Best art-film house/series
Maybe Ghostbusters is your favorite movie. Or perhaps you own Ingmar Bergman's collected works in duplicate. Either way, you don't have to be a snobby cineaste to know the Brattle Theatre consistently screens the boldest range of films around, and it's a perennial Phoenix readers' pick for the best place to see the movies you won't find in the stadium-size cineplexes. Recent series and festivals include "John Waters: King of Cult!"; the Boston Fantastic Film Festival; and ResFest, the edge-of-the-envelope digital-film touring showcase. The director's cut of Donnie Darko had a run at the Brattle, which also was the only place around to catch Catherine Breillat's agonizing Anatomy of Hell. For the past 50 years, the Brattle has been blending classic, cutting-edge, and independent films, and its repertory is the most varied in town, earning it a reputation not only with Phoenix readers, but with film aficionados around the country. While the Brattle tends toward loftiness in its cinematic stylings, the Coolidge Corner Theatre, a repeat winner in our readers' poll, generally screens films with a little more funk, showing the cultish, the campy, the cool, the underground, and the decidedly un-Hollywood. From docs to shorts to sci-fi fests, the Coolidge champions boundary-blurring and cutting-edge work, as well as local filmmakers. The restored Art Deco theater recently screened its Films To See Before You Vote Festival; a 13-hour slasher fest for Halloween; plus Kinsey and Sideways. Like its kung fu classics on the weekend, the Coolidge, according to Phoenix readers, kicks serious ass.

Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge, (617) 876-6837, www.brattlefilm.org; Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Street, Brookline, (617) 734-2500, www.coolidge.org.