Epson Duet: Gentlemen, Start your Popcorn Makers

With so many high-end and increasingly affordable projectors on the market nowadays, the only thing standing between you and your ability to host the coolest cinéaste soirées in the neighborhood is your very own gleaming white screen to throw the images onto. Which is the why the benign geniuses at Epson came up with the Duet Ultra Portable Projector Screen, a Fabergé egg that goes from a compact, totable tube to an 80-inch ivory rectangle in no time flat. Amazing grace....

The Duet offers both standard (4:3) and widescreen (16:9) formats, depending on how wide you open it up. A sturdy tripod base ensures that Fido won't knock Fellini over onto the coffee table, or better yet, there is mounting hardware if you happen to have plenty of available wall-space. The screen itself is a taut, brilliant white when fully extended, with nary a wrinkle or a pock-mark. And it stores as easily as it deploys, easily standing up in a closet corner.

Epson also makes some fabulous multimedia projectors if you really want to support their stock price. The Duet itself can be had for about a C-Note or slightly higher. Get out the old canola oil and use the savings to buy that high-end organic popcorn they hustle you at Whole Foods. And don't forget to invite me to the Italian Neo-Realism Festival in your backyard. Arivederci!