Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 3 November 2012 - 9 November 2012

Hopefully MoviePass and I have got all of our differences ironed out, because I intend to start using it a lot more starting this weekend. Admittedly, it won't be getting the full, borderline abusive level of exploitation until I get back from vacation in December, because I'm going to be living at the Brattle for the next month.

• Why? Universal's 100th Anniversary, that's why - the good folks at the Brattle are dedicating pretty much the entire month of November to that studio's centennial. It's not quite in chronological order, but this first week's worth is mostly early stuff: All Quiet on the Western Front on Friday and Saturday; a Sunday "Monster Marathon" of Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Mummy, and The Invisible Man; a Dracula double feature on Monday (with the Spanish version in the prime 7:15 slot and the Bela Lugosi version before or after); Traffic in Souls (Universal's first feature) and Where Are My Children? on Wednesday; and an early double feature of The Good Fairy and My Man Godfrey on Thursday. There are also 10pm late shows on Friday (Repo Man) and Saturday (Streets of Fire).
  
  As of right now, only the Wednesday silents listed as digital, with All Quiet, Frankenstein, Bride, and the Draculas new restorations and prints.
  
  There are a few one-off screenings scattered among the Universal series, too. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has a membership drive event Saturday morning that includes a screening of America's Wild Spaces: The Appalachian Trail. Tuesday night is a Balagan show, "Spectral Evidence, a set of four short films examining the way women's bodies are used in politics. And late Thursday night is the Found Footage Festival, a touring show of random VHS tapes people have found.
• It looks like a pretty entertaining set of new releases at the mainstream multiplexes. Flight, for instance, is the new one from Robert Zemeckis, his first live-action movie in years. It stars Denzel Washington as an airline pilot initially hailed as a hero after a spectacular crash only to have further investigation potentially paint a different picture. It plays Somerville, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, and Fenway.
  
  On the other end of the spectrum, experience-wise, is Wu-Tang Clan frontman RZA, whose first movie as writer/director is The Man with the Iron Fists, which mixes a Chinese and Western cast in a tribute to the martial arts films he grew up on. It plays Fenway (including the RPX screen), Boston Common, and Fresh Pond.
  
  And for the kids, there's Wreck-It Ralph, Disney's new CGI-animated feature with John C. Reilly as a character from a 1980s video game who runs off when he gets tired of being the bad guys. I fully admit that I would be all over this even if it didn't appear to have Q*Bert in it. Why isn't there a legit version of Q*Bert on Android? While pondering that, the movie is playing (in both 2D and 3D) at the Arlington Capitol, Fresh Pond, Fenway, and Boston Common.
  
  With a little extra space to fill, Boston Common also picks up The Sessions, which opened at Kendall Square last week. Fresh Pond, meanwhile, opensAmber Alert for 10pm-only shows; it's a found-footage movie following a group of people who think they recognize a car from the news.
• Kendall Square has two movies opening that are pegged for one-week bookings. Holy Motors has been getting rave reviews from the festival circuit, with Denis Lavant as a character who morphs into a new persona from moment to moment (including his character from director Leos Carax's segment in Tokyo!). One week is also all that's initially been allotted to The Loneliest Planet, which played IFFBoston this year, which has a young couple meeting up with a third person on a hike.
  
  Two other movies get more open-ended bookings. The House I Live In is a documentary focused on the negative impact of the war on drugs, while A Late Quartet focuses on the members of a string quartet. That one's got an impressive cast - Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Wallace Shawn, and Imogen Poots.
• The Coolidge opens a couple new movies in the digital rooms that are worth some attention. The Bay is the new movie from Barry Levinson, who is probably the last person you'd expect to be doing a found-footage horror movie. That's what it is, though, and word is that it's a good one, following a nasty outbreak in a harbor town. It splits the screening room with The Big Picture, while the GoldScreen has documentary Love and Other Anxieties, whose director is looking for meaning on the subjects of love and commitment. They also pick up The Perks of Being a Wallflower for a quick one-week run, mostly on screen #2.
  
  The midnight movie this weekend is the original Predator, which plays screen #1 at 11:59 on Friday and Saturday. Apparently, tracking down a 35mm print of one of Schwarzeneggar's most popular movies was surprisingly difficult! Moving from cult classics to "Big Screen Classics", Chinatown plays Monday as part of that series - one of Jack Nicholson's most memorable roles.
• ArtsEmerson pays tribute to silent movies this weekend in two different ways at two different venues. The Bright Screening Room in the Paramount Theater runs two recent movies set in and around that world - The Artist on Friday (9pm) & Saturday (4:30pm) and Hugo on Friday at 6pm & at 1pm Saturday/Sunday; both are presented in 35mm. They will also have a Ciné-Concert at the Cutler Majestic Theatre on Saturday at 7pm, which will feature films by Georges Méliès accompanied by narration and piano accompaniment provided by his great-granddaughter and great-great-grandson.
• The MFA's film program continues showing High Ground, which started on Thursday; it plays at various times on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday. They also have a number co-presentations with the Boston LGBT Film Festival running at the same time: Elliot Loves on Friday, Cloudburst and Question One on Saturday, with a shorts program and Facing Mirrors on Sunday. Wednesday has a short documentary on architecture, "Coast Modern", with director Gavin Froome present for a discussion afterward. An on Thursday the 8th, they have their first screening of the Boston Jewish Film Festival with Melting Away, one of the few Israeli films to tackle transgendered characters.
• The Harvard Film Archive welcomes Filipino filmmaker Kidlat Tahmimik for a retrsopective, Behind the Bamboo Camera with Kidlat Tahimik, highlighting his whimsical but earnest works. The series starts wtih video diary project Why Is Yellow the Middle of the Rainbow? on Friday, continues with a double feature of The Perfumed Nightmare and its even more seldom-seen Who Invented the Yo-Yo? Who Invented the Moon Buggy? on Saturday, and wraps on Sunday with another set of video diaries at 4pm and his sole fiction feature, Turumba, at 7pm. On Monday, they welcome a different guest, as a program of The Animated Art of Caroline Leaf is presented by the Canadian animator herself.
• The Regent Theatre in Arlington has a pair of screenings this week: Gen Silent, a film about the special challenges and isolation of older LGBT people will play with post-film discussion on Sunday; the screening is free and all are welcome. More typical is Charlie Is My Darling, a behind-the-scenes look at the Rolling Stones on tour in Ireland in 1965, recently restored with new interviews added.
• The new Bollywood opening this week is Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana, a comedy in which Kunal Kapoor plays a man returning to his village in Punjab to escape debts in London, reconnecting with his childhood sweetheart (Huma Qureshi) and trying to rediscover the famous recipe that his senile grandfather has forgotten.
• The Arlington Capitol picks up a couple of movies second-run: Paranormal Activity 4 plays Friday to Sunday (no 9:30pm shows during the week there), while Searching for Sugar Man plays afternoons and early evenings.

My plans? Living at the Brattle for as much classic Universal stuff as I can see while also trying to fit in the three new major releases and The Bay, the Cine-Concert (and maybe Hugo again, as I've only ever seen that digitally and in 3D). AND Holy Motors, although I've got no idea when all this is going to happen.