If what you want out of a movie is moral clarity -- or even coherence -- you should probably avoid the new Irish gangster flick In Bruges. It's a credit to screenwriter and director Martin McDonagh's clever contrivance to hear critics complain that its superlatively violent ending breaks the moral deal. To paraphrase Arthur Penn, the father of critically reviled ultraviolence, we're killing people every day in Iraq, and you're upset that this movie is......

Bookgasms There is no public institution that inspires Bostonist with so many warm feelings as the public library. And there is no charity event quite like a library book sale to make Bostonist into a heartless marauder, fighting tooth and nail with no quarter given nor expected. City-wide Friends of the BPL are offering one today at Copley. Stay out of our freaking way. Central Library, Copley Square, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. Movies It's......

--Another "wintry mix" is already heading into town this evening to smack you in the face and mess up your drive home. Whoopee. [WBZ] --MBTA fare machines refused credit cards this morning, right at the first of the month when people were trying to add money. Read what T riders did about it. Bostonist has been down this ugly road before. [Boston Globe] --A man died overnight after he was speeding through the Sumner......

Music --Haven't you always wanted to go to an event called HARVAPALOOZA? Well, now you can. Local band The Franklin Kite bring a special combination of musical prowess and astrophysics knowledge to Tommy Doyle's, where they'll play alongside Maya and The Trolleys to commemorate the palooza that is Harvard. Or something like that? Anyway, the show starts at 9 and it's totally free. A dance party will follow, so put your best foot forward. Hopefully......

Arthur Penn, American Auteur Harvard Film Archive (HFA) Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge Friday-Monday More details Filmmaker Arthur Penn's reputation rests so firmly on Bonnie and Clyde (1967), that you could be excused if you thought he only made one good movie. You'd be wrong, of course. It's a point that will be reiterated throughout the weekend as the Harvard Film Archive presents a retrospective of his work. Penn doesn't get the press that......

Meet the Spartans, which is now at 3% on Rotten Tomatoes after starting off in the negative, is enjoying the number-one position at the box office this week. Meanwhile, Sylvester Stallone's comeback vehicle of-sorts, Rambo, wound up in second place. Seriously, Diedrich Bader is cool, but you're way better off watching him as a "Dog the Bounty Hunter" rip-off during this season's "Reno 911." At least Mark Feeney at the Globe found something to like......

Who knew three little chipmunks could show so much strength? Alvin and company stayed near the top of the box office list this week with a #3 showing, losing only to the mighty Nic Cage (we never thought we'd call Nic "mighty," but there you go) and Will Smith (we've been calling him "mighty" for years). Cage's National Treasure: Book of Secrets had the third biggest Christmas opening weekend ever, after Lord of the Rings:......

PodCamp Boston 2 Friday, October 26 through Sunday, October 28 Boston Convention & Expo Center Free, but registration required Official Site PodCamp Boston 2 promises to teach you more than how to bedazzle an iPod, as witnessed on the reality-show I Love New York 2. The days are packed with practical seminars on creating your own web-media empire. Seminar titles include "Web 2.0 Tools That Are Actually Useful" and "Intellectual Property Law for the Creative......

Married four times, detested by Aleister Crowley but friends with Howard Hughes, Preston Sturges should not be begrudged his mastery of the screwball comedy. He had a lot of material to work with. But his genius was to craft dialogue and pace his actors with such naturalism as to make the ridiculous seem inevitable. This genius is on display today at the Brattle Theatre, which is screening The Palm Beach Story (1942). Its reported......

"Authorial Intent" is Bostonist's attempt to bring you the best readings in the area, all tied up with a shiny bow. Diane Ackerman, Wednesday, September 19, 7:00 pm, Harvard Book Store. More info. In The Zookeeper's Wife, fiction writer, nonfiction writer, and poet Ackerman returns with the true story of zookeepers in Poland during World War II who hid Jews from the Nazis. The LA Times calls the novel "a shining book beyond category." Jonathan......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

Sam Adams is the flagship beer of the Boston Beer Company. On the tour of the brewery in JP, they'll tell you that there are a couple of reasons they call themselves "The Boston Beer Company" – the two most compelling – the name was available when Jim Koch started the company and they're located in Boston. A deal was announced today that will put the Boston Beer Company in a position to purchase a......

The Sam Adams Boston Lager you're drinking was likely brewed in Cincinnati, or soon, Latrobe. The tour facility for the Boston Beer Company is within stumbling distance from the Stony Brook stop on the Orange Line – it's a good thing because they're just about to start up the summer season where the free tours happen pretty much every day, not just a few times a week. Today the Boston Beer Company, the parent of......

The Namesake will screen at the Brattle at 7pm tonight, Thursday, March 15. Tickets are free, but you have to pick them up at the Brattle. The Namesake is a movie with a powerful pedigree. Mira Nair, who was behind the brilliant Monsoon Wedding, is the director, and the script is based on Jhumpa Lahiri's novel. One of the stars, actor Kal Penn, is also looking to break out of his Harold and Kumar......

Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj is the kind of love-it-or-hate-it college movie that will split the population of Boston moviegoers. A large chunk of them - the college students who flow in and out of the universities - will love the beer-soaked parties. The others - namely residents who dread the arrival of said rowdy students - will quake at the prospect of yet another movie that applauds collegiate partying. However, two......

Who wants to be inside a theater in weather like this? This evening, Bostonist won't have to choose between staying outdoors, seeing a band, and enjoying some of our favorite movies: Friday 8/11 Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potyomkin) ArtsUnion brings a revolt and a sinking Russian warship to Union Square. The KNOWmovement Orchestra provides ambient lighting and a live soundtrack for Eisentein's groundbreaking silent classic. Union Square, Somerville 7:30-9:30 pm, free (rain date Saturday 8/12) Battleship......

Attention local film patrons, geeks, students, snobs, enthusiasts: Cambridge's endangered Brattle Theatre is looking for volunteers to write for their Film Notes series. They'd like to see 800-1,000 word essays that "avoid the plot summaries and superficial value judgments of newspaper criticism," to be distributed at screenings and posted on their web site: "Anything from a personal recollection of the first time you saw Vertigo to an abridged academic paper on its critique of the......

There is only so long that we’re going to be able to hold out before the entire list of the week’s picks will be outdoor venues. Well, that’ll probably never happen until they dome the roof at Paradise and we can rock under the stars. We are, however, ecstatic about the warmer temperatures and the daylight which stretches until late – it helps us gear up for the night’s show. After a weekend of......

As we're sure you readers out there can tell, Bostonist is pretty sarcastic and can laugh at itself or anyone else for that matter. So when we heard about this movie, "The Aristocrats," which focuses on one dirty joke delivered by a slew of different comedians, we thought we should check it out. This hour-and-a-half documentary by Penn Jillette, of the comedy/magic act Penn and Teller, visits with comedians young and old to get their......

Like any sensible resident of our fair city, Bostonist loves going to the ballgame (although April night games can get a little chilly). Is there anything finer than seeing that first glimpse of emerald green grass as one emerges toward the field, or tracing the arc of a fly ball against the darkening sky, or haranguing the other team's relievers? We don't think so. Unfortunately, Sox tickets can be pricey and hard to come by.......