Your mainstream release pick: The Namesake. The saga of a family that journeys from homeland India to wintry New York, Mira Nair’s newest film is based on the titular bestseller by Jhumpa Lahiri and features Kal Penn (Kumar from Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle), Jacinta Barrett and Indian singer/actress Tabu. It’s a beautiful and sensitive look at identity in the context of a cross-cultural family. Nair’s known for bringing insight to her subject matter and this movie appears to be no different...

In case you've spent the past week doing nothing but contemplating whether John Roberts is either banaly evil or malevolently evil, here's what you might have missed from last week: -The Rules Committee voted to let Robin Williams spend $80,000 to repair a median in his neighborhood and a city sighs with relief. Aftewards, Sandoval claimed that the shunting of the gift to a committee was just to make sure everything was on the up-and-up and not just turning down free money out of spite. In response, residents of Sea Cliff pledged to stop marching in the streets in protest....