Crawford Saturday, April 26, 5:30 pm Somerville Theatre (rush tickets only) and Sunday, April 27, 12:00 pm Brattle Theatre Documentarian David Modigliani headed to Crawford, Texas, to find out how George W. Bush's presence impacted the tiny Texas town. Crawford did a lot for Bush, building his image as an ordinary small-town guy. And Bush did a lot for Crawford, boosting the local economy with his team and the media brigade that followed. Modigliani tries......

When celebrities come to town to make movies, they usually descend upon us in a flash, look pretty, drink our booze, eat our ice cream and zip back out again. But Ricky Gervais, who is making a movie in Lowell, is leaving us a little something special in his blog. After a rocky start in which Gervais made fun of the Lowell Sun and the Lowell Sun responded in kind, Gervais appears to be back......

Schlock Around the Clock Tomorrow, Saturday April 5 Brattle Theatre 10:00 pm and going for 14 hours strong! $20/$15 for students and Brattle members The Brattle Theatre has decided to make Schlock Around the Clock, a marathon full of movies that not even MSTK 3000 would touch, an annual event. Last year's lineup was pretty impressive, but this year the Brattle team seems intent on outdoing themselves. Here's the lineup and Bostonist's take on each,......

Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who remained on top of the box office, followed by another behemoth almost as big as family-friendly monster hits--Tyler Perry. In case you haven't heard of Tyler Perry, he was the force behind Diary of a Mad Black Woman, and Perry is fond of dressing in drag as "Madea," a take-no-prisoners old lady. Perry's latest effort, Meet the Browns, with Angela Bassett and Rick Fox (yeah, the Lakers Rick Fox--go......

The Lowell Sun is presenting a surprisingly thuggy side to an unlikely target--British actor Ricky Gervais, who is making a movie there. Via Pax Arcana, we hear that Gervais did a video about the Sun. In the video, Gervais comments on some lines in the Lowell paper about his upcoming movie: "LA meets LA--Lowell area, that is." Throughout the clip, Gervais' lip curls in a gesture of distate, and he catches a typo ("scoping" versus......

Animated movies continue to rake in the big bucks. Horton Hears a Who!, the Dr. Seuss tale with voices from Jim Carrey and Steve Carrell, was number-one at the box office. And it was number-one in a big way with $45.1 million bucks. When it came to counter-programming for the dudes, Never Back Down, dismissed by the Phoenix as a "Karate Kid ripoff" opened at number three, and Doomsday opened at number seven. Wesley Morris......

This weekend, Roland Emmerich's high-budget B-Movie 10,000 BC dominated the box office because everyone likes to look at cool effects, even if the movie itself is rotten. The strategically timed, family-friendly offering College Road Trip came in second. A Globe copyeditor had fun with Ty Burr's review of 10,000 BC, titling the piece "Yabba Dabba Don't." The other new movies, The Bank Job and Mrs. Pettigrew Lives for a Day, opened at a blah No.......

Jorge Furtado's Porto Alegre Harvard Film Archive Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge Friday, March 7 -- Saturday, March 8 More information Brazilian director Jorge Furtado's work should be better known among American film audiences. His movies are hilarious, thoughtful and unpretentious -- they aim to entertain above all else. The Man Who Copied (O Homem Que Copiava) (2003, screening Friday) is a case in point. It's the story of André (Lázaro Ramos), whose humdrum......

Books Is it possible to be saved by the Sex Pistols? The answer to that is a resounding yes. Michael Patrick MacDonald will be reading from Easter Rising, an account of his youth in the Boston punk scene, at Brookline Booksmith. Bostonist had the opportunity to hear him read from the book when he spoke at UMass-Boston, and we say with great emphasis that this is a must-see, not just for those who love......

Boston's King of Boogie-Woogie With his long hair and white beard, Preacher Jack may look like a wild-eyed holy man descended from a lonely mountaintop. He's actually a living piece of boogie-woogie/rockabilly history who grew up and resides on the North Shore. Pounding the keys for fifty years, he may not keep a weekly residence at Frank's Steak House anymore, but Preacher Jack comes down to Cambridge & Boston every couple weeks to spread......

Short Cartoons You saw the nominees for the Live Action Short Film Academy Award last night; come back to the ICA for the contenders in the animated category. Formats include traditional 2D animation, CGI, and claymation. Check out the John Lennon interview film "I Met the Walrus." Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Avenue, South Boston, 7:00pm. $7/$9. Recover Heal a broken heart with laughter. Ben Karlin has assembled a collection of raucous breakup......

Adrian Tomine, 6pm ($5) Killer of Sheep, 8pm ($12, $10 Brattle members) Brattle Theatre Special $15 ticket gets you into both events! Perhaps best known for his graphic series Optic Nerve, some of which was collected in the book Summer Blonde, artist Adrian Tomine recently came out with a full-length graphic novel called Shortcomings--and even more recently drew a rad cover for the New Yorker (pictured right). The longer novel format gave Tomine more room......

Books --Charles Bock's Beautiful Children isn't as delicate as it sounds. A couple reels after their child vanishes in the Las Vegas desert--only it's so, so much more than that, and it's received a flood of attention. The Globe thought Bock threw too much into his debut, but everyone seems to agree that he's ambitious. Brookline Booksmith, 7:00 pm, free. Speaking of free, he's letting you download the book without dropping a single dime.......

Daft Punk's Electroma Gus Van Sant, Isaac Asimov, and a French-loving raver walk into the desert... Not a joke, but the vibe of Daft Punk's art-house film debut that debuted at Cannes in '06. In what could either be called a long-form music video or a 74-minute silent movie, it's a beautifully-filmed story that touches on some classic human themes, but in a really twisted way starring robots. (It better have been filmed beautifully......

Books Susan Choi draws on real-life, high-profile crimes for her literary works. Her last book was American Woman, based on the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, and now she's inspired by her father's real-life experience as a former colleague of the Unabomber in her latest, A Person of Interest. Brookline Booksmith, 7:00 pm, free. Movies Child of the Big City and Daydreams are two silent films from the vanguard of pre-revolution Russian cinema. The former......

Now that filmmakers have rediscovered Boston, the city wants to take advantage of it by building a movie studio in Weymouth, the Herald's Scott Van Voorhis reports: Seeking to build political support and persuade the state to expand existing tax credits, a team of Hollywood film moguls is flying into the Hub this week for meetings with state lawmakers and the development firm that controls the former naval air station in South Weymouth, industry sources......

Nothing helps avant garde art go down like a good gimmick, and filmmaker Robert Fenz had a great one. Fenz screened two films Monday at the Harvard Film Archive, each accompanied by live improvisation from the renowned jazz trumpeter Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith. Fenz is a young filmmaker who shoots in black and white 16mm. His work consists largely of urban landscapes rendered in richly composed shots. Unlike structuralist filmmakers, however, Fenz's films also have......

This photo from holgaguy would rock pretty hard even without the fantastic added effects from the Holga. We love how the red reinforces the powerful statement and imagery. Definitely be sure to check out his Flickr stream for a ton more really great shots.......

Dark Side of the Moon, Sorta... --The last lunar eclipse for the next 2 years is happening tonight. With binoculars or even the naked eye, the moon will start to look pretty darn red around 9:00 pm EST, as if the green cheese has turned into a port wine spread. The prime time will be between 10pm and 10:30pm. Why not get a better look at an obsevatory? Harvard Observatory, 60 Garden St, Cambridge,......

--Hendry Street isn't the only place suffering from the home-foreclosure crisis. In fact, so many areas are suffering that real estate agents are taking possible buyers on bus tours of other people's property. As if someone losing a home doesn't have enough misery, now they have to have complete strangers tramping about on the front yard. [Boston Globe] --A group of mayors, including Mayor Menino, are banding together with labor union reps in support of......

Books Manil Suri's The Age of Shiva follows a woman as she tries to find a life outside male expectations. Meera, a young woman in India, marries the man she desires, only to discover he's Mr. Wrong. Eventually, she throws all her hopes on her son, and the intensity of her feelings prompted the San Francisco Chronicle to call the work "a steamy, hot-out-of-the-oven offering of mother love." Whoa, there! Brookline Booksmith, 7:00 pm,......

Sci-fi flick Jumper was number-one at the box office this weekend, but the real story was the disappointing turnout for Definitely, Maybe, which was supposed to be a romantic comedy. Was it the annoying title? Maybe they should have referred to an old '80s TV show and called it My Three Moms instead. Maybe moviegoers aren't feeling Ryan Reynolds. Ty Burr blew kisses at Maybe co-star Isla Fisher, but he blew a raspberry at Reynolds:......

Jazzy Movies Avant garde filmmaker Robert Fenz and free music composer and multi-instrumentalist Wadada Leo Smith team up tonight at the Harvard Film Archive to "create a 'space' that grows out of the combination of disciplines, with neither sound nor image subjugated." Fenz screens his film Meditations on Revolution and Smith provides live improvisational accompaniment. Harvard Film Archive, Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge, 7:00pm. $10. (RS) Rabbits Bored on President's Day? Get in......

Movies --The ultimate sci-fi slumber party will happen with the 33rd Annual Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival, where this year's theme is "The Future is Passe," and the main event is a screening of A Boy and His Dog, starring Don Johnson. Get more details. Somerville Theatre, Davis Square, 12:00 noon, running through 12:00 noon the next day. Gender Bending Trannies take the stage for Traniwreck, Boston's only all-gender, all-genre burlesque variety show. Expect comedy,......

Comedy Just when you're sick of all the caucusing and candidate crap, Jimmy Tingle makes a triumphant local return with his show "Jimmy Tingle for President." Bostonist interviewed the candidate, and he's going to have plenty to say. Regent Theatre, Arlington, 8:00 pm. $30 orchestra / $25 balcony. PS--Mr. Tingle himself told Bostonist another show has been added for next Saturday, February 23. Dirty Movies Be careful who sits behind you tonight as sex......

In the Mood For Love (花样年华) Tonight at 7:30 7:00 (oops) Harvard Film Archive (Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge) Free admission! For anyone looking to launch a pre-Valentine's Day attack, Bostonist recommends tonight's free screening of Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love. This is a cheap date that says, I am sensitive (but not in an Eat, Pray, Love way). I am stylish (but not in a leggings-and-Uggs way). I can put up......

33rd Annual Sci-Fi Film Festival Sunday, February 17, noon, until Monday, February 18, noon Somerville Theatre $55 in advance / $65 day of show More info on the festival The annual Sci-Fi Film Festival will kick off this weekend. Each year has a new theme, and the theme this time around is "The Future is Passe," in which "the future had been predicted, but that time has past." Bostonist asked Garen Daly, organizer of the......

Audiences went for the light and frothy this weekend. Fool's Gold, with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, triumphed at the box office, followed up by the Martin Lawrence vehicle Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins. Neither of the top two movies made local critics very happy. James Verniere dismissed Fool's Gold as "a 110-minute advertisement for celebrity lifestyles you cannot afford. You can’t afford the boats, the bodies, the hair, the clothes. You can’t afford one of......

Some super-snazzy stuff is going on around Boston this week in the film world. The African Film Festival at the MFA is going strong, and Harvard Film Archive brings us José Luis Guerín's In the City of Sylvia (En la ciudad de Sylvia) with the director live and in person. (Sometimes we wonder what the point of saying "live and in person" is--would we really go to an event with someone dead and in person?......

--The State Supreme Judicial Court just overturned the conviction of a Methuen ex-police officer accused of raping a woman in 2000. The case hinged on whether or not lawyers could prove the woman was "too intoxicated to consent, not that she was merely high and drunk." However, the SJC felt that the trial judge didn't give proper instructions to the jurors. The ex-officer will get a new trial. [Boston Globe] --In a similar case,......