THEATER | The Crucible

The Harvard Law School presents a modernist interpretation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Director and professor Bruce Hay envisions the play as a parable of racial intolerance, including a controversial scene from the original script that’s found in the appendix and rarely performed, suggesting racial undertones in the work. Tickets $5 with Harvard I.D. (HBO). 7:30 p.m., with additional Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. Runs through April 24. Ames Courtroom Auditorium, Austin Hall, HLS. (BBC)

FILM | Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation

Deeply troubled festival organizers Spike and Mike celebrate their 25th year of showcasing crude, ultra-violent and occasionally thought-provoking shorts. This year’s show is all new, featuring such titles as “How To Cope With Death,” “Mama I’m a Thug” and “The Big Abandoned Refrigerator Adventure.” Approach with caution and a strong stomach; once you’ve paid the admission fee, you’ll feel obligated to sit through even the most shudder-inducing clips. Tickets $9. Fridays and Saturdays. Midnight. Runs through May 22. Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline. (BBC)

FILM | After The Life

Part three of Lucas Belvaux’s The Trilogy comes to the Brattle to finish the series. Each one features interlocking stories—a major character in one is a minor one in the next—and is done as a different genre—the first and second films were a thriller and a comedy, respectively—leaving this melodrama to complete the story. This features Pascal, a cop and his heroin abuser wife that he loves too much to cut her off. In fact, he does whatever he can to make sure she has a constant supply so she doesn’t have to suffer. The interesting aspect of this film is how it makes pitiful characters in the other two films become interesting and strong, making their fall all the more tragic. 5:00 p.m., 7:25. and 9:50. All week. Brattle Theatre. (SAW)

FILM | Equinox Flower

For those who like their Ozu in color, this late-period work—his first in color—from 1958 has come to the very complete Harvard Film Archive Ozu festival. The intriguing family dynamics concern an independent daughter—it is the 50s after all and women are finding their place—who refuses her more traditional father’s plan of an arranged marriage. Beyond the plot, however, Ozu’s movies are special for their interest in color—in this case, red (Ozu’s favorite color)—and philosophy, which is expressed by the slowly enlightened father: “Everyone is inconsistent now and then, except God. Life is full of inconsistencies. The sum total of all the inconsistencies of life is life itself.” 9:30 p.m. on Saturday. 7 p.m. on Sunday. Harvard Film Archive. (SAW)

VISUALS | VES Juried Student Exhibition 

The Carpenter Center’s newest show of student art will run from April 22 through the 29.  Reception for artists Friday, April 23, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. Hours are Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-11:30 p.m. and Sunday, noon-11:30 p.m. Carpenter Center. (JJH)

VISUALS | George Balanchine and Modern Ballet

An exhibition in celebration of the centenary of the most influential choreographer of the 20th century, drawn from the Balanchine Archive and other dance collections in the Harvard Theatre Collection. Through May 28. Hours are Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Pusey Library. (JJH)

VISUALS | Bussewitz Photography Exhibit

The exhibit presents the work of naturalist-educator Albert Bussewitz, a dedicated student of the Arboretum landscape. His photographs are on loan from the Masachusetts Audubon Society’s Visual Arts Center in Canton, Mass. Through May 17. Hunnewell Building Lecture Hall, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain. (BBC)

VISUALS | Design-Recline