REVERE — In the cinematic world, the city of Boston has earned something of a dubious reputation, one of guns, drugs, and violence. Films like “The Departed,” “Mystic River” and “The Town” paint a grisly picture of mean, dark streets stalked by criminals of every stripe. Many locals decry this characterization, but for one Charlestown native, the fiction is a hell of a lot closer to the truth.

John Hickey did not follow the usual path to screenwriting success. Instead of writing short stories or attending film school, Hickey devoted much of his early years to a life on the streets – selling drugs, committing robberies, and starting fights. Indeed, he was already a well-known to local law enforcement when a seemingly innocuous prescription drug arrived on the market in 1996.

Oxycontin, a time-release opioid manufactured by Purdue Pharma, appeared to be the answer to the prayers of many chronic pain sufferers – one pill that offered the same relief over the course of a day as a handful of Percocets. But for Hickey and his fellow “townies”, already doing a lucrative trade in painkillers and ecstasy on their streets, the arrival of Oxycontin would prove a goldmine.

By removing the time-release seal on the pills, the prescription medication was instantly transformed into a narcotic infinitely more powerful and addictive than any other on the market – one that could be sold for top dollar and, as Hickey’s friends soon discovered, was far easier to obtain than the typical hard drugs.

Thus began a string of brazen robberies – of pharmacies, corner markets, any place the drug was sold – by Hickey and his crew. These robberies, often in broad daylight, earned them the moniker “Oxy Bandits” from the Boston Police and a great deal of local and national attention. Already dubbed “hillbilly heroin” for the frequency of its abuse in the Appalachia region, Oxycontin use became a hot topic in the early 2000s.

By 2004, Hickey’s reign of terror over Charlestown had come to an end – sentenced to three years in prison, he began to write the script that would become “Oxy-Morons.” Semi-autobiographical in nature, the film would prove to be Hickey’s redemption – his opportunity to get clean, get straight, and share his cautionary tale with the world.

“I always knew I’d make this movie,” Hickey stated at a recent showing of “Oxy-Morons” in Revere, Massachusetts. The film, initially released in 2010, is enjoying a second round of screenings, accompanied by panel discussions with Hickey, his costars, and members of the law enforcement and drug rehabilitation communities – an attempt, it would seem, to put this extraordinarily violent movie in context.

For a film of this nature – a low-budget endeavor rendered in crystal clarity by the RED camera – context is all but necessary. Unlike Darren Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream” or Brian De Palma’s “Scarface,” films that have come to personify and glorify their respective drugs, “Oxy-Morons” eschews these stylistic trappings and goes straight for the gut. In vivid, at times appalling detail, Hickey showcases the Charlestown that he knows best – crime-ridden slums, rampant drug abuse and the gritty captivity of life, whether in prison or out. To further emphasize the reality, Hickey himself stars in the film, alongside other former residents of the Charlestown projects, Brenden Brennan and Hickey’s childhood friend David Burns.

Indeed, despite a 107-minute runtime, the film does not linger long on the good times, the flash and wealth that come with large-scale drug running. “I don’t want to show that side of it,” Hickey explained. “I want to show how it really is.” How it really is, it should be noted, is not for the faint of heart. Those who are squeamish may have difficulty enduring the rape, brutal beatings, drug overdoses and sheer volume of blood that soaks this film.

While shocking and controversial, the film is not without purpose: “There’s no sugarcoating it. The message needs to get out,” said Vincent Piro, founder of the H.E.A.T. (Heroin Education Awareness Taskforce) Program and the chief probation officer of the Woburn District Court. Piro has joined forces with Hickey in promoting “Oxy-Morons” with the sole mission of educating youths and their parents about the dangers of opioid use.

For many, Oxycontin and its derivatives serve as a “gateway” to heroin, a drug that has similar effects and is cheaper to obtain, but remains far more deadly. This spiral, so luridly depicted in the film, is what Piro and Hickey hope will extinguish any lingering glamor teens may see in prescription pills. As Hickey put it, “Watching them going from a pill to heroin to everyone being dead – that outweighs the rims and the guns and the money.”

While admittedly “loosely” based on his life, the honesty of Hickey’s film shines through, even in the seemingly impossible moments. Hickey’s character miraculously survives a fall off the roof of a multistory housing project, yet the fact of the matter is still more improbable: Hickey himself survived being thrown off an 80-foot cliff by a rival drug dealer. Despite massive internal injuries and doctors’ firm beliefs that he would never walk again, Hickey made a full recovery, though the incident proved to be a much-needed wake-up call: “It took me falling 80 feet to realize that that wasn’t a good life.”

That life is exactly what Hickey, Piro, and their supporters hope to keep future generations away from. Donations from the likes of the Boston Police Department and the Massachusetts Department of Correction allowed Hickey access to police cars, SWAT equipment and jail cells well beyond the film’s limited budget. This intense realism, especially palpable in the grim walls of Barnstable House of Correction, serves the film’s purpose well. “We made it as dark as possible to deter people from going down this path,” Hickey said.

Hickey, now fully recovered from his addiction to Oxycontin, has harsh words for those on the same track. His film closes with a stinging diatribe against the ingrained racism, codes of silence, and criminal culture that dominate “the towns,” perpetuating the violent lifestyles he has worked so hard to escape. “It has an expiration date,” Hickey explained. “You either go to jail, you get killed, or you expire yourself.”

The film is, for Hickey, education first and entertainment second. Far from being limited to the press, the audience for the movie and panel included a couple who would soon be bringing their teenage son, an Oxycontin user, home from rehab. They praised Hickey and Piro for their work in promoting awareness of the drug’s dangers, expressing hope that the film’s raw brutality would discourage future users.

Such is the ultimate goal for the drug dealer and convict turned indie screenwriter. John Hickey has learned from the past and shared that knowledge with the future, in the hopes that we will not be doomed to repeat it. For Vincent Piro, and others like him, who continue their efforts to keep young adults off of heroin and other deadly drugs, even the smallest victory from “Oxy-Morons” is a step in the right direction: “If you can save even one life, everything he’s done, the film, will be worth it.”

Marlo performs at the showcase on Feb. 26

What if I told you there was a fitness routine that combined core, upper body, flexibility, coordination, cardiovascular and muscular endurance, could burn more than 200 calories in a single workout, and was fun on top of that? Would you feel the same if I told you it was pole dance fitness?

I recently had the chance to attend a workshop at SuperShag Dance Studio, open in Charlestown, Mass., since 2007, which teaches several types of dance, including pole dance fitness. There, I got the chance to chat with one of the instructors, Danielle Mayzes. A Southern girl from Georgia, she has been dancing her entire life, but picked up pole dance fitness while living in Ireland in 2006. Danielle was skeptical at first, but fell in love with pole dance fitness within 10 minutes of attending her first class, and the rest is history. Pole dance fitness, she says, was the first exercise and dance that made her feel well-rounded and confident. A lot of dancers, she says, feel that they are not good at traditional “sports,” and pole dance is both an art form and a sport that she can excel at. Now she teaches in order to break down stereotypes and share that empowered feeling with others.

Of course, the first question on a lot of people’s minds is, Why pole dance? For many of us, pole dance brings to mind images of, well, strippers and seedy nightclubs. However, pole dance fitness has been  rising in popularity and becoming less of a novelty, especially within the past year. There is now a magazine entitled Pole Spin and an American Pole Fitness Association, which just crowned its first champion, a pole fitness instructor who goes simply by Marlo. And it’s not just for women – Dominic Lacasse, also known as the Human Flag, is a Guinness World Record holder and was recently featured on the “Ellen DeGeneres” show for his incredible performances. Search for him on YouTube (believe me, this you have to see).

Marlo performs at the showcase on Feb. 26

At SuperShag, two instructors teach 14 regularly scheduled workshops per week for all levels of experience, offering small class sizes with just eight poles in the studio. Danielle says there are many benefits to pole dance as a form of exercise. It involves your entire body, and is an excellent way to build strength without traditional weight lifting, which can intimidate many women. For dancers and non-dancers alike, it adds an element of new types of dance while being graceful and sexy. The sexy part is definitely a draw for a lot of students. At SuperShag, Danielle teaches just about everyone – she’s had students as young as 18 and as old as 80. The students are predominantly in their 30s and 40s, she says. The students are from all walks of life, including some doctors and lawyers – strong women who already kick ass in a man’s world on a daily basis. The class is designed not only to strengthen and tone your body from head to toe, but also to instill a confidence in yourself that will carry over into other aspects of your life.

Yet I was feeling anything but confident when I realized my trial workshop was being taught by the Pole Fitness Champion herself, Marlo, who was in town for the second annual SuperShag’s New England Pole Dance Showcase, held at Boston’s Revolution Rock Bar the night before. Marlo usually teaches in New York at Body and Pole Fitness. She has been dancing for 20 years, and got into pole dancing about three-and-a-half years ago out of curiosity when a friend told her about a competition, which she entered and won. Marlo describes pole fitness as the “optimal sport – sexy and athletic, animalistic, challenging – and you get to booty shake!” Pole fitness has given her “amazing opportunities to travel, teach and perform, and gives women a reason not to be afraid of being physically strong,” she says. Marlo makes it look effortless, sometimes appearing to actually float around the pole. My bruised knee and aching back will testify that none of this is as easy as she makes it look, but Marlo glides around the room, setting everyone at ease with jokes and showing students correct form as they practice their spins.

I took a space in the second row; normally I’m not a shy person, but even I was nervous about giving it a try in front of others. My space in the back gave me a chance to scope out how the other attendees were doing. In front of me was Philip Deal, a dancer and yoga instructor who was taking his first formal pole fitness class. Philip likes to keep up with the latest trends, and enjoys the athleticism of pole fitness. “It pushes you physically like no other challenge,” he says, and calls pole fitness “one of the best kept secrets in the fitness industry” that everyone will soon be getting into. He plans to incorporate pole fitness into his classes as well, giving his students quite the workout judging by all the whirling around I witnessed that morning.

Lesley Lane on the other hand, another student in the workshop, was no first-timer. She had actually performed in the student portion of the showcase. Like other stories I heard, she got into pole fitness through a love of dance and sheer curiosity, and was instantly hooked. She describes pole fitness as a fun way to focus her workouts, build strength, to move her body and enjoy it, and to feel sexy. Lesley says she chooses who to share her hobby with carefully – some people can’t handle it (like her mom, she says!) — but she also sees it as an opportunity to educate if she can.

Overall, the pole dance class was a great opportunity to try something new. Days later, my still-aching body is a testament to the truth that it is, in fact, an entire body workout. Once I got over my initial shyness, I had a blast trying to do a fireman spin down the pole, and getting pointers from my lingerie-clad classmates on where my arms and legs should be. I would definitely recommend giving it a try on your own, or if you like, SuperShag can host a bachelorette party, birthday party, or girl’s night out. You can also check SuperShag’s website to order your own pole! I’m glad I put my doubts to the side for a morning and took the opportunity to let people show me what pole dance fitness could be about, in the right light. And yes, I even feel a tiny bit sexier already.

It appears Hollywood has a big crush on Boston nowadays, with a slew of movies being filmed in Boston or even about the city popping up more and more regular than ever before. “The Town” is just another example of that love affair.

The film is directed, co written and starred by the golden boy of Boston himself, Ben Affleck. The movie takes place and was filmed in Charlestown and revolves around a crew of bank robbers. Doug MacRay (Affleck) is the leader of the pack, which also includes his best friend Jem (Jeremy Renner).

Doug’s life changes when he falls in love with bank manager Claire Kessey (Rebecca Hall) after robbing her bank and briefly keeping her hostage. Unbeknown to Claire, she carries on a relationship with a man that has caused her much strife. Doug soon must choose between the woman he loves and his friends when he wants to leave the town for good.

Affleck’s directing shines in his second film, proving “Gone Baby Gone” was more than a stroke of luck. Affleck perfectly balances between the pristine historical beauty and the Irish grit of Boston.

His directing is certainly better than his writing (and sometimes his acting). The movie has a perfect pace to it that keeps the viewers entertained.

Affleck is strong as Doug MacRay. It’s obvious that Doug doesn’t belong in Charlestown and could do way better for himself than being a bank robber but doesn’t know how to cut ties with his family of criminals. His romance with Claire, while a little far fetch, comes off as endearing and genuine. Much of that can be accredited to Hall who shines in the role as Claire. Hall brings a mix of fragility and strength that is hard to find in Hollywood.

Jon Hamm is believable as the brooding FBI agent wanting to pin down the bad guys. Blake Lively leaves the Upper East Side and gossip girl to play Affleck’s old flame and looks ridiculous in the oversize hoop earrings, overdone blue eye shadow grouped with a bad Boston accent.

The breakout performance belongs to Renner, who intertwines a harsh exterior and a devil may care attitude with a humor that makes you like a character that can scare you to death. Every scene Renner is in belongs to him, and the viewer tends to pay more attention than any other actor, including Affleck.

The only thing the movie is really lacking is a powerful ending. As the movie creeps closer and closer to the end, the viewer keeps waiting to be smacked in the face with a cathartic surprise that never comes. This does work a bit in the film’s favor, because it leaves the viewer wanting for more, but we think that a commanding ending would have made this overall entertaining movie a more compelling piece of cinema.

Tangierino Moroccan Chop House and Tapas Bar is the answer to the question, “Are there any romantic restaurants in the Boston area?” The answer is yes, and it’s located at 83 Main St. in Charlestown.

Arriving for an early Sunday dinner during Restaurant Week, the dimly lit, ornately decorated restaurant exudes sensuality and exotic feelings. It is truly a picture postcard right out of Morocco. Beautifully draped fabrics hang in canopy-style over secluded booth areas, as a water fountain relaxingly flows and the dark ambers, burgundys and browns completely envelop your senses. Needless to say, I couldn’t get over encountering this type of extravagance, this over-the-top romance, here in Boston. I just couldn’t, because honestly I hadn’t seen it anywhere, until now.

Our waiter took our drink orders and brought over rose water to wash our hands as he explained it was a Moroccan tradition. Rose water, “mahward” in Arabic, translates literally to rose water and is heady and light. The scent of sweet, fresh roses lingers on your hands, near the table and in your nose well into the first course.

My first course was a refreshing and simple mixed greens salad with blood oranges, candied walnuts, mixed greens, cucumbers and an almost too-tart olive oil vinaigrette. The salad was a nice way to start an early dinner on a muggy, almost unbearable summer day.

For my entree, I ordered the Couscous Royale, served in a traditional tagine. A tagine resembles a casserole dish and is used in North African cooking, most commonly in Morocco of course. It consists of two pieces, a plate-like bottom and a cone-shaped lid which fits precisely over the bottom part to preserve hot food. The bottom plate is used as the serving dish as well. This tagine consisted of the best braised lamb shank I’ve had in quite some time, seasoned to Moroccan perfection and cooked so perfectly I didn’t need to use my knife once. It was served over a hearty seven vegetable couscous with tomatoes, chickpeas, cumin and other spices that added to the authentic taste, not to mention the atmosphere. It also came with Merguez, Moroccan spiced ground lamb wrapped in phyllo dough, smoked eggplant, and Kalamata olives, which was nothing short of delicious.

My dining partner ordered the Almond Crusted Trout served over Moroccan risotto with summer squash, baby green peas and caramelized onions. She was hesitant having never had a dish “almond-crusted” but I encouraged her to be courageous and try something new because anything nut-crusted is usually wonderful. she enjoyed the fresh fish and the risotto was just the right consistency and texture.

For dessert, we ordered tiramisu and a lemon meringue tart. The portion of tiramisu was tremendous and amazingly delicious, something you would expect to find in the North End. The lemon meringue tart’s meringue wasn’t all that stiff and was a bit too sweet for my liking. However, it complemented the cheek-sucking tartness of the lemon filling, a recurring theme here at Tangierino.

Overall the meal, the service and the incomparable decor left me in another world. I felt that I had taken a quick, inexpensive journey to Casablanca and was rewarded with quality Moroccan food. It was one of the most romantic restaurants I’ve ever been to.