Ben Kweller has been dubbed an indie rocker, and with his latest country-tinged release, “Changing Horses,” he’s been acclaimed as a force in the Americana field.

Ever since the Coen brothers burst on the scene in the mid-1980s with “Blood Simple,” sibling filmmakers have become somewhat of a rage. You have the Wachowskis, the Hugheses and the Farrellys, just to name a few. But the bros sharing the closest DNA with the imaginative, freewheeling Coens are Jay and Mark Duplass, brothers who are considered the fathers of a growing film movement called mumblecore.

I’ve never been a fan of film’s mumblecore movement or its chief purveyors, Mark and Jay Duplass. The whole idea of twenty-somethings prattling on about their mundane lives in improvised scenes shot with handheld digital cameras makes me cringe. With this in mind, it was with great trepidation that I walked into the Duplasses’ “Cyrus,” the story of a slightly crazed 21-year-old new-age musician who has grown much too close to his mother.

Furthur, the latest project from former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, has just kicked off its summer tour.

Yes, the man behind “The Crying Game” and “Michael Collins” has gone all soft and fluffy on us. It’s somewhat disheartening, but at least he’s not using a terminally ill 10-year-old girl in a wheelchair to toy with our emotions.

In the first “Toy Story,” 15 years ago (which feels more like 15 minutes ago), Andy was an imaginative little guy with a toy box team. The boy and his toys have had a lot of adventures – together, and when no one’s looking, all on their own. But playtime’s mostly over now that Andy’s all grown up and going to college.

Friday marks the first anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death — a day I can truly say the music died.

It’s pretty hard to screw up an album if you have a modicum of talent and you’re working with some of the most recognizable pop standards ever composed. But Japanese-born singer Hiromi Kanda doesn’t just do them justice; she really makes them brand new for listeners in her latest CD “Hiromi in Love.”

Bret Michaels says a key reason he won TV’s “Celebrity Apprentice” in May is that he doesn’t underestimate anyone – including himself. On the night of April 21, Michaels, who just a couple of weeks earlier had undergone an emergency appendectomy, was hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage. The initial assessment from doctors was less than encouraging.

When Michael Jackson died in Los Angeles due to cardiac arrest, something happened. The music mattered again. All of the scandals were forgotten and we began remembering Jackson as the true artist he once was.

Adam Sandler's "Grown Ups" is infantile, sexist and imbecilic. And those are its good points.

Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz star in "Knight and Day."

Welcome back Tom Cruise. We missed you. And, frankly, we were worried about you, especially in the wake of your pogoing on Oprah’s couch and the sudden fascination with Nazi war heroes. But with “Knight and Day,” your shot-in-Boston romantic-action-spy comedy, you’re your old, funny, charming self again.

This week’s suggestions: Observe Take Your Dog to Work Day, watch “Grown Ups,” watch the World Cup and/or Wimbledon and more.

A remarkable thing happens over the course of “London Calling,” the new DVD capturing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band live in London’s Hyde Park last summer: The band, most of its members in their late 50s or 60s, seems to grow younger before our eyes.