Women ended up on tables, a lot: in rapture, in protest, in flagrante delicto, and asleep. As the Cutler Majestic's red velvet curtain rose last night, we saw the heroine in a heap of wedding dress on a dining table, an image that echoed throughout the opera. Semele, the reluctant bride, is the best-developed character in the work, foolish, but sympathetic, but so petulant, even before she leaves the groom at the altar and runs......

Old folks, church-robbin', and pregnancy: these are a few of our favorite things. That is, if you judge by the top box office movies. The Bucket List, First Sunday (Ice CUBE!), and Juno have been keeping butts in theatre seats across the nation. But these fine (?) films will be gettin' a run for their money, or tickets, by 27 Dresses, Cloverfield, and Mad Money. 27 Dresses, though (shockingly!) panned, takes the pregnancy theme of......

Boston, you did Kimya Dawson right on Thursday night. So right, in fact, that we can't even tell you about it. Bostonist had fully intended to be able to report back to you today about how Dawson, the quirky and kickass singer-songwriter now captivating music fans with her work on the Juno soundtrack, performed during her 7 p.m. in-store at the Newbury Street music shop. We arrived on the scene a little later than we'd......

Music Kimya Dawson has long been one of those buried indie-rock treasures, at least until the release of Juno. The former member of the Moldy Peaches and avid livejournal diarist contributes a large part of the soundtrack, and stars Ellen Page and Michael Cera cover one of her songs, "Anyone Else But You." In fact, Page suggested that Dawson be on the soundtrack since she felt Juno would be a Moldy Peaches fan. Bostonist......

Finally, finally, the National Treasure got the smack-down by two geezers, and ">The Bucket List won this weekend's box office. Juno is still high on the list. While we're happy for Juno's success, is it just us, or are people trying too hard to seem hip by talking about Juno all the time? And has anyone else noticed that Alvin and the Chipmunks isn't going away, either? Now, we'd pay to see the Alvin and......

The Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film continues its annual Top 100 List tradition with a list of the one hundred funniest films of all time. All members were asked to contribute 20 ideas, which were then compiled into the final list of mostly modern American films. According to the press release: Many filmmakers from various eras appear more than once on the list, including Tim Burton, Charles Chaplin, Christopher Guest, Albert Brooks, John Waters, Buster......

As Bostonist did with books, we've tackled best of/worst of lists for movies. Not only are we including the latest best of/worst of lists, but we dug through each list to find which movies impressed every single critic and which ones were absolutely appalling. Here are links for recent "Best Of" lists: American Film Institute Top 10 National Board of Review The Onion AV Club Golden Globe Nominees Metacritic (FYI: The amazing Killer of Sheep......

I Am Legend raked in the money, as expected. The public loves Will Smith, they love special effects, they love cute dogs, and I Am Legend gave audiences what they wanted. Peter Keough at the Phoenix went so far as to say that the dog in I Am Legend was his "favorite animal character of the year." As a result, the movie made an obscene $76.5 million on its opening weekend. Believe it or not,......

How did The Golden Compass, Juno, and Atonement do critically and commercially? Of Compass and its controversy, the Dig's David Wildman said, "So screw the religious nuts, there's no reason not to see this fun little flick." James Verniere at the Herald disagreed, finding it a "long and often tedious slog." Unless you're a sci-fi fan or want to stick it to The Man, you might want to stay away. The movie opened at Number......

This big movie news this weekend is The Golden Compass, the adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel of the same name. The first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, The Golden Compass tells the tale of the "orphan" Lyra as she and her polar bear Iorek (voiced by Gandalf--er, Ian McKellen) embark on a journey to rescue Lyra's friend Roger from his kidnappers. We hear the movie's anti-religious themes have been played down (maybe thanks......

Fall seems to have set in, at least for now. the temperatures are dropping and people all over the metro have been forced to put their flip-flops away for some more sensible footwear. At least until it gets warm again in another week. Or so we hope. Music abounds again this week and we're listening. Tuesday, 9/12 Branford Marsalis Quartet Braggtown CD Release Concert Berklee alum Branford Marsalis created Cambridge-based (and Rounder distributed) Marsalis......