BLU-RAY: In the battle of the high-definition DVD player, Sony's BLU-RAY format has prevailed. Vidiots has been at the forefront of providing BLU-RAY discs for both rental and purchase. A Vidiots staff member will be happy to make a recommendation.

AWARDS MOVIES - If you didn't get a chance to check out some of the Oscar or Independent Spirit Award-nominated films, here's a list of when they will be released and featured in Vidiots "New Arrivals" section:

And P.T. Anderson's intelligent, broiling epic/anti-epic, "There Will Be Blood" will be released April, exact date TBA. (Perhaps you can tell which movie I was rooting for.)

SPECIALS - We're also featuring special sections spotlighting the films of actors Javier Bardem and Daniel Day-Lewis, acclaimed for two of this past year's most ferocious, fully-embodied performances. Check out Day-Lewis as a punk in "My Beautiful Laundrette" or a former boxer in "In the Name of the Father." Bardem's Spanish films particularly showcase his range, whether it's a small-time gangster in "Golden Balls" or a married man still in the closet in "Second Skin."

HIDDEN GEMS: Overwhelmed by all the great titles in our "New Arrivals" section? Here are new titles or re-issues worthy of your attention.

THE BEST OF FREE CINEMA - This 3-disc set brings together many of the classic, socially-conscious documentaries made in the "Free Cinema" movement during Britain's post-war era. These low-budget, black and white films are widely considered to be forerunners of the acclaimed "kitchen-sink", neo-realist British dramas of the early 60s, such as "A Taste of Honey." Directors whose early work is represented here include Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson.

PERHAPS LOVE - Loony and swoony. I don't mean to diminish this film with those words, but people who love films as varied as "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg", "Cabaret" and "Day for Night" might find much to like in this award-winning Hong Kong film. An actor in a love triangle takes on a role as a member of a love triangle in a musical film-within-a-film. Gorgeous cinematography, a logic you have to be patient with, and inventively staged song-and-dance numbers, Not since "One from the Heart!"

VAL LEWTON: MAN IN THE SHADOWS - An intelligent exploration of the films of Val Lewton, producer and screenwriter responsible for a remarkable string of classic, sublime horror movies such as "Cat People" and "I Walked with a Zombie." Martin Scorsese narrates.

EATING OUT 2 -- A gay send-up of raunchy college comedies, with some sharp satire, witty quips and a genuine sweetness. Philip J. Bartell co-writes and directs.

AUDIOVISUALIZE - Addictive TV is a London-based collective who release VJ-focused DVDs. This collection brings together artists who synchronize music and visuals in innovative ways, using "video sampling" techniques as well as "bootleg" imagery and new technology.

ONE HOUR WITH YOU - Ernst Lubistch made four musicals before embarking on his classic romantic comedies and these display his famed lightness, the "Lubistch Touch." This one, with a young Maurice Chevalier, is especially charming.

TOM'S PICK O' THE MONTH: KURT COBAIN - ABOUT A SON
Whatever you might imagine a bio-doc about Kurt Cobain to be, this film will likely still surprise you. Audio recordings of journalist Michael Azerrad's interviews with Cobain conducted from 1992 to 1993 provide the soundtrack. We never see Cobain, except for a few black-and-white photos. Director A J Schnack instead pairs Cobain's stories with searching, ineffable shots of Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle. The images are composed within an inch of their lives, and the movie looks like the lovechild of Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" and Gerald Reggio's "Koyaanasqatsi". Still, they provide a hushed counterpart to the arc of Cobain's life, which he narrates alternately with fury, weariness, pettiness, ambition, and revealing insight. "About a Son" doesn't especially fetishize Cobain himself, but comes close to fetishizing the Pacific Northwest; what saves it is the film's desire to expand the possibilities of the music documentary, and its moving marriage of inchoate images and poignant sound. "About a Son" eventually pierces and haunts, like the blowtorch of a voice Cobain once turned onto the world.