Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 26 November 2025 - 4 December 2024

Big wave of movies for Thanksgiving!

• Zootopia 2, which appears to add a reptilian underclass below the predator and prey animals of the first, opens at The Capitol Theatre, Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture (Imax 2D), West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D & Spanish dubs), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Xenon 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Also opening wide is Eternity, a riff on Defending Your Life with Elizabeth Olsen as a woman who died soon after her second husband (Miles Teller), only to be forced to choose between him and her first husband (Callum Turner) in terms of her companion until the heat death of the universe. It plays at the Somerville, the Coolidge, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.
  
  There's also Hamnet, the new film from Chloe Zhao, starring Jessie Buckley as Agnes Shakespeare and Paul Mescal as Will in a story about how their son dying young inspired Hamlet. It's at the Coolidge, Boston Common, Kendall Square, and Assembly Row, expanding wider next week.
  
  The Thing with Feathers opens Thursday at Boston Common, with Benedict Cumberbatch as a widowed father whose grief manifests itself in an odd way.
  
  National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation plays Arsenal Yards Friday to Sunday (and the Seaport on Sunday). There's a mystery preview at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Monday. Fantasy romance 100 Nights of Hero has a preview at Boston Common on Tuesday, and there's one for drawing-room spoof Fackham Hall at Boston Common on Wednesday. K-pop concert/doc Monsta X: Connect X plays Boston Common on Wednesday, while The Doors: When You're Strange plays there on Thursday. Wedding Crashers also plays Boston Common on Thursday.
• Lots of folks pick up this week's Netflix picture, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which has a somewhat different look as Daniel Craig returns with Benoit Blanc with a new ensemble cast of suspects around him as he tries to solve a locked-room mystery. It's at Landmark Kendall Square (part of their Netflix package), the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, West Newton, CinemaSalem (starting Friday), and the Seaport.
  
  The Tuesday Retro Replay series for December kicks off with Gremlins, one of three "holiday essentials".
• In addition to the new releases - including a "Shakespeare re-imagined" show of Hamnet on Sunday with a panel discussion - The Coolidge Corner Theatre continues to celebrate Ethan Hawke with Training Day on Wednesday, Boyhood on Sunday afternoon, sold-out presentations of Blue Moon and an award ceremony Wednesday the 3rd (no shows on the other 5 screens that day).
  
  Midnights this weekend wrap up the M. Night Shyamalan with The Visit on Friday and Trap on Saturday. There are kids' matinees of Where the Wild Things Are on Saturday & Sunday, a Big Screen Classics show of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World on Monday, a sold-out screening of Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie with Q&A, Nimona with author ND Stevenson on Thursday the 4th, with Carol as the cult classic that night.
• Apple Fresh Pond opens Telugu-language Andhra King Taluka, whose description reads like an obsessed-fan thriller but which may not be quite so intense, on Wednesday. Hindi-language thriller Tere Ishk Mein opens there (plus Causeway Street and South Bay) Friday, while Telugu-language action comedy Revolver Rita opens at Causeway Street on Friday (with a preview late Thursday), while Hindi-language drama Gustaakh Ishq opens at Boston Common. Telugu-language fantasy adventure Akhanda 2 - Thaandavam opens at Fresh Pond next Thursday the 4th.
  
  There's an early-access event for Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution at Boston Common (Imax Laser), Assembly Row (Imax Laser) on Wednesday. Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc hangs on at Boston Common.
• The Brattle Theatre has a big "Give Thanks for Chicago" series through the holiday weekend and beyond: The Blues Brothers (35mm) & Ferris Bueller's Day Off on Wednesday; Home Alone & Risky Business on Thursday; They Live & Josie and the Pussycats, both on 35mm, early Friday and Child's Play & Poltergeist III (35mm) later Friday; The Untouchables & The Fugitive, both on 35mm, on Saturday; Call Northside 777 early Sunday; About Last Night… (35mm) & Love Jones Sunday; Cooley High on Monday; Candyman '21 later on Monday; Go Fish on Tuesday; High Fidelity on Wednesday the 3rd; and Jupiter Ascending on 35mm later that night. There's also a Grrl Haus Cinema show on Thursday, focused on "Suspense, Horror, and Camp!"
• The Seaport Alamo has a Greta Gerwig's Little Women Saturday afternoon, a Christmas Vacation movie party on Sunday, the director's cut of Brazil on Monday, Lethal Weapon on Tuesday, and Elf movie party on Wednesday, and a preview of No Other Choice with Park Chan-wook doing a live-streamed Q&A afterward later that night.
• The Somerville Theatre is about to give the main room over to The Slutcracker, and also has a couple screenings of Hundreds of Beavers on Wednesday.
• The Harvard Film Archive is mostly dark for the holiday, but continues their Gore Vidal series with matinees of Ben-Hur on Saturday (with an introduction by Leslie Morris) & Sunday and Myra Breckinridge on Monday.
• The New England Aquarium shows Finding Nemo on the giant screen Saturday night.
• The Regent Theatre has You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine on Wednesday the 3rd, with filmmaker Flora Prine (also John's widow) on hand for a Q&A.
• The Museum of Fine Arts wraps its "Cozy Crime" series with 8 Women on Thursday the 4th.
• The Museum of Science has Wicked: For Good on Fridays and Saturdays into December.
• The Lexington Venue has its last show of Nuremberg on Wednesday, keeping Wicked and Jay Kelly. There's a second weekend of matinees for documentary The Nutcracker at Wethersfield on Saturday & Sunday mornings, and the theater is closed Monday & Tuesday.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Wake Up Dead Man and Zootopia 2, continuing Rental Family, Sentimental Value, Wicked: For Good (double feature with the first on Friday), and Nuremberg. Smoke Signals plays Thanksgiving (Thursday), and there's a Producer's Circle rough cut presentation of documentary Nine a week later, on Thursday the 4th.
  
  Cinema Salem opens Zootopia 2 on Wednesday, with The Maltese Falcon for the Wednesday classic and a Weirdo Wednesday show on the other screens, and then has the Disney movie, Wake Up Dead Man, Wicked: For Good, and Rental Family from Friday to Monday. Friday's Night Light show is Society, and the Wednesday classic on the 3rd is The Spirit of St. Louis (with Weirdo Wednesday down the hall).
  
  The Liberty Tree Mall AMC in Danvers opens Aftershock: The Nicole Bell Story on Friday; which appears to be a TV miniseries cut into a feature film.

Almost (but not quite) tempted to forgo heading north for Thanksgiving to get more movie-seeing time in, since I'd like to see Zootopia, Wake Up Dead Man, Hamnet, Rental Family, and The Thing with Feathers among the new releases (and maybe one or two of the Indian ones), a fair chunk of the Chicago movies at the Brattle, and I am torn on Monday night between liking gender-bending stuff (Myra Breckinridge) and especially wanting to see Master and Commander again on the big screen since the 4K is just not coming back into stock fast enough.

(Follow my my Letterboxd page for what I do get to)

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 21 November 2025 - 25 November 2024

One of the all-time great bits of counterprogramming going on in theaters this weekend!

• A year after breaking for intermission, Wicked: For Good, covering the second half of the play, hits most of the theaters and almost all the premium screens: It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond (including 3D), the Museum of Science (Omnimax Friday/Saturday), Jordan's Furniture (Imax), West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & XL 2D/3D & RealD 3D), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), Landmark Kendall Square (including RealD 3D), the Seaport (including Dolby Atmos), South Bay (including Imax Xenon 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  For those who do not particularly care for nuanced takes on people previously presented as simple villains, there is Sisu: Road to Revenge, which moves the action to after World War II and has its relentless Finnish antihero (Jorma Tommila) looking to settle a score with the Soviet officer who killed his family (Stephen Lang). It is, supposedly, even more nuts than its satisfyingly violent predecessor. It plays Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  Also opening is Rental Family, which stars Brendan Fraser as a North American actor working in Japan who is starting to see roles dry up and signs up with an agency that has people fill gaps in social situations. First challenge: Posing as the absent father of a little girl who does not know he is not her real dad. It's at the Coolidge, the Capitol, Fresh Pond, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  There's also Rebuilding at Boston Common, starring Josh O'Connor as a farmer whose home has been erased by wildfires, bonding with others in similar situations, including his ex-wife and daughter. Writer/director Max Walker-Silverman also did the pretty darn good A Love Song.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre gets a 35mm print of Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach's latest which stars George Clooney as a movie star on a European press tour with the manager who has been the greatest constant in his life (Adam Sandler) in tow. Interesting combination there, with Laura Dern in the mix as well. It's also at the Lexington Venue and Kendall Square (eligible for the Netflix discount package).
  
  The Coolidge's "M. Night after Midnight" series features Signs on Friday and Old on Saturday. The week's Coolidge Award Ethan Hawke film is Before Sunrise on Sunday afternoon; there's an encore of last month's Cinema Masala show of Diwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (it sold out!), and Tuesday features both a Noirvember show of The Big Heat with Alex Kittle leading discussion afterward and two presentations of It Was Just an Accident with famed Iranian director Jafar Pahani on hand (both currently listed as sold out).
• Apple Fresh Pond opens Hindi war drama 120 Bahadur, Hindi comedy Mastiii 4. Malayalam-language film Eko plays Saturday afternoon (and appears to have a more substantial release at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers) while Telugu-language drama Vilayath Budha plays Sunday afternoon. Held over is Hindi-language romantic comedy De De Pyaar De 2.
  
  Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc continues at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
• The Brattle Theatre starts the weekend with a mystery title for the Friday Film matinee (a late 70s/early 80s obscurity from someone big in the 1970s, with the original release print kind of beat up).
  
  They also have two new releases playing through Tuesday: Peter Hujar's Day (35mm), the new film from Ira Sachs, with Ben Whishaw as the title character, a photographer describing his day to a friend played by Rebecca Hall. Also opening is The Ice Tower, a French film that blurs the line between reality and fantasy as a teenage runaway hides out on the set of an adaptation of The Snow Queen and is transfixed by its imperious star. Clara Pacini and Marion Cotillard star.
  
  There are also a couple one-offs: Explanation for Everything, playing Sunday afternoon, is a Hungarian film where a teenager's crush sets off a domino effect that becomes a national scandal; director Gábor Reisz will be on-hand for a Q&A. Monday evening, they have a free Elements of Cinema screening of The Crucible on 35mm film with post-film Q&A.
• The Seaport Alamo has a sold-out preview of Wake Up Dead Man with streamed Q&A on Sunday, so I guess I'm just reminding folks who already have their tickets. On Monday, they have a couple movies that are good and out there: Branded to Kill, one of Seijun Suzuki's best, plays at 7pm, and Reflection in a Dead Diamond, a tribute to 1960s spy-fi by Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani in their always-eye-popping style, plays at 10pm. There's also a matinee of Trains, Places & Automobiles on Tuesday.
• On top of opening Wicked: For Good, Rental Family, and Sentimental Value, The Capitol Theatre has Capitol 100 screenings of of Pulp Fiction (Friday), Titanic (Saturday), Legally Blonde (Sunday), Moneyball (Monday), and the series-capping Casablanca on Tuesday.
  
  The Somerville Theatre continues playing Bugonia on 35mm film.
• The Harvard Film Archive has more "Columbia 101: The Rarities": Bitter Victory and The Walking Hills (35mm) on Friday, The Killer That Stalked New York and The Glass Wall (35mm) on Saturday; and Address Unknown (35mm) and Gunman's Walk on Sunday. They also have a rescheduled matinee of Hong Sang-soo's By the Stream on Saturday, plus a 16mm program of experimental films by Jordan Belson curated by Raymond Foye on Monday.
• The Museum of Science adds "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" to its 4D offerings starting Saturday (admission to the exhibit halls required), and brings back "Deep Sky" as part of the Omnimax rotation, also showing Wicked: For Good on Fridays and Saturdays into December.
• Joe's Free Films shows two presentations of Inundation District with director David Abel on-hand this weekend - one at 15 Necco Street in Fort Point Friday afternoon (I think it's the first time actually in the reclaimed area), and one at The Foundry in Cambridge on Sunday afternoon.
• Movies at MIT has Legally Blonde in 26-100 on Friday & Saturday; remember to give them a head's up if you're not part of the MIT community.
• The Lexington Venue is closed Monday but ope Tuesday with Wicked, Nuremberg (no show Sunday), and Jay Kelly (no show Sunday). Documentary The Nutcracker at Wethersfield, about New York Ballet dancers putting the show on outside during Covid quarantine, plays Saturday & Sunday mornings.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Rental Family, Sentimental Value, and Wicked: For Good (double feature with the first on Saturday), continuing It Was Just an Accident, Nuremberg, and Blue Moon.
  
  Cinema Salem has Wicked: For Good, Rental Family, Nuremberg, and Bugonia from Friday to Monday. 2021's Black Friday (with a ton of fun folks in the cast) plays Friday night with director Casey Tebo on hand for a Q&A; there's also an open-crafting matinee of Addams Family Values on Saturday.

Is there time to catch up with Nuremberg and Train Dreams, see Jay Kelly on film, catch the two new ones at the Brattle, plus Diwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Sisu 2, Rebuildng, and maybe Rental Family before the next big wave of new releases hits on Wednesday? Looks tight! (Follow my my Letterboxd page for what I do get to)

Film Rolls Season 2, Round 04: Modesty Blaise and Maybe It's Love

These come quicker when there's no local baseball (and you're not picking up the Fox and/or ESPN services for just a week) and theatrical offerings are thin/the same old Halloween stuff!

So, just before Halloween, Dale rolled an 11 and jumps into a "western" block, landing on Modesty Blaise. Fun fact: This Blu-ray replaces a DVD that was never watched, whose age is pretty easily determined because it's one of several in brightly-colored cases that Fox released to capitalize on the popularity of Austin Powers!

Then two days later, Centipede rolls a 13 and gets to the very end of the first Chinese block and Maybe It's Love. I'm not going to lie, it threw me to see the Shaw Brothers logo before something that was not a genre film, whether it be martial-arts action or horror. These days, you probably only see a Shaw Brothers logo (updated and digitally animated for the twenty-first century) in front of movies made by their associated TV station (TVB, I think, although maybe it's ATV), ironically more likely to be this sort of movie than the kung fu and horror most folks know them for.

So, how did that work out?

Modesty Blaise

* * ¼ (out of four)

Seen 30 October 2025 in Jay's Living Room (off the shelf, Kino Lorber Blu-ray)

Where to stream it (when available), or buy the disc (used) at Amazon

One reason that I'm much more fond of the first Austin Powers movie than is sequels is that there's something more akin to a real movie under the silliness, and in fact it's probably got more going on than the movies it sends up, a list that includes Modesty Blaise. This is a thin little flick, which may or may not bear much resemblance to the adventure strip which inspired it - I've only occasionally flipped through collections at the comic shop - if only because it's full of Swinging Sixties color rather than the strip's strong black lines.

Its coolness may peak with its first scene, with Monica Zitti's Modesty at ease in her penthouse apartment, bantering idly with her Chinese butler. It's clearly her space rather than that of a mistress, as one might have assumed it to be at the time, and it says her flighty mien might be deceptive. Once she's out of that room and talking with various officials, accomplices, and villains, Vitti and the filmmakers are seldom able to imply or demonstrate that her breezy attitude comes from being so capable that she seldom has to break a sweat; people know who she is and prior adventures are name-checked, but she never feels formidable. Vitti is saying the lines but not adding subtext to them, and it's the sort of cliff-hanging adventure where escaping one scrape puts you in another as opposed to something where one sees Modesty's skills as a master thief even in "here's how the heist went down" retrospect.

Vitti's not bad, really, although it feels like the filmmakers are either reluctant to let her carry the movie or didn't have a completed script at filmmaking, because there is a whole mess of narration from older men explaining to each other what's going on. Dirk Bogarde doesn't quite land as arch-nemesis Gabriel; the take seems consciously unconventional, the super-villain who's kind of a pleasant guy without being an interesting villain. There's no spark between him and Rossella Falk as his dominatrix-adjacent lieutenant, and there seems to be some sort of friction over Bogarde's wig; in the same way Gene Hackman later wouldn't want to be bald throughout Superman: The Movie, Bogarde seemingly makes a point of showing that he hasn't gone gray by ripping it off. Terence Stamp could probably have absolutely walked off with the movie if he wanted to, but he politely hovers just below stealing scenes, like he recognizes that it would be unseemly to overshadow the title character.

It never quite comes together, though; the stakes seem oddly low-key for all this effort, and there's only one really nifty heist sequence. It's a gorgeous-looking movie, at least - you can't go very far wrong putting Monica Vitti in nice outfits, and for the most part, the colorful clothing, locations, and ambiance of the late 1960s looks fashionable - a fashion firmly in the past, but nice aesthetically - rather than garish, and there's much less "oh my, she's a woman but somehow competent!" than one might fear. It's just good enough to still get watched 60 years later, when a lot of things trying to ride the combined waves of James Bond and rock & roll have faded to justified obscurity, and not entirely because the folks in the cast stayed famous.

Kwai Ching (Maybe It's Love)

* * ½ (out of four)

Seen 1 November 2025 in Jay's Living Room (off the shelf, Kani Blu-ray)

Not currently streaming (buy the disc at Amazon)

I mention a little surprise at seeing the Shaw Brothers logo before this film in the introduction, while the credits had me raising my eyebrows because of few Hong Kong movies I've seen directed by women, especially in this period. Angie Chen On-Kei does not appear to have a particularly distinguished career as a writer-director during the 1980s, and there's a big hole in her career on IMDB and HKMDB that was apparently spent making commercials. Is she as unusual as she seems, or is this just an example of how there's good infrastructure for importing Hong Kong action, in part because there's not a whole lot else like it, but not so much romantic comedies or other pictures targeted at women? Kani's release of this film is one of the few of its ilk I've seen; is it among the best or just the most readily available?

It's a sort of screwball take on Rear Window, at least to start: 12-year-old "Marble" Shu Ker-Ying (Chui Hoh-Ying), handicapped at the hands of her ne'er-do-well father and now being raised by her grandmother (Mok Chui-Jan), keeps going to the police, claiming that she's seen a woman be murdered, although she proves to be mistaken. Not that there's not something going on, occasionally; what's a girl her age to think when she sees gwailo actor Martin (Ronnie) and his wife (Lau Siu-Pool) engaging in some kinky sex through her binoculars, for example? Up on the bluff, a rich man (Stuart Ong) has installed his mistress Rita (Cherie Chung Cho-Hung) in a nice house (which Marble's grandmother occasionally cleans), although his wife (Chan Sze-Kai) occasionally comes poking around. Postman Yau Ju (Kent Tong Chun-Yip) also takes an interest, although he's generally a playboy, also carrying on with Lin (Elaine Jin), the young wife of shopkeeper Wang (Ku Feng), who often seems frustrated and ready to return to the mainland.

There's potential in the screenplay; writer Lillian Lee Pik-Wah is a noted novelist whose name might be familiar from Farewell, My Concubine and Dumplings, and one can see that she's doing something interesting most of the time. Marble and Rita are both outsiders, the one ostracized by the other kids for her handicap and the other for trading on her body. They don't exactly become a found family with Yao Ju (who dreams of being an actor or stuntman, showing his kung fu moves off to the neighborhood kids), but the audience can see how they're in opposite ends of the same boat anyway. There's something really solid in how Marble, who grew up in an abusive household and is permanently scarred from it, has even more difficulty telling sex from violence than the average adolescent and is determined to watch out for it and sound the alarm.

It's a solid foundation to build on, but Chen's first feature is a bit rough; it's got a few very nice scenes but has a bit of trouble establishing a rhythm at times, and the eventual hard turn when it turns out Marble may have seen something after all is wobbly as heck. That's the problem with a lot of takes on Rear Window - it looks very simple in how methodical it is but that's because Hitchcock was a genius and most of the rest of the folks who try to cover the same ground aren't - and Chen doesn't quite land how the last act combines real danger and farce as the violence and willingness to kill this kid bump up against how she is right about the what but wrong about the how in screwball fashion. It's a fun mystery when it's untangled but the audience isn't quite in a place to enjoy that.

Chen doesn't necessarily have a whole lot to work with; there's something about it that seems short on resources, even beyond how it's very much not taking place in an upper-class neighborhood. Young Chui Hoh-Ying proves a very solid center to the movie, despite it being one of just two rules in the databases, but the ensemble around her is shaky, mostly folks who wouldn't have notable careers or whose acting style seems more fit to the studio's period martial arts films. The exception is obviously Cherie Chung, and both she and Chen seem to kind of know it - a scene where she silently but angrily sunbathes to the adults' consternation and adolescent boys' delight doesn't work unless she has movie-star charisma to match her figure, and the way Rita initially toys with Yau Ju or gets frustrated at the locals looking down on her is enhanced by her having that extra bit going on.

Chung and Chen make Maybe It's Love as notable as it is; it's the first Shaw Brothers film directed by a woman and Chung would become a big star who burned bright before retiring relatively young. One wonders what it could have been with just a little more going for it.


Dead heat!

Dale Evans: 20 stars
Centipede: 20 stars

Next entry hopefully coming quick, because i was rolling dice again even before writing this.

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 14 November 2025 - 20 November 2024

You know it's movie season again when the big-name stuff starts bumping into each other.

• Edgar Wright directs a new adaptation of Steven King's The Running Man, supposedly playing closer to the original story than the previous one, with Glen Powell as the man trying to evade killers on camera for life-changing money, Colman Domingo as the master of ceremonies, and Josh Brolin as the executive in charge. It's at the Somerville Theatre, Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture (Imax), Boston Common (including Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport (including Dolby Atmos), South Bay (including Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Now You See Me: Now You Don't (which should have been the title of the second film) has the "Four Horsemen" of the original movie joined by a new generation of stage magicians (whose magic seems to be mostly CGI) to take down a diamond syndicate led by Rosamund Pike with an odd accent. It plays Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema & XL), Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Also opening is Osgood Perkins' third horror movie to be released in just over a year, Keeper, in which a couple (Tatiana Maslany & Rossif Sutherland) find themselves menaced by something haunting their rental cabin. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  Nicolas Cage stars in The Carpenter's Son, a horror film which posits that Jesus must have been a hell of a menace as a young boy with all the powers of God, playing Joseph with FKA Twigs as Mary (or maybe they're a different couple with an all-powerful child hiding in Egypt circa 15 CE). It plays Boston Common. The Common also has one or two shows a day of Muzzle: City of Wolves, with Aaron Eckhart as a K-9 officer out for revenge on his family's attackers, and King Ivory, with James Badge Dale as a cop tracking down fentanyl dealers (Graham Greene and Melissa Leo pick up paychecks).
  
  There's a re-release of Wicked at West Newton, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards ahead of next week's second part, Wicked: For Good; the latter has early-access shows for Amazon Prime members at Boston Common (Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), South Bay (Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), and Arsenal Yards (CWX) Monday; regular early-access at Fresh Pond (3D), Boston Common (Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Causeway Street (RealD 3D), Kendall Square (RealD 3D), South Bay (Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Assembly Row (Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Arsenal Yards (CWX), and Chestnut Hill (RealD 3D) on Wednesday, with double features at Fresh Pond, West Newton, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill on Thursday (mostly early!). There are also Dolby Cinemas early-access previews of Hamnet Sunday at Boston Common and Assembly Row; and a mystery show at Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row Monday.
  
  Musical features include J-Hope Tour: Hope on the Stage at Boston Common, Kendall Square, the Seaport, and Assembly Row Saturday, and Dream Theater Quarantième: Live à Paris at Boston Common on Monday.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre, Boston Common, and Kendall Square open Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier's highly-lauded film about a director (Stellan Skarsgaard) and his actress daughter (Renate Reinsve) who have long been at odds, with an American actress (Elle Fanning) thrown into the middle of their family drama when she takes a part written for the daughter.
  
  It's also last call for Frankenstein on 35mm at the Coolidge, with the last shows on screen #1 on Sunday. The weekend's "M. Night at Midnight" screenings are Unbreakable on Friday and Split on Saturday; they also continue Noirvember with Odds Against Tomorrow (Odie Henderson seminar) on Sunday and Human Desire (Alex Kittle discussion) on Tuesday. Sunday morning's Geothe-Institut German film is high-concept drama What Marielle Knows, in which a daughter develops the ability to read the thoughts of her parents, whose relationship is already nearing a breaking point; Sunday's Science on Screen show of Magnificent Obsession features Harvard's Dr Eric Pierce discussing treatments for blindness; and Thursday features the Thanksgiving Season's first show of Planes, Trains & Automobiles early with Cult Classic Harold and Maude later.
• Landmark Kendall Square opens Taiwanese film Left-Handed Girl (part of their monthly Netflix four-pack), in which a single mother and her daughters move back to the city and clash with her father over his archaic ideas about one daughter being a southpaw.
  
  Another granddaughter/grandfather picture opening at Kendall Square is Trifole, in which a young woman connects with her grandfather in a section of Italy famous for its truffles. It's also at Boston Common.
  
  Tuesday's John Hughes movie at the Kendall is Uncle Buck.
• Apple Fresh Pond opens Hindi-language romantic comedy De De Pyaar De 2, where the couple with a major age gap from the first film (Ajay Devgn & Rakul Preet Singh) meet the younger women's parents for the first time. Also opening is Tamil-language drama Kaantha (for which Fresh Pond also has Telugu-language shows, though it may be the other way around), in which a director and his protege find their relationship becoming tense during the 1950s. Telugu-language thriller ARI (My Name Is Nobody) plays Saturday & Monday. Fresh Pond also holds over Hindi-language courtroom drama Haq; Telugu-language college drama The Girlfriend continues at Causeway Street.
  
  The week's Ghibli Fest entry is The Boy and the Heron, playing Boston Common, Assembly Row Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday (dubbed) and Monday/Tuesday (subtitled). There's a tenth-anniversary "Last Night to Log In event" for anime Overlord on Monday at Boston Common, the Seaport, Assembly Row. Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc continues at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), South Bay, and Assembly Row (including RealD 3D), in both subtitled and dubbed shows across most formats/locations. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, continues at Boston Common.
  
  Filipino family drama Meet, Greet & Bye opens at Boston Common.
• The Brattle Theatre kicks the weekend off with a 35mm print of A Swingin' Summer for the Friday Film Matinee, and the print is apparently degrading quickly enough that it will be retired afterward.
  
  They also serve as home base for Wicked Queer Docs from Friday to Monday, kicking off with A Deeper Love: The Story of Miss Peppermint Friday night, with both director Oriel Pe'er and Miss Peppermint herself on hand.
  
  They also kick off their second Noirvember series - "Neo-Weirdo Noir" - featuring Blade Runner (Final Cut) (Friday), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (35mm matinees Saturday/Sunday), Angel Heart (Sunday), Darkman (35mm Monday), while the Film Noir in the 50s Series continues with The Killing & Sweet Smell of Success on Tuesday on and The Crimson Kimono & Touch of Evil, the former in 35mm, on Thursday. On Wednesday, they host the premiere of The Donn of Tiki, with directors Alex Lamb & Max Well on hand to discuss their documentary about Donn Beach, inventor of the tiki bar and larger-than-life (by his own effort) figure.
• The Seaport Alamo has Glass Onion Friday afternoon, The Lighthouse (movie party Friday, regular show Tuesday), and a set of restored Gumby cartoons (Saturday/Sunday).
• The Capitol Theatre has Capitol 100 screenings of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial Friday night and Terms of Endearment Sunday afternoon. Indie hip-hop thriller Boxcutter plays Wednesday afternoon. There's also a big 4th Wall second anniversary show on Saturday with Mobius Trip, Sawtooth, and All the World's Gems, apparently Sonic the Hedgehog-inspired, and a music video premiere of Adios Fatso's "Gorpo, Not Again!" with special guests Weatherman and State of Nature on Wednesday evening.
  
  The Somerville Theatre has likely their final 70mm show of One Battle After Another on Thursday afternoon, and continues playing Bugonia on 35mm film.
• Boston Turkish Festival's Documentary/Shorts Competition is at Boston University's GSU Auditorium Friday and Sunday, with screenings packed one on top of another both afternoons, somehow overlapping if the schedule is correct.
• The Harvard Film Archive has another weekend packed full of "Columbia 101: The Rarities" shows, mostly on 35mm film: William Castle's Mysterious Intruder Friday evening, Ladies in Retirement later that night and Sunday evening, Gunman's Walk Saturday evening (DCP), Thunderhoof later that night, and a twin bill of Vanity Street and Three Wise Girls (both just over an hour) Monday night. They also have two matinees from the Gore Vial in film series - Suddenly, Last Summer Saturday afternoon (rescheduled from a month ago) and The Best Man Sunday afternoon.,
• The Boston Jewish Film Festival finishes its in-person leg with Fantasy Life at the Somerville on Saturday, plus Disposable Humanity and Mainteance Artist at The Museum of Fine Arts on Sunday, but a number of selections will be available to stream starting Monday.
• The Regent Theatre has a pair of Mid-Week Musical Movies this week: Life on the Other Planet, "the definitive history of the greatest era in Boston Rock", plays on Wednesday with filmmaker Vincent Straggas on hand for post-film discussion with Boston Rock historian Jeffrey Melnick and a number of the subjects; on Thursday, they show a documentary of the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame Inaugural Induction Ceremony with a Q&A and panel discussion afterward.
• The Museum of Science has two free screenings of Prey on the Omnimax screen Saturday as part of their Native American Heritage celebration - I think it's the only time Dan Trachtenberg's first foray into the Predator universe as played the big screen here!
• The Lexington Venue is open all week but Monday with Nuremberg, Blue Moon (no shows Thursday), and Springsteen (ends Sunday). There are free matinee screenings of They Were Expendable on Saturday and Sergeant Rutledge on Sunday.
  
  The West Newton Cinema has the Wicked re-release and continues Train Dreams, It Was Just an Accident ("Behind the Screen" show Sunday), Nuremberg, Bugonia, Nouvelle Vague, Blue Moon, and Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. Short film "The Slowest Stampede on Earth" shows as part of a Turtle Survival Alliance fundraiser on Saturday, and The Florida Project plays Thursday.
  
  Cinema Salem once again has Predator: Badlands, Nuremberg, One Battle After Another, and Bugonia from Friday to Monday. Friday's Night Light show is Into the Void; they've got Rocky Horror with Teseracte Saturday night (Full Body, as always, at Boston Common); and the Wednesday Noirvember lassic is Flamingo Road, with a Weirdo Wednesday show down the hall.
  
  From last week's glut of out-of-town releases, only Grand Prix of Europe remains, at Showcase Dedham, Patriot Hingham, and the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers. Hidden War opens at the Liberty Tree Mall, which also has encores of Angel's Egg on Wednesday & Thursday.

Okay, I just RSVPed for Prey tickets before posting, and also figure to check out The Running Man, The Carpenter's Son, and maybe Left Handed Girl and Triolfe, hopefully fitting more convention noir in among Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Darkman (plus, hopefully, some Columbia rarities).

(Follow my my Letterboxd page for what I do get to)

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 7 November 2025 - 13 November 2024

Looks like Fall movie season is really starting in earnest this week!

• The big release is Predator: Badlands, Dan Trachtenberg's third Predator flick over the past four years and the seventh overall (not counting the crossovers), but each is a pretty fresh start. This one is from the point of view of a young Predator, with Elle Fanning as an android it recovers. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture (Imax 2D), CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D & XL 2D/3D), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Xenon 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser 2D/3D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Also opening is Christy, which features Sydney Sweeney as a boxer who finds that success in the ring does not mean she's not vulnerable to an abusive husband outside it. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  Nuremberg opens at the Coolidge, the Capitol, Fresh Pond, the Lexington Venue, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common, Kendall Square, the Seaport, and Assembly Row; it stars Russell Crowe as Herman Göring, Michael Shannon as the head prosecutor, and Rami Malek as the army psychiatrist trying to figure out what Göring is thinking.
  
  Also opening is Die My Love, with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson joining director Lynne Ramsay as a writer slowly losing her mind and the husband trying to keep things on an even keel. It's at the Coolidge, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  There's also Sarah's Oil, with Zachary Levi helping the kid who has inherited a potentially rich field from folks who would exploit her because she's a young Black girl who is convinced she hears the voice of God. It's at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  Another Sundance '24 selection, I Wish You All the Best, arrives at Boston Common; it follows a non-binary teenager thrown out of their house after coming out to their parents and starting a new life in a new school after moving in with their sister. Also opening at Boston Common is Sanky Panky 4: De Safari, the latest in a series of Dominican comedies with its characters heading to the jungle this time around.
  
  Chicken Run plays 25th anniversary shows Sunday/Wednesday at Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards (Wednesday only); the Rocky IV director's cut plays Boston Common Sunday. There are secret previews at Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, Assembly Row on Monday; non-mystery previews of Muzzle: City of Wolves at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, Assembly Row Tuesday. Musical features include Mary J. Blige: For My Fans at Boston Common, South Bay Saturday; J-Hope Tour: Hope on the Stage at Kendall Square, the Seaport, and Assembly Row Wednesday. The early shows for Keeper on Thursday at Boston Common include an Osgood Perkins triple feature that also includes Longlegs & The Monkey.
• This week's Netflix movie opening at Landmark Kendall Square (and West Newton) is Train Dreams, starring Joel Edgerton as a Pacific Northwest orphan working to expand the railroads in the early 20th Century in what looks to be a striking film from the trailers.
  
  Tuesday's John Hughes film at Kendall Square is Weird Science.
• South Asian films opening at Apple Fresh Pond this week include Hindi-language courtroom drama Haq, Telugu-language college drama The Girlfriend (also at Causeway Street), Telugu-language fantasy-horror Jatadhara, Telugu-language comedy The Great Pre-Wedding Show (through Monday), and Nepali-language drama Jaari 2: Song of Chyabrung (through Sunday).
  
  There's also a week-long celebration of Shah Rukh Khan's 60th birthday with 9pm shows of Devdas (Friday), Main Hoon Na (Saturday), Om Shanti Om (Sunday), Chennai Express (Monday), Dil Se.. (Tuesday), Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (Wednesday), and Jawan (Thursday). Ram Gopal Varma's 1989 Telugu-language thriller Shiva plays Tuesday to Thursday. Baahubali: The Epic continues at Boston Common.
  
  Anime VIRGIN PUNK: Clockwork Girl plays Boston Common Tuesday (subbed) and Thursday (dubbed); the showtime says 94 minutes but IMDB says 35, so there's either a lot of behind-the-scenes footage or a co-feature. The newly-restored Mamoru Oshii feature Angel's Egg has an early-access preview Wednesday at Boston Common (Dolby Cinema). Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc continues at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), South Bay, and Assembly Row (Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), in both subtitled and dubbed shows across most formats/locations. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, continues at Boston Common and South Bay.
• The Brattle Theatre has the first of their two Noirvember programs - Film Noir in the 1950s - with The Asphalt Jungle & Sunset Boulevard on Friday (the latter also has a Saturday matinee), Pickup on South Street Sunday/Monday, a 35mm double feature of Cry Danger & The Prowler Sunday, Clash by Night & Pushover on 35mm Tuesday, and The Night of the Hunter on Wednesday.
  
  There's also an RPM Fest show on Sunday, "Gunvor Nelson: Call & Response: Echo" with panel discussion afterward (Ms. Nelson passed earlier this year), a Crafting show of When Harry Met Sally on Monday, and an advance screening of Peter Hujar's Day with filmmaker Ira Sachs on hand.
• The Seaport Alamo shows Knives Out Friday & Sunday in advance of the new Benoit Blanc. They also have Don't Look Now Friday & Saturday, The Descent Friday & Tuesday, Desperately Seeking Susan Saturday, To LIve and Die in L.A. Saturday, and an early access show of Sentimental Value on Wednesday.
• The Capitol Theatre has Capitol 100 screenings of The Sting on Friday, Saturday Night Fever on Saturday (obviously), The Muppet Movie Sunday afternoon, and Network on Thursday.
  
  The Somerville Theatre continues moving their 35mm print of Bugonia upstairs and downstairs depending on special programming. The big one there is Saturday's Godzillathon, which runs 2pm to 2am and includes the original, the new release of Shin Godzilla, and four from in between. They have a "Silents Please" show with Jeff Rapsis accompanying The Big Parade on Sunday (sort of an Armistice Day tradition), documentary Running Home with subject Michael Wardian and director Brian Truglio on hand for a Q&A on Monday, Raging Bull on Tuesday and The King of Comedy on Wednesday to tie in with Robbie Robertson's posthuman autobiography (Porter Square books will have a table in the lobby), and Radu Jade's metafictional take on Dracula on Thursday (apparently a one-off rather than a first night for the 2025 film).
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre appears to be finished with its 35mm print of Bugonia, but Frankenstein is still playing on 35mm in screen 1 (though maybe not lugging the print upstairs to screen 2). Midnights this month feature M. Night Shamalayan, starting with The Sixth Sense on Friday and a 35mm print of The Happening on Saturday.
  
  There's Cinema Masala seminar on Saturday morning, and then a screening of Amar Akbar Anthony on Sunday afternoon. Monday's Big Screen Classic is a restoration of The Grapes of Wrath and Thursday's is You've Got Mail (with seminar led by UMass Boston's Sarah Keller). Tuesday's Noirvember show is Sudden Fear with post-film discussion. There's also an Open Screen night on Tuesday and Dead Poets Society on Wednesday, the first show of a month-long tribute to Ethan Hawke around his receiving the 2025 Coolidge Award,
• Boston Turkish Festival's Documentary/Shorts Competition moves to Goethe-Institut Boston this weekend, with programs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
• Wicked Queer presents Major! at ArtsEmerson's Paramount Center
Friday night; it's a documentary about Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, one of the black trans women who were at the center of the Stonewall Riot (and who recently passed away).
• The Harvard Film Archive starts a new program, "Columbia 101: The Rarities", celebrating some of the less-known entries in the venerable studio's canon, mostly on 35mm film. This week's selections are Let Us Live (Friday evening), Washington Merry-Go-Round (later Friday night), Address Unknown (Saturday evening), The Brave Bulls (DCP later Saturday night), and a double feature of Under Age & Girls Under 21 Sunday night. Saturday afternoon's student-programmed double feature is Miracle in Milan & Killer of Sheep (free with Harvard ID); there's also a rescheduled presentation of Hong Sang-soo's The Day a Pig Fell into the Well on 35mm film Sunday afternoon, a presentation of Jordan Belson's (mostly) 16mm films led by Raymond Foye on Monday, and a free presentation of films from the current Film Study Center fellow on Thursday evening.
• The Boston Jewish Film Festival continues at the Brattle (Saturday), The Museum of Fine Arts (Sunday), West Newton (Monday/Tuesday), Orchard Cove in Canton(Monday), Arts at the Armory in Somerville (Tuesday), the Coolidge (Wednesday/Thursday). Of special note (to me) is The Stamp Thief at the MFA Sunday morning; I contributed to the Kickstarter and am eager to see the result.
• The Irish Film Festival has a screening of Colin Farrell-narrated documentary From That Small Island - The Story of the Irish at the Capitol this Saturday, with a post-film discussion panel; free tickets available at their site.
• The Taiwan Film Festival of Boston has a special screening of A Chip Odyssey, a feature-length documentary on the birth and growth of Taiwan's semiconductor industry, on Tuesday night. Director Hsiao Chu-Chen and producers Ben Chen & Ben Tsiang will talk afterward.
• The Mid-Week Musical Movie at The Regent Theatre this Wednesday is Finding Lucinda, which follows musician Avery "ISMAY" Hellman as she digs into the history of Lucinda Williams in the places that molded her. Hellman and others will be present with live music and discussion.
• Movies at MIT has Didi in 26-100 on Friday & Saturday; remember to give them a head's up if you're not part of the MIT community.
• The Lexington Venue is open all week but monday with Nuremberg, Blue Moon (no shows Tuesday/Thursday), and Springsteen (no show Tuesday). There's a free screening of documentary A Sunday in Hell, which is about a bicycle race rather than war, on Sunday morning, and four free Veterans' Day screenings on Tuesday - Mister Roberts, Destination Gobi, Stalag 17, and Sahara.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Train Dreams, It Was Just an Accident and Nuremberg, keeping Bugonia, Nouvelle Vague (with a "Behind the Screen" show Sunday), Blue Moon, Frankenstein, and Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. There's a "Director's Spotlight" show of There Was, There Was Not on Friday (although travel-related trouble means filmmaker Emily Mkrtichian will be joining by Zoom rather than in person), plus a second screening on Sunday. There are also matinees of Charlotte's Web and The LEGO Movie: The Second Part on Tuesday and a "Ty Burr's Movie Club" show of Children of Men on Thursday.
  
  Cinema Salem comes back from their post-Halloween nap with Predator: Badlands, Nuremberg, One Battle After Another, and Bugonia Friday to Monday. It being Salem, there's still spooky stuff - the Happenstance Horror Fest has morning and afternoon blocks on Saturday - and they also begin a run of Noirvember Wednesday classics with Angel Face (free Weirdo Wednesday down the hall). On Thursday, they do a big Whodunnit Watch Party with Clue, followed by a quick walking tour and after party.
  
  There's also a whole ton of movies that couldn't find a home in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville but can maybe be reached via buses: British cartoon Grand Prix of Europe at Showcase Woburn, Dedham, Patriot Hingham, the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers; Chinese animated hit Nobody in Danvers; Franco-Japanese animation Little Amélie or the Character of Rain in Danvers; ensemble comedy Lost & Found in Cleveland in Woburn, Danvers; Unexpected Christmas in Danvers; Karen Kingsbury's The Christmas Ring in Danvers; and Argentine drama Belén in Danvers.

Geez, that's a busy week - even after sleeping fast post-Godzillathon, I think I'd normally try to see what I could do with the T to see some of the animated things in Danvers, but Sunday's probably busy with The Stamp Thief and the Brattle's noir, which conflicts with Om Shanti Om (the SRK film I'd most like to catch)! It's a pretty stacked group of new releases, noir, and anime as well. (Follow my my Letterboxd page for what I do get to)

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 31 October 2025 - 6 November 2024

Happy Halloween! It's weird to have it on a Friday because you don't really have new spooky stuff for November, and the studios seem paralyzed as well.

• Boston Common gets a Halloween double feature of Hallow Road & Vincent Must Die; the former is short and the latter has been kicking around for a bit (I didn't love it at Fantasia in 2023), so it's worth putting them together. Thriller Violent Ends opens at South Bay.
  
  British animated family-friendly Frankenstein story Stitch Head opened Wednesday at Boston Common and Arsenal Yards and also plays Fresh Pond, Assembly Row, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Anniversary, starring Diane Lane and Kyle Chandler, also opened Wednesday at Boston Common.
  
  The KPop Demon Hunters sing-along shows are back Friday to Sunday at the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, the Lexington Venue, West Newton, Boston Common (including XL), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards (CWX), and Chestnut Hill. Yeah, AMC and Netflix are co-operating for the first time since Glass Onion, but apparently not for any other fall releases (yet). Sinners re-releases at Boston Common (Imax Laser), South Bay (Imax Xenon), and Assembly Row (Imax Laser).
  
  Jordan's Furniture has the Imax re-issue of Back to the Future through Sunday; it's also playing all week at Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row, but oddly is only showing up on their apps and not Fandango right now.
  
  Bugonia adds the Somerville (35mm), West Newton, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, Chestnut Hill to the Coolidge and Boston Common. The Mastermind adds the Capitol to the Coolidge & Boston Common.
  
  Rocky Horror plays Boston Common Friday (no cast) and Saturday (Full Body). The Twilight series at Boston Common, Causeway Street, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards finishes with Eclipse on Friday, Breaking Dawn Part 1 on Saturday, and Breaking Dawn Part 2 on Sunday. Boston Common has Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Saturday afternoon & Wednesday evening (have they been running these for weeks?). K-Pop concert J-Hope: Hope on the Stage plays Monday at Boston Common (Imax Laser), Assembly Row (Imax Laser); Mary J. Blige: For My Fans plays Boston Common, South Bay Wednesday. There are early-access screenings of Sentimental Value at Boston Common, Kendall Square on Tuesday and Predator: Badlands at Boston Common (Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), South Bay (Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (CWX) on Wednesday. The director's cut of Rocky IV plays Boston Common Wednesday. Thursday early shows include a livestreamed Q&A for Die My Love (the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row); an Imax "fan event" for Predator: Badlands (Boston Common, Assembly Row).
• The second Richard Linklater showbiz movie in as many weeks opens with Nouvelle Vague playing The Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square, West Newton ahead of its Netflix; this one is in French and covers the production of Breathless. A Thursday screening at the Coolidge also includes a discussion with Ericka Knudson, whose Nouvelle Femmes examines the French New Wave from the perspective of its women.
  
  Also opening at the Coolidge, Boston Common is It Was Just an Accident, the new one from Jafar Panahi which actually looks like a solid thriller about ordinary people seeking revenge on government torturers rather than a gimmick to poke a finger in the eye of the government that legally banned him from making films.
  
  Slasher midnights at the Coolidge culminate with John Carpenter's Halloween on Halloween (Friday) and the Rob Zombie sequel Halloween II on 35mm Saturday; both include 35mm short "Mr. Static" as part of the pre-show. There's a special Panorama show of Fairyland with original author Alysia Abbott on Saturday afternoon, while director Nirmal Chander visits on Sunday with his film 6-A Akash Ganga, which examines musician Annapurna Devi's decision to retire and not teach successors through the words of student nityanand Haldipur. Crispin Hellion Glover visits on Monday for a speaking/signing/performance event, and then Noirvember begins with In a Lonely Place on 35mm Tuesday, with Alex Kittle leading discussion afterward. Thursday has Au hasard Balthazar as the Big Screen Classic (I believe director Robert Bresson is a character in Nouvelle Vague) and Donnie Darko as the late-ish Cult Classic.
• The big event for Indian cinema this week is a re-release of RRR director S.S. Rajamouli's Baahubali, edited into a four-hour "epic" cut. It's at Apple Fresh Pond (in Telugu & Hindi), Boston Common (Telugu including Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street (Telugu), the Seaport (Telugu Saturday & Wednesday), South Bay (Telugu). Also opening are Tamil-language thriller Aaryan, about a writer who announces his plans to commit the perfect crime, at Fresh Pond; Malayalam-language horror film Diés Iraé at Fresh Pond; Telugu-language action movie Mass Jathara at Fresh Pond; and Hindi-language drama The Taj Story at Fresh Pond. Hindi-language vampire comedy/adventure Thamma continues at Fresh Pond.
  
  Anime blockbuster Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc loses a few premium screens but continues at Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema 2D), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), and Assembly Row (Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), in both subtitled and dubbed shows across most formats/locations. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, continues at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
• The Brattle Theatre wraps "Halloweek" with a 35mm print of Bram Stoker's Dracula for the Friday Film Matinee. After that, the second leg of IFFBoston's Fall Focus stretches out to basically a whole week with Palestine 36 and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery on Friday; Resurrection, The Love That Remains, Train Dreams, and Sirāt on Saturday; Kontinental '25, A Poet, La Grazia, and Left-Handed Girl on Sunday; Rental Family and No Other Choice on Monday; Is This Thing On? Tuesday; and late addition The Testament of Ann Lee on Wednesday.
• The Seaport Alamo has 1984's The Return of Godzilla Monday to Wednesday (presumably waiting for the KPop Demon Hunters to vacate the screen). Pee-Wee's Big Adventure plays Friday & Thursday; The Goonies is on Tuesday.
• The Capitol Theatre has Capitol 100 screenings of Psycho & Phantasm as a Halloween double feature on Friday, A Hard Day's Night on Saturday, and Love Story on Thursday.
  
  In addition to picking up Bugonia on a 35mm print The Somerville Theatre wraps the Halloween Hullaballoo with Rocky Horror in 35mm with Teseract on Friday (sold out, though). They've also got Warren Miller's Sno-Ciety Wednesday & Thursday.
• The Museum of Science has Coco on the Omnimax screen for Halloween & Day of the Dead on Friday & Saturday, and a Spanish-language screening of "Superhuman Bodies" ("Cuerpo Sobrehumano") on Saturday afternoon.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has Sinners on Friday, The Chords of Change from Boston Turkish Festival's Documentary/Shorts Competition on Saturday, The Thomas Crown Affair in the "Cosy Mysteries" series on Sunday, and a free screening of Nouvelle Vague on Thursday.
• The Harvard Film Archive has one last big push (other than a rescheduled screening) for the Mikio Naruse series: Ginza Cosmetics Friday evening, The Song Lantern later Friday night, Learn from Experience Part I and Part II on Saturday night (separate admissions, I think), The Road I Travel with You & Avalanche Sunday evening (one admission for the short-ish features), The Girl in the Rumor Monday evening, and A Woman's Place later Monday night. All are on 35mm film. Sunday afternoon, they show Hong Sang-soo's Our Sunhi.
• The Regent Theatre has Dalai Lama documentary Wisdom of Happiness Sunday afternoon.
• WBUR's CitySpace is host to short film "All the Empty Rooms" on Monday, with director Josha Seftel and CBS reporter/subject Steve Hartman on-hand as part of a panel discussion afterward.
• Landmark Kendall Square starts a short John Hughes Retro Replay series with Sixteen Candles on Tuesday.
• Boston Jewish Film begins their annual festival on Wenesday with The Most Precious of Cargoes - an animated film by Michel Hazanavicius - at the Coolidge on Wednesday; Hazanavicius has pre-recorded an intro and star Dominique Blanc will be present afterward. On Thursday, they move to the Brattle for the annual "FreshFlix" Short Film Competition, and West Newton for Charles Grodin: Rebel with a Cause, and there's another week and a half after that.
• The Lexington Venue has Blue Moon and Springsteen all week but Monday and the KPop Demon Hunters during the weekend. There's also free screenings of Curse of the Demon on Saturday and "The Red Balloon" on Sunday, the latter including new short film "Pop" from local filmmakers Kate Fitzgerald and Darlene Allen, who will be there for a Q&A. Horror movie Don't Answer plays Tuesday, with star (and local!) Jack Amsler on hand for a Q&A.
  
  The West Newton Cinema has the KPop Demon Hunters through Sunday and picks up Bugonia and Nouvelle Vague. They also hold over Blue Moon, Frankenstein, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, The Mastermind, and Eleanor the Great. The Lego Movie plays Tuesday afternoon (with the sequel next week). Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone also plays Tuesday (no indication on the site that this is going to be a thing) and has documentary Spreadsheet Champions on Wednesday, with a panel discussion including the creators of VisiCalc.
  
  Cinema Salem appears to be taking the actual night of Halloween off (I imagine folks have other options in Salem!), but has a busy weekend otherwise with The Blob (Saturday/Sunday), Bugonia (Saturday/Sunday), Hocus Pocus (Saturday/Sunday), Carpenter's Halloween (Saturday/Sunday), The Exorcist (Saturday), and Universal Monsters: The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, and Frankenstein Saturday; The Mummy, The Wolf Man, and The Bride of Frankenstein Sunday. No listings for the regular Wednesday shows.
  
  Out at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, they open thriller Self-Help and have 3D matinees of ParaNorman all week.

Is Wake Up Dead Man going to have tickets when I show up? Maybe I'll wait. There's a bit of catching up to do - looks like Blue Moon isn't hanging around - and I don't think Return of Godzilla is part of the Somerville's Godzillathon next weekend. Probably do Nouvelle Vague, Resurrection and Baahubali and then see what there's time for in between.

(Follow me on my Letterboxd page to see if I follow through)

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 24 October 2025 - 30 October 2024

For my money, it's the peak of "streamers flood indie theaters for two months because they crave awards-based legitimacy" season!

• The most obvious example? Guillermo del Toro's new Frankenstein, featuring Oscar Isaac as Victor and Jacob Elordi as the Creature, is playing The Coolidge Corner Theatre on 35mm for most shows (check for screen #1) It's also playing at WEst Newton, Kendall Square (part of the October Netflix 4-pack), and the Seaport. By all accounts, both one of the most faithful adaptations and one of del Toro's best!
  
  Also on 35mm at the Coolidge (for all shows on screen #2) is Bugonia, the new from Yorgos Lanthimos. It's an adaptation of Jang Joon-hwan's Save the Green Planet!, with Jesse Plemons as the man who believes the Earth is being invaded by aliens and that an executive played by Emma Stone is one of them. It also plays Boston Common.
  
  From another streamer, sort of (MUBI plays nice with theaters, but the streaming site is their backbone) is The Mastermind, the new one from Kelly Reichardt starring Josh O'Connor as a carpenter turned art thief in 1970s Massachusetts Also at West Newton and Boston Common.
  
  Spooky stuff at the Coolidge includes Rocky Horror at midnight on Friday, the 24-hour 35mm Halloween Marathon at midnight Saturday (kicking off with The Creature from the Black Lagoon in likely-anaglyph 3D and An American Werewolf in London, but you won't know the next nine hours until they run), plus A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night on Sunday afternoon, The Substance on Tuesday, the 2021 Candyman remake with a half hour of shorts by Manual Cinema (whose work is featured in the film and whose The 4th Witch opens at ArtsEmerson the next night), Elvria: Mistress of the Dark for Rewind! (with after-party) Thursday, and then Scary Movie later that night for the cult classic. There's also a kid's show of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Saturday morning, Ed Wood (with Ingrid Stobbe seminar) Monday, and a sold-out preview of It Was Just an Accident also on Monday.
• Regretting You stars Mckenna Grace as a teenager whose mother (Allison Williams) had her when she was roughly her daughter's age, now getting involved with the cutest boy in school just before a fatal auto accident rocks their entire extended family. Director Josh Boone directed The Fault in Our Stars and it's from a novel by Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us). Opening at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  More male-and-boomer coded is Bruce Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, with Jeremy Allen White playing The Boss as he conceives/records Nebraska when Born in the USA seems to be going a bit too well. It opens at Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture (Imax through Sunday), West Newton, Boston Common (including Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby CInema), Arsenal Yards (CWX), and Chestnut Hill. Apropos of nothing, Gaby Hoffman is in this and The Mastermind, despite it seeming like a decade since I've seen her in anything.
  
  Crowdfunded horror movie Shelby Oaks stars Sarah Dunn as a woman looking for her long-lost sister and possibly discovering a monster from their childhood. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row. Extremely fun queer zombie movie Queens of the Dead, which looks at drag night at a gay bar during the outbreak, plays Boston Common. Katy O'Brian stars and George Romero's daughter Tina directs.
  
  Sundance film Last Days has director Justin Lin going back to his indie roots after 15 years being mostly in the Fast & Furious business, featuring Sky Yang as a missionary attempting to convert the residents of a remote island while authorities try to present it from ending in disaster. It's at Causeway Street.
  
  Platform releases starting out at Boston Common this weekend before opening wider include Blue Moon, with Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart, trying to get through former partner Richard Rogers (Andrew Scott) having the biggest hit of his career without him (also at the Capitol, Lexington Venue, and West Newton); Bugonia, and The Mastermind.
  
  British animated family-friendly Frankenstein story Stitch Head has preview shows at Boston Common and Arsenal Yards on Sunday afternoon before opening Wednesday.
  
  Also opening Wednesday at Boston Common: thriller Anniversary, starring Diane Lane and Kyle Chandler.
  
  K-Pop concert/doc TWICE: One in a Mill10n plays Boston Common and Assembly Row Saturday/Sunday, while G-Dragon: Ubermensch plays Boston Common Wednesday/Thursday and Assembly Row Wednesday (Imax Laser); Depeche Mode: M plays Boston Common/South Bay/Assembly Row Tuesday (Imax Laser) to Thursday (regular DCP those days). Arsenal Yards has Carpenter's Halloween Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Tuesday. A remastered ParaNorman plays Boston Common (RealD 3D) Saturday/Sunday/Tuesday, South Bay (RealD 3D) Saturday; There's a mystery preview Monday at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row, and a non-mystery preview of Nuremberg with live-streamed Q&A at South Bay on Monday; Violent Ends also has a preview on Tuesday. Terrifier plays Boston Common Wednesday. The Twilight movies plays Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, starting Wednesday with the original and New Mon on Thursday, and continuing into the weekend.
• The trailers for Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc have been interesting, as they seem to be trying to sell it separately to folks who didn't know Chainsaw Man was a really popular manga & anime and to big fans. Either way, it gets a big opening, playing at Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), and Assembly Row (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), in both subtitled and dubbed shows across most formats/locations. The last big anime hit, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, continues at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  The big guns opened for Diwali last week, but Apple Fresh Pond opened Hindi-language romance Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat on Tuesday with little early fanfare, as did Hindi-language vampire comedy/adventure Thamma (also at Boston Common). Bengladeshi action movie NeelChokro (aka Neel Charkra) plays Saturday & Sunda afternoons, and RRR director S.S. Rajamouli's blockbuster 2-parter Baahubali has been edited into one four-hour "epic" cut playing (at least) Thursday and next Friday in both Telugu and Hindi at Fresh Pond and playing Boston Common in Hindi on Wednesday (Imax Laser), and opening there and South Bay in Telugu on Thursday (including Dolby Cinema at Boston Common).
  
  Tamil-language comedy Dude continues at Fresh Pond; Telugu-language drama K-Ramp continues at Causeway Street; Telugu-language romance Telusu Kada is held over at Causeway Street; Kannada-language adventure Kantara A Legend: Chapter 1 continues at Causeway Street.
  
  Chinese drama Sound of Silence continues at South Bay.
• The Brattle Theatre opens the weekend with Gods and Monsters on 35mm for the Friday Film Matinee, and then jumps into the GlobeDocs Film Festival, with a full slate of feature documentaries (and a local shorts program Sunday morning), all with filmmaker Q&A moderated by Boston Globe journalists.
  
  After that, they begin "Halloweek", which includes German vampires of the 1970s with Jonathan and Lady Dracula on Monday, and Tenderness of the Wolves on Tuesday; a free Elements of Cinema show of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors on Tuesday; a Shudder Triple Feature of Tigers Are Not Afraid, Oddity, and Mandy on Wednesday; and The Crow on Thursday. That's the late show, because Thursday also begins the second leg of IFFBoston's Fall Focus with The Secret Agent.
• The Seaport Alamo has Rocky Horror on Friday, The Lost Boys on Saturday, a Fleischer Halloween Party on Sunday, 28 Days Later on Monday, and Day of the Dead '85 on Tuesday.
• The Capitol Theatre hosts The Arlington International Film Festival on two screens from Friday to Sunday, and pick back up on Capitol 100 screenings (and get spooky) with The Pit and the Pendulum on Thursday.
  
  The Somerville Theatre has One Battle After Another on 70mm Saturday & Sunday afternoon, and return to Halloween Hullaballoo activities with The Omen on Monday, a double feature of Ghostbusters on 70mm film and Re-Animator on 35mm Tuesday, a 35mm double feature of The Witches of Eastwick & Wolf on Wednesday, and another 35mm twin bill of Copycat & The Silence of the Lambs on Thursday.
• The Museum of Science has Can I Get a Witness? with filmmaker Q&A as part of The Boston Asian American Film Festival on Friday Tron: Ares on Saturday.
  
  BAAFF also has virtual programming available through Sunday.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has The Boston Palestine Film Festival shows of A State of Passion on Friday and Happy Holidays on Sunday. The Museum kicks off the Boston Turkish Festival's Documentary/Shorts Competition with One of Those Days When Hemme Dies on Thursday.
• The Harvard Film ArchiveIs a bit less frantic this weekend, but still trying to make up for a little lost time. On Friday, they have two more by Mikio Naruse on 35mm film - Older Brother, Younger Sister at 7pm and Hit and Run at 9pm. Marta Mateus visits with her new film, Fire of Wind, on Saturday and a previous work, "Barbs, Wastelands", on Monday, playing with Manoel de Oliveira's "Bread". Later that evening, the Archive has rescheduled her third curated program, anchored by Robert Bresson's The Trial of Joan of Arc and also including shorts "En rachâchant" and "Saute ma ville". In between, on Sunday, they have I Accuse! on 35mm film as part of "Gore Vidal Goes to the Movies" in the afternoon and Hong Sangsoo's The Woman Who Ran in the evening.
• The Regent Theatre has music documentary Life on the Other Planet on Friday night, with an opening live performance by The Nervous Eaters, one of the bands featured. On Wednesday, they have the Girl Winter Film Tour, six short films of women in winter sports.
• Landmark Kendall Square has Halloween-y Retro replays including the director's cut of Tom Savini's 1990 Night of the Living Dead (Sunday/Monday), the American The Ring (Tuesday), and 28 Days Later (Wednesday).
• Movies at MIT has Rocky Horror in 26-100 on Friday with gag bags on sale and Full Body Cast accompanying (they will, as usual, be at Boston Common on Saturday). Remember to give them a head's up if you're not part of the MIT community.
• Last outdoor movie of the year? Joe's Free Films has Halloweentown on the Rose Kennedy Greenway Friday evening.
• The Lexington Venue has Blue Moon and Springsteen all week but Monday. There's also a free Saturday morning show of Quatermass and the Pit, plus documentary Four Winters with director Julia Mintz on Sunday afternoon.
  
  The West Newton Cinema celebrates what would be Jack Lemmon's 100th birthday with his children and grandchildren this weekend, with Days of Wine and Roses on Friday, The Apartment with post-film reception Saturday afternoon, the Lemmon clan in attendance for Some Like It Hot Saturday evening, and The Odd Couple on Sunday afternoon, introduced by Lemmon's son Chris and Walter Matthau's son Charlie (via Zoom) They also open Blue Moon, Frankenstein, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, and The Mastermind, also keeping Orwell: 2+2=5, Fairyland, A House of Dynamite, and Eleanor the Great. Hotel Transylvania plays Sunday morning, while documentary Death & Taxes plays Tuesday with posto-ffilm discussion.
  
  So much Halloween at Cinema Salem:Black Phone 2 (Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday/Thursday), Ginger Snaps (Friday Night Light), The Lost Boys (Friday to Sunday), Halloween (Friday/Saturday/Wednesday/Thursday), Hocus Pocus (Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday/Thursday), 28 Days Later (Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday), The Exorcist (Sunday), and Universal Monsters: Frankenstein Friday, Bride of Frankenstein Friday, Dracula Friday/Saturday, The Mummy Sunday,. The Blob is the Wednesday Classic plus a Werido Wednesday show.
  
  Out at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, they've got Dream Eater, an "Eli Roth Presents" found footage movie with a filmmaker documenting her boyfriend's violent sleepwalking.

Man, that's a lot, and not a super-obvious place to fit Frankenstein and Bugonia in while they're on 35mm (although I suspect that will be a few weeks at the Coolidge), plus The Mastermind, Last Days, and maybe Blue Moon as potential short-timers, plus at least The Witches of Eastwick among the rep.

(Oh, and follow me on my Letterboxd page)