Popdose: Star Wars Memories

May the Force...you know. My recollections of the phenomenon 35 years later. Jabba, we hardly knew ye.

Popdose: The Greatest Movie Summer Ever

Return with me to 1982, when E.T. phoned home, Spicoli enjoyed Fast Times, and I wasn't The Last American Virgin. And Mel Gibson ruled in the movie I saw three times, two of them driving on my own.

Drama Desk noms: Follies in front

Plus Death Takes a Holiday, Nice Work if You Can Get It, and Richard III, and others in the usual potpourri derived from the bustling New York theater scene. I was a nominator once, and, like Sally in Follies (pictured), I felt like I was "losing my mind" as I saw all those shows. But away we go. The awards will be held on June 3.

Live Design: The scoop on Newsies

Extra! Extra! The new Disney musical isn't bad at all. In fact it's quite enjoyable. A surprise.

Popdose: A Night to Remember

I'm posting this review of the excellent Criterion Blu-ray of the 1958 classic almost to the minute the Titanic sank a century ago, which is a sobering thought.

Popdose: A world of Whedon

Writer-producer-director wunderkind Joss Whedon, that is, represented by no less than two films this week as the world awaits his superheroic mashup The Avengers: the monster mash The Cabin in the Woods (pictured) and the doc Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope. Let's give the man a hand!

On the theater beat

Reviewed for Live Design magazine, Death of a Salesman with Philip Seymour Hoffman and the late, unmourned revisal of Carrie. And, for Theater News Online, a largely successful screen to stage adaptation (pictured). The cast album is gorgeous, by the way.

Popdose: Chewing Over The Hunger Games

Considering Katniss, Battle Royale (pictured), and the whole adaptations thing. Why are these young adult genre efforts so boring?

Popdose: The Raid: Redemption

Action, action, and more action from Indonesian silat sensation Iko Uwais. Did I say there was action in this one?

Popdose: Footnote

The only one of the 15 movies opening in New York today that may be worth seeing.

Live Design: Blood Knot and Richard III

Off Broadway this week with an Athol Fugard revival and Kevin Spacey (pictured) before the curtain rings down on the Bridge Project at BAM this Sunday.

Popdose: Being Flynn

Robert De Niro gets out of movie jail. Temporarily.

Popdose: Top 10 for 2011

Hangin' with Tom Cruise as I (finally) tackle a Top 10 movie list for Popdose, just in time for tonight's thing. Check my Twitter feed below for my Oscar picks and cast your ballot accordingly.

The Spring issue of Cineaste, online and on sale

The site's up now, and the magazine will be on newsstands and in your hands by early March. Look for my mini-review of Criterion's Island of Lost Souls.

Popdose: The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2012

The long and the "short" of it this year, including Ciaran Hinds and Kerry Condon at The Shore.

Popdose: The River

Up the lazy TV show for Popdose. I'm not in it for the duration, that's for sure.

Live Design: The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess

Ah, Audra. And two more plays on and Off Broadway. (Broadway, land of Smash, which had its moments last night, if not the most compelling first episode. I hear it improves--the American Idol beginning was amusing, the other more embedded nods to that type of performing not so much-- and with a roster of local talent to draw from how could it not?)

Popdose: 2012 Oscar nominations

Extremely loud and incredibly close analysis featuring, who else, The Artist.

Live Design: Leo

A little, topsy-turvy show that I thoroughly enjoyed. And my first show of the year.

Popdose: The Iron Lady

Meryl Streep rules Britannia.