It’s been a juicy week for movie news.

First, Spider-Man 3 breaks all kinds of records.

After famously firing its book critic, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution announced it’s giving the boot to its film critic too. (Via Thompson on Hollywood.)

The U.S. Treasury Department is going after Michael Moore for a stunt (accompanying sick people to Cuba for free medical coverage) portrayed in his new movie Sicko.

Cigarettes smoked by adults may be enough to push a movie’s MPAA rating up a notch, according to new guidelines adopted yesterday.

Warner Bros. has cancelled their Canadian preview screenings of the new Harry Potter, Ocean’s Thirteen, and the rest of their 2007 slate, citing piracy concerns. (Via The IFC Blog.)

The complete version of Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon the Brain!—filmed in Seattle and produced by the formerly Seattle-based The Film Company—opened for a 14-show run in New York. (Greencine has the coverage.) It will not be showing in Seattle.

Opening this week in Seattle:

The long-awaited horse-fucker movie!

Zoo, by our very own Charles Mudede and director Robinson Devor, opens at the Varsity today. We’re obviously too fond of Charles to write an objective review, so please enjoy this spoof of THINKFilm’s marketing strategy, featuring haters and loony geniuses alike. (PS: in tiny white letters at the bottom, the text reads: “All quotations are real. Most are wildly misconstrued.”)

Christopher Frizzelle is impressed by Away from Her, the gentle directorial debut of Canadian indie actress Sarah Polley, adapted from an Alice Munro story.

And in On Screen this week: The inspirational doc The Hip Hop Project (“The process is the point,” says Lindy West); the inspirational movie Waitress (“massive, saccharine slices of earnest goo,” says Lindy West), directed by and starring the dead indie actress Adrienne Shelly; and the not-at-all-inspirational (I hope) zombie-disease sequel 28 Weeks Later (not nearly enough originality, Bradley Steinbacher says).

In Film Shorts this week, check out a little slice of anarchy history in Sacco and Vanzetti at the Grand Illusion; Iran’s answer to Bend It Like Beckham, Offside (by The Circle director Jafar Panahi), at the Varsity; the interesting Nouvelle Vague-meets-1968 Ireland doc Rocky Road to Dublin at Northwest Film Forum; and “The Idiosyncratic Cinema of Bruce Bickford” at Fantagraphics. And if you want to take your mom to the movies for Mother’s Day, you have two decidedly different choices: Mommie Dearest at Cinerama and Breakfast at Tiffany’s at both Big Picture locations.

Finally, the SIFF schedule is out, and it’s a monster: There are over 400 movies. Tickets go on sale to the general public Sunday at noon. Peruse your choices here, or wait for our comprehensive guide—out May 24 on the stands and earlier on the web—including at least 150 original reviews.