Look, it's just too effin' cold to attempt any clever repartee. So let's get to it.

Welcome, classic film lovers in general and survivors of yesterday's Hercustorm in NYC in particular, to Nitrate Stock's first monthly overview of 2014! I hope the New Year has thus far been kind and full of positive portent. Lord knows I hope hope it's not old enough yet to offer the opposite!

Continuing series today include Film Forum's Chaplin trib celebrating the Tramp's centennial, the last days of the Film Society's George Cukor retrospective, and MoMA's ongoing Auteurist History of Film. The lowdown as follows;

Oh lordy, last night must'a been New Year's Eve. I don't associate this kinda hurt with anything else, having never sat through a nuclear holocaust.

The rep circuit sheningans be as follows;

One more year comes to an end, its various calendars, whether traditional paper, magnetized laminate or other tech marvel iteration, removed in a violent struggle with the wall/fridge/device that bears it. Temps plummet, sunlight is scant, yet temperments remain buoyant, if only at the prospect of consuming Hell's 1/2 acre of bodily pollutant whether in socially permissable bubbly liquid form or, well, you know, we're all adults here. My sincere hope this New Year's Eve, mah Stockahz, is...

We're down once more to a duel betwen the two great rep series that have dominated December 2013; the Film Society's overview of ace studio-era director George Cukor, and Film Forum's month-long valentine to the incomparable Barbara Stanwyck. Pickin's be slim beyond those choices, as the bright beautiful candle that was the year that was goes quietly out to make room for the new & catchily-named beacon 2014! The meager megillah as follows;

Continuing series today inlcude Film Forum's nearly expired month-long trib to Barbara Stanwyck, the Film Society's equally exhaustive retrospective of the works of director George Cukor, IFC Center's The Way He Was: Early Redford, and Museum of the Moving Image's See It Big!: Great Cinematographers. The bounteous booty be thus;

Continuing series today include the last days of the Film Forum's wonderful trib to Barbara Stanwyck, the Film Society's competing retrospective dedicated to director George Cukor, Museum of the Moving Image's See It Big!: Great Cinematographers, and IFC Center's The Way He Was: Early Redford. The cinematic grab bag as follows;

Today's new and continuing series include Film Forum's slowly winding down Barbara Stanwyck trib, the Film Society's not-as-slowly winding down George Cukor retrospective, IFC Center's The Way He Was: Early Redford, MoMA's Films Albatros and Our Town: Baltimore, Museum of the Moving Image's excellent See It Big!: Great Cinematographers, and the Rubin Museum's Cabaret Cinema. The shenanigans look a little somethin' like so;

Welcome back from the Yuletide festivities, Stockahz. I hope the Xmas morrow finds you filled with fine grub, the love of your family and friends, and, in the case of my Irish-American brethren, no more homicidal animosity towards that same said group than you can handle. We got a whole new long 2014 ahead to sort these things out once more.

If you're at all like myself, and there are ways I wish that sentiment upon ye and others I daren't hope to curse you with, yesterday's shenanigans left you once more not merely a proud survivor of an annual holiday gathering, but a ravenous Cinegeek with renewed hunger, ready for the classic screening hunt. The wild game in season today as follows;