DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Indie: War/Dance Sometimes you need an antidote before the poison even arrives. Next week Hollywood releases yet another of those diabetic-shock-inducing films about musically gifted youngsters and how they can be an inspiration to us all, designed to make soccer moms everywhere weep into their hankies. One week prior to that, though, comes a documentary from......

We've arrived at another Friday, Washington, so welcome to it. Some sad news to note off the bat, however, as the Post brings word that the last movie theater left in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, the AMC Loews Dupont 5, will go the way of Visions and the Janus 3 before it and close its doors forever in January. We can certainly attest that the last few times we went to see a film......

They’re baaaaack. The area’s theater companies, that is. September marks season opener time for quite a few groups around town. Here are some of the highlights: This weekend kicks things off with the Kennedy Center’s Page to Stage festival. Get a free first look at some of the new plays premiering around town this season. Lots of stuff looks interesting -- a new take on Kafka's The Trial from Catalyst, Ken Ludwig's version of The......

A flurry of frantic, angry emails began around 6 p.m. last night on the Cleveland Park Listserve and moved seemingly all over town by 8 p.m. It was the end of civilization as we know it! A catastrophe of epic proportions! Alert the National Guard! The Uptown Theater might be closing! Thankfully, cooler heads have now prevailed. Turns out the rumor got started because the Jews for Jesus outfit McLean Bible Church put up......

FRIDAY: >> Friends 'o DCist Middle Distance Runner have had quite a ride since playing our special Unbuckled/Anniversary concert last September. Despite a few bumps on the road, they've gone from little band that could to having their first headlining slot at 9:30 club tonight. We'll say we knew them when. With The Dance Party. 10 p.m., $10. >> Akron/Family impressed the pants off of critics in 2005 with their self-titled neo-folk stylings. They'll be......

Notes on a Scandal may star two of the greatest living actresses, thespians who more often play monarchs than molls, but don’t fool yourself—the movie’s trash, not art. But it’s a kind of high trash, a thinking woman’s "beach viewing," much in the vein of the delightfully lurid 2003 François Ozon film Swimming Pool. Based on the novel What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal by the British writer Zoë Heller, Notes stars Judi......

What if you could live forever? It’s an intriguing question that many filmmakers have attempted to address over the years. Just don’t ask it of Darren Aronofsky, writer/director of the upcoming sci-fi love story, The Fountain. He hates taglines -- such as this one for his movie -- that narrow the focus of and discourage individual thought on the meaning of his work. Last Tuesday, the man behind the psychological brain bender, Pi, and the......

Good morning, Washington. The Post reports today that an agreement has been reached on the development of the National Capital Medical Center. Howard University and city officials yesterday told the paper that a deal is complete outlining the placement of the $400 million hospital on the site of the former D.C. General Hospital in Southeast. The city will contribute $212 million toward construction, though Howard remains noncommital on how much care will be made available......

There's been a flurry of speculation and rumors spinning about in New York and D.C. over the future of Gawker's Wonkette politics gossip blog. With Ana Marie Cox, the site's editor off writing a novel, Gawker has propped the blog up with a series of guest editors. According to a source close to the Gawker family, it has been a forgone conclusion that Cox would be leaving Wonkette permanently after she finishes her book this......

(By DCist contributor Hemal Jhaveri) DCist had heard rumors about Republicans in Hollywood, but never really believed them until you know who was elected governor of California. Rated R: Republicans in Hollywood, a new documentary which premiers tonight on AMC, proves otherwise. Directed and narrated by one time Hill staffer and Democratic speech writer Jesse Moss, the documentary explores the conservative side of Tinseltown, and yes, there actually is one. In the olden Clinton administration......