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.