- I just spent 24 hours straight in the Somerville Theatre a couple weeks ago; what prompts me to camp out there again? James Bond Weekend - they'll be showing the first six Bond movies on their big screen from 35mm prints. You've got Dr. No and From Russia with Love on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon; Goldfinger and Thunderball on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon; and You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty's Secret Service Sunday evening. $10 a pop or $40 for a weekend pass.
- Over at the Brattle, they've got a special engagement of a new British thriller, Kill List. It's by the guy who did Down Terrace (at IFFBoston a couple of years ago; they co-present this run), which was pretty darn nifty, and I've been told that one is best off going in cold. No trailers, no reading reviews, no learning what director Ben Wheatley has up his sleeve.
They've got a couple other special programs this week, as well. Sunday at 1pm, they'll be showing Central Square Detective Agency, a creation of the Charles River Swimming and Diving Team. It's a series of comedy/noir shorts; the first two have been running on local access TV and online; the full set of three will be showing at the Brattle. Folks will be there in person. No guests are scheduled for the DocYard's presentation of Bombay Beach on Monday at 8pm, a documentary on three people living in California's Salton Sea by noted photographer Alma Har'el featuring music by Beirut and Bob Dylan. - If you want to see a couple of the movies nominated for the less-prominent Oscars before the broadcast... Oh. Well, if you want to see a couple of the movies nominated for the less-prominent Oscars after the broadcast, Kendall Square is still running A Separation and both the live-action and animated shorts, but they also pick up In Darkness and Chico & Rita this weekend. The former is Poland's nomination for Foreign Language Film, and tells the story of a thief during World War II and the dozen Jewish refugees he hid in the Lvov city sewers. The latter is an animated love story and musical about two musicians whose paths cross in Havana, New York, and beyond.
Also opening: Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie. In it, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim of Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job get a billion dollars to make the greatest movie ever and blow it on other things. Apparently it's run for five years on Adult Swim, so they've got their fans. - Over at the multiplexes, likely the biggest opening is The Lorax, an adaptation of Dr. Seuss's children's book that looks spiffy from the trailers but seems to have a lot of new characters and storylines bolted onto it's simple environmental message. It's running in both 2D and 3D at the Arlington Capitol, Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including the Imax-branded screen), and Fenway (including the RPX screen); 3D-only at Harvard Square. The furniture stores give it a pass, though.
For the older kids, there's Project X, which is not a remake of the 1987 flick about chimps mistreated by the air force, but a comedy about a house party that balloons completely out of control. It's loosely based on a true story, apparently.
And two-plus weeks after its Valentine's Day debut in New York and L.A., Love opens up in Boston Common. More disambiguation: This is not the meticulously built sci-fi movie by Angels & Airwaves, but an anthology film from Taiwan with four filmmakers each telling a different kind of love story. - The Coolidge shuffles some movies around, opening A Separation and Pina in the screening rooms (A Separation has some screenings in Theater #2 as well, but I don't know if they're 35mm). Pina is in 2D here, though it's still hanging on for a few 3D showings at Boston Common. They've also got a few screenings as part of their Coolidge Award ceremonies for Viggo Mortensen, although the Lord of the Rings marathon on Sunday and award presentation on Monday are sold out (a screening of Eastern Promises at noon on Monday with post-movie Q&A still has seats available).
There are other goodies, too. Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain screens Friday and Saturday at midnight on 35mm, and is as trippy as a very trippy thing. Saturday at midnight, there's the premiere of the first two episodes of web-series Super-Townie, along with some connected short films; creators Paul M McAlarney and Greg LaVoie will attempt to explain themselves afterward. The Talk Cinema screening on Sunday morning is We Have a Pope, which examines the process of papal succession, focusing on the relationship between a hypothetical new Pope and his psychologist. Tuesday night features a preview of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, for which members can RSVP ahead of time. - Three very different-looking films play this weekend at the MFA: Tyrannosaur, the fierce directorial debut of actor Paddy Considine; a new 35mm print of Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert; and Stitched, a documentary on quilters rushing to complete their entries in America's largest quilt show. Apparently competitive quilting is a thing. Tyrannosaur has one final show on Thursday the 8th, although a few different movies are added to the mix on Wednesday the 7th: A new print of Joseph L. Mankiewicz's epic Cleopatra and the documentary A Drummer's Dream.
- Over at the Harvard Film Archive, they are awarding the Geneviève McMillan Award (for a Francophone filmmaker from Africa or of African heritage) to Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, who will be present for several screenings: Smuggler's Songs on Friday, Adhen on Saturday, and Back Home on Sunday. All those are at 7pm; he's not scheduled to appear at the screening of Wesh Wesh Sunday at 5pm.
On Monday the 5th, Ernie Gehr will make his first of two visits to the Archive this month, presenting An Evening of Early Cinema from his collection of 16mm prints. No film is fewer than 100 years old, and while most are very short, the centerpiece is George Méliès's "The Impossible Voyage", which should interest the folks who've seen Hugo over the last few months. There is also a free screening of Deepa Mehta's Water at 2pm on Saturday. - ArtsEmerson features a Portraits of New Orleans series this month, as a tie-in with their upcoming main-stage show Ameriville. It kicks off on Friday with Les Blank's 1978 documentary Always for Pleasure, double-billed with featuertte "The Florentine Collection", which Paul Gailiunas completed after his wife Helen Hill's death. Friday and Saturday also feature Tootie's Last Suit, a documentary on the Mardi Gras Indians in general and Allison "Tootie" Montana (who made impressive costumes for the festival) in particular.
"Gotta Dance" also continues with Saturday and Sunday showings of Footlight Parade, a Warner Brothers backstage musical from 1933 featuring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, and Ruby Keeler. Lloyd Bacon directs, Bubs Berkeley choreographs, and there's pre-Code spiciness! - The Museum of Science is offering Free Film Fridays to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their OMNIMAX theater, which includes both free admission to giant-screen movies every Friday this month and a revival of "New England Time Capsule", a pre-show feature with narration by Leonard Nimoy and music by John Williams that was originally shown on that screen back in 1987.
- The Regent Theatre has one screening this week, Bicycle Dreams on Tuesday the 6th. It documents the Race Across America, one of the most grueling races in the world, if not the toughest.
My plans? I'm going to try and hit Bond, Tyrannosaur, and We Have a Pope. Anything else is a bonus.
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