Here's something purportedly fun: going to the movies. Here's something that's actually fun: skipping the exhausting, soul-sucking multiplex, and heading for the Balboa, an independent theater that's been around since 1926. At the Balboa, recent offerings have included the award-winning six-hour Italian family drama Best of Youth, a Bengali Film Festival, and the opening of The Hunger Games. They also put on special events, such as a screening of Romeo and Juliet from London's Royal Ballet, or Rigoletto from London's Royal Opera House. When the Balboa showed Sex in the City 2, the Hockey Haven across the street offered a cosmo special. More to our tastes are the dumplings at Shanghai Dumpling King, which are never themed to any particular movie but entirely enhance the experience of any movie. There are other things on the menu, of course — clay pot dishes, noodles, onion pancakes, sugar-egg puffs. But if you like dumplings (and who doesn't like dumplings?), just remember the name of the restaurant. It's the king, the king of dumplings.