New Moon

Sorry, girls: The thrill is gone. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,’’ the second installment in Hollywood’s adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s mega-selling vampire romance series, is an anemic comedown after the full-blooded swoon of last year’s “Twilight.’’ Where the first film’s director, Catherine Hardwicke, plugged into Meyer’s vision of supernatural teenage lust with abandon, Chris Weitz is stuck with a sequel that’s a...

State officials tried this week to inject a little humor into the flooding that shut down parts of Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester during the morning commute yesterday. The state Department of Conservation and Recreation posted a warning about the flooding on electronic signs using phrasing designed to appeal to Massachusetts locals: "Wicked High Tides. " And sure enough the flooding closed several lanes of Morrissey Boulevard, snarling traffic between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. yesterday.

The first posthumous collection of Elliott Smith songs, 2004's "From a Basement on the Hill," was a window on the turbulent last years of a gifted, tortured soul. Smith's final recordings were a gorgeous mess of aimless murmurs, bittersweet pop tunes, and ramshackle rock epics from an artist clearly and painfully in thrall to the lure of oblivion. Now, four years after Smith's death from knife wounds (the LAPD's investigation into the circumstances remains open), a second -- and very different -- posthumous album is being released.

WASHINGTON - In a spectacle that might have beguiled poets, lovers, and songwriters if only they had been around to see it, Earth once had two moons, some astronomers now think. But the smaller one smashed into the other. The result: Our planet was left with a single, bulked-up, and slightly lopsided moon. The astronomers came up with the scenario to explain why the moon's far side is so much more hilly than the one that always faces Earth. The theory, outlined yesterday in the journal Nature, comes complete with computer models showing how it might have happened and an illustration...

Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire (R), 6 Bronson (R), 14 The Messenger (R), 9 Black Dynamite (R), 12 The Blind Side (PG-13), 10 Planet 51 (PG), 8 Reviewed Thursday The Twilight Saga: New Moon (PG-13)

State officials tried this week to inject a little humor into the flooding that shut down parts of Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester during the morning commute yesterday. The state Department of Conservation and Recreation posted a warning about the flooding on electronic signs using phrasing designed to appeal to Massachusetts locals: "Wicked High Tides. " And sure enough the flooding closed several lanes of Morrissey Boulevard, snarling traffic between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. yesterday.

The driver of a Miley Cyrus tour bus was killed yesterday morning when the bus overturned in Virginia; the 16-year-old “Hannah Montana’’ star wasn’t on board. The bus, driven by William G. Douglas , 53, of Austin, Texas, ran off the left side of Interstate 85, struck an embankment, and overturned, state police said. ‘Twilight’ sets record “The Twilight Saga: New Moon’’ set a box-office record for midnight screenings. Summit Entertainment estimated yesterday that it earned $26.3 million after opening early in the morning.

IT’S COMPLICATED (Comcast Movies: All Movies) Officially, this is a Meryl Streep movie. As a well-to-do baker and businesswoman having an affair with her married ex-husband (Alec Baldwin), Streep deploys all her best moves. But Baldwin’s gusto comes as a shock. He doesn’t steal the movie from her so much as counterpunch with charisma. Written and directed by Nancy Meyers. (R; runs through Oct. 1) WESLEY MORRIS THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON (Comcast Movies: All Movies)

Previously released Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans Nicolas Cage is back in his high lunatic mode as a New Orleans police detective investigating a murder while high and corrupt. He’s working with the hellion, Werner Herzog. Their pairing is about as perfect a meeting between a director’s sense of mischief and an actor’s license to misbehave as a moviegoer could hope for. With a never-better Eva Mendes as Cage’s hooker girlfriend. (88 min., R)

WASHINGTON - In a spectacle that might have beguiled poets, lovers, and songwriters if only they had been around to see it, Earth once had two moons, some astronomers now think. But the smaller one smashed into the other. The result: Our planet was left with a single, bulked-up, and slightly lopsided moon. The astronomers came up with the scenario to explain why the moon's far side is so much more hilly than the one that always faces Earth. The theory, outlined yesterday in the journal Nature, comes complete with computer models showing how it might have happened and an illustration...

IT’S COMPLICATED (Comcast Movies: All Movies) Officially, this is a Meryl Streep movie. As a well-to-do baker and businesswoman having an affair with her married ex-husband (Alec Baldwin), Streep deploys all her best moves. But Baldwin’s gusto comes as a shock. He doesn’t steal the movie from her so much as counterpunch with charisma. Written and directed by Nancy Meyers. (R; runs through Oct. 1) WESLEY MORRIS THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON (Comcast Movies: All Movies)

Previously released Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans Nicolas Cage is back in his high lunatic mode as a New Orleans police detective investigating a murder while high and corrupt. He’s working with the hellion, Werner Herzog. Their pairing is about as perfect a meeting between a director’s sense of mischief and an actor’s license to misbehave as a moviegoer could hope for. With a never-better Eva Mendes as Cage’s hooker girlfriend. (88 min., R)

The driver of a Miley Cyrus tour bus was killed yesterday morning when the bus overturned in Virginia; the 16-year-old “Hannah Montana’’ star wasn’t on board. The bus, driven by William G. Douglas , 53, of Austin, Texas, ran off the left side of Interstate 85, struck an embankment, and overturned, state police said. ‘Twilight’ sets record “The Twilight Saga: New Moon’’ set a box-office record for midnight screenings. Summit Entertainment estimated yesterday that it earned $26.3 million after opening early in the morning.

Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire (R), 6 Bronson (R), 14 The Messenger (R), 9 Black Dynamite (R), 12 The Blind Side (PG-13), 10 Planet 51 (PG), 8 Reviewed Thursday The Twilight Saga: New Moon (PG-13)

Sorry, girls: The thrill is gone. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,’’ the second installment in Hollywood’s adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s mega-selling vampire romance series, is an anemic comedown after the full-blooded swoon of last year’s “Twilight.’’ Where the first film’s director, Catherine Hardwicke, plugged into Meyer’s vision of supernatural teenage lust with abandon, Chris Weitz is stuck with a sequel that’s a...

The first posthumous collection of Elliott Smith songs, 2004's "From a Basement on the Hill," was a window on the turbulent last years of a gifted, tortured soul. Smith's final recordings were a gorgeous mess of aimless murmurs, bittersweet pop tunes, and ramshackle rock epics from an artist clearly and painfully in thrall to the lure of oblivion. Now, four years after Smith's death from knife wounds (the LAPD's investigation into the circumstances remains open), a second -- and very different -- posthumous album is being released.

Despite the mood in Europe, don't expect any austerity at the Cannes Film Festival, the annual Cote d'Azur extravaganza where glamour is wrapped in world cinema fervor and gauzy Mediterranean sunshine. Except for the Oscars, it's the flashiest red carpet in the world, a ruby staircase flanked by tuxedoed photographers — and a world away from financial turmoil. Yet Cannes, the 65th edition of which starts Wednesday, fetes its directors as much as it does its stars. This year, there are plenty of both: esteemed international filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami and Michael Haneke...