Awards season smackdown

In which I review the reviewers' picks of the year, slap around Black Swan (pictured), and remember the forgotten Jim Carrey. And more, for Popdose.

Live Design: The year ends

Not with a bang, but with a couple of whimpers, only one truly rewarding. Pictured are Jeffrey Wright and Mos in John Guare's A Free Man of Color.

Cineaste: Previewing History, Final Episode

This is the end, as TCM's Moguls and Movie Stars reaches its climax, which airs Dec. 13 at 8pm EST. Goodbye, Jack Warner, hello, Roger Corman.

Cineaste: Previewing History, Part 6

TV is the thing this year, as Hollywood confronts the menace of the box in Episode 6 of TCM's Moguls and Movie Stars, which begins airing next Monday (12/6) at 8pm EST.

Popdose: The Sorcerer's Apprentice on DVD

Rabbit out of a hat: A Nicolas Cage/Jerry Bruckheimer/Jon Turteltaub collaboration that isn't horrible, thanks to a strong supporting role played by New York.

The Winter edition of Cineaste

It's on sale and online. Amidst my Moguls and Movie Stars dispatches: A considered takedown of the Oscar-winning The Secret in Their Eyes (pictured), an interview with Waiting for Superman director Davis Guggenheim, Red Desert and von Sternberg on DVD, and much, much more.

Cineaste: Previewing History, Part 5

Here's lookin' at you, kid...with a review of tomorrow's episode of Moguls and Movie Stars, "Warriors and Peacemakers," covering the years 1940-1950.

Live Design: Play dates

More shows this week, but you'll have to act fast to see the flop Elling and the festival attraction Lingua Franca, which close today. Elf (pictured) hangs around through Jan. 2.

Popdose: Criterionpalooza 2010

Happy holidays, David Bowie...and to all a good last-day sale as Barnes and Noble's Criterion Collection blowout ends. I sift through 13 (!) recent releases.

Cineaste: Previewing History, Part 4

For my 1,001th post, a preview of the latest episode of TCM's Moguls & Movie Stars, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dream," covering the years between 1928 and 1940. It begins airing Monday 11/22.

Live Design: Season rundown

Current Broadway and Off Broadway shows in review this week include the musical of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Michael Shannon and his finned friend in the comedy Mistakes Were Made.

Cineaste, UnionDocs, and Of Time and the City

Terence Davies' acclaimed 2008 portrait of Liverpool, his native city, will be screened at UnionDocs this Saturday, Nov. 20, at 7:30pm. Cineaste's Leonard Quart and critic Graham Fuller will be on hand for a discussion. Quart's interview with the filmmaker (pictured) is here.

And, hey, Cineaste made Empire magazine's list of Top 100 Movie Sites. They like us, they really like us.

NY Theater News: The Pee-Wee Herman Show

I know you are, but what did I think about Pee-wee's Broadway debut? The secret word is on Theater News Online, website of the New York Theater News newsletter.

Cineaste: Previewing History, Part 3

My review of "The Dream Merchants," the third episode of TCM's Moguls and Movie Stars, which airs next Monday at 8pm EST. With "It Girl" Clara Bow.

Popdose: Remembering Dino De Laurentiis

"No one cry when Jaws die. But when the monkey die, people gonna cry." Rewinding the hits and misses of the legendary producer.

Popdose: Morning Glory

Rachel McAdams calls Popdose headquarters to find out what the Film Editor (me) thought of her new movie. He gives her the good and “bang” news.

RIP Jill Clayburgh

A consideration of a personal favorite on Popdose.

Cineaste: Previewing History, Part 2

My preview of the second part of TCM's Moguls & Movie Stars, "The Birth of Hollywood", is up now on the site. Chaplin, Griffith, and Theda Bara, too.

Popdose: Toy Story 3 on DVD

Cheer up, voters: Buzz and Woody and the gang are back in the super-successful sequel. Return to your childhood; God knows Tea Party candidates and their constituents have already reverted to theirs.

Popdose: Thrillers That Play With Fire

This time: The Girl Who Played with Fire is a proven commodity, Red Hill a good western, The Eclipse worth exhuming on DVD...but how I can resist spotlighting this wonderful poster from the giallo-themed Amer? I couldn't, and didn't.

Cineaste: Previewing History

Week by week through Dec. 13 I'll be writing Cineaste's first serial post, a review of each episode of TCM's Moguls and Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood. Tonight at 8pm EST: Episode 1, "Peepshow Pioneers."

Popdose: Top Ten scary movies

Breaking radio silence (not that I'm inactive on Facebook or Twitter, both linked here, and where I'm humming along)--what's scaring us over at Popdose. I have issues with this list (no original Texas Chain Saw Massacre? Really? The Amityville Horror, huh?) but I did write up the justly honored Phantasm and Hellraiser. You can take those to the blood bank.

Live Design: Brits on and Off Broadway

Four shows reviewed this time, the Broadway ones higher profile than the Classic Stage Company's take on Orlando--but how could I not spotlight this photo of David Greenspan all dolled up as Elizabeth I?

Popdose: Social butterflies

A status update on The Social Network (pictured) tags the Wall Street sequel and Inside Job. But the sensitive may want to defriend the horrific Red White & Blue.

Retrieving the Mask

I'm fascinated by movies that fail to merit any external reviews on the Internet Movie Database. What did they do to earn such obscurity? Such a one was Jules Dassin's Uptight (1968). I drew from Roger Ebert's review of it, but it wasn't until I posted my own, in 2008, that his review was linked to the section, along with another. It's not the first time I'd done this; I'm a do-gooder, and I like to do good by these orphaned productions.

Today I came across something I'd never seen before: A movie that lacked not just external reviews, but user reviews. Someone, somewhere, posts something on every movie out there, no matter how obscure. It's as if Behind the Mask (1958) never existed, as I discovered as TCM broadcast a tatty old print of it early Saturday morning and I looked it up. "That's not right," I thought. "An injustice."

Time to set things straight and go...behind the mask. Who ya gonna call?

For the record, this is a British hospital drama, an undistinguished British hospital drama--but there are plenty of undistinguished British hospital dramas that have some adherents on the IMDb. And this one does have one point of distinction, not a small one, either. It was the first feature film appearance of a 21-year-old Vanessa Redgrave (besides some sort of fashion model short two years earlier) and I think her only film alongside her father, Michael Redgrave. (I'd clarify this but the new and not-so-improved IMDb has removed the old version's most useful feature, the ability to look up collaborations.) Playing the concerned daughter of Michael's chief of surgery--he's ailing from the stress and strain of dealing with a new and uncooperative administration, and is watchfully grooming her fiance for a top surgical slot--she's appealing even in the decayed color of the print viewed and completely unformed, a hatchling, with a twee and girlish voice. She wouldn't make another film for eight years; by Morgan! (1966), she was more herself. (Maggie Smith had a similar trajectory, dipping her toes into movies at the same time then leaving them behind for about as long, both going back to win Oscars.)

Behind the Mask was also the debut film of veteran character actress Margaret Tyzack. Redgrave pere is his usual self. There are subplots involving the death of a patient and a doctor hopped up on drugs, which grays his hair and leaves him wild-eyed. Brian Desmond Hurst, who helmed the definitive version of A Christmas Carol in 1951, directed, less memorably this time.

That should do it. Stand up and be counted, Behind the Mask.

UPDATE: Done! Vanessa Redgrave should seriously thank me for this.

FURTHER UPDATE: The director's great-great nephew wrote me on Facebook to thank me for my review. Since it was posted a user review has appeared, too. The Mask is uncloaked.

First!

The Online Film Critics Society has released its list of 100 Best First Films. If Citizen Kane hadn't topped it I would have resigned in protest.

My 25 picks, some of which failed to place (i.e. my beloved Honeymoon Killers):

CITIZEN KANE
BREATHLESS
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
ON THE TOWN
THE MALTESE FALCON
KNIFE IN THE WATER
THE HONEYMOON KILLERS
CABIN IN THE SKY
KILLER OF SHEEP
TOY STORY
SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT
THEY LIVE BY NIGHT
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
AGE D’OR, L’
ATLANTE, L’
MY LEFT FOOT
SWEETIE
SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE
BLACK SUNDAY
ROGER & ME
THE PRODUCERS
REAL LIFE
PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE
ONE-EYED JACKS
NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

Cineaste in Brooklyn

The magazine is collaborating with Brooklyn-based UnionDocs on a special series of documentary programs this fall. Kicking things off on Saturday, Oct. 16 at 7pm is a screening of Bastards of Utopia, followed by a filmmaker Q&A. Hang out with Cineaste in Williamsburg.

Popdose: Let Me In

When Chloe Grace Moretz asks, you better listen, in this fine remake of the Swedish thriller Let the Right One In. Plus: Arthur-to-be Russell Brand doesn't want to be caught in Get Him to the Greek, now on DVD.