Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 25 January 2012 - 31 January 2013

Before getting to the stuff opening this weekend, its worth highlighting a couple of other ways to consider giving local theaters some money, as both the Brattle and the Coolidge are running fundraising drives to add DCP projection to their booths. Both are still committed to 35mm, but with studios dropping film even for their catalog, it's becoming sadly necessary, even for repertory engagements. The Brattle's fundraiser is a Kickstarter that also covers the installation of a new HVAC system; the Coolidge's is a Digital Cinema Challenge that is tied to state funds. Both are non-profits, and could really use the help by the end of February.

• But what's playing at the places that already have digital? Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters has been delayed a few months both for a 3D conversion and because Paramount figured Jeremy Renner would be a bigger draw after The Avengers and The Bourne Legacy. It's also got Gemma Arterton, Famke Janssen, and Peter Stormare in a fun-looking story from the guy who did Dead Snow. It's at Somerville (3D only), Fresh Pond (2D & 3D), Boston Common (2D, 3D, and Imax-branded 3D), and Fenway (2D, 3D, and RPX 3D).
  
  As crazy as Hansel & Gretel may seem, it may not be the iffiest proposition this weekend - consider Parker, in which Jason Statham steps into the role of Richard Stark's master thief Parker (previously played under various names by Lee Marvin in Point Blank and Mel Gibson in Payback, among others). This doesn't adapt The Hunter, but another book in which Parker wants the money his partners in crime didn't give him. Jennifer Lopez is his unlikely ally, Michael Chiklis his antagonist. It's at Fenway and Boston Common. So is Movie 43 (also playing Fresh Pond), which crams 14 shorts and a whole mess of stars into 97 minutes.
• The Brattle is having a Monty Python week, with the primary attraction being A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman, based on Chapman's book of the same name, built out of audio clips from Chapman, other Pythons, friends, and colleagues set to animation. It plays all week, with double feature screenings of And Now for Something Completely Different (Saturday), The Life of Brian (Sunday), The Holy Grail (Tuesday), The Meaning of Life (Wednesday), and Yellowbeard (Thursday). Liar's Autobiography is projected digitally; the co-features are listed as 35mm.
  
  In the middle of that is a Monday DocYard screening, Only the Young, which follows three teenagers in a California town that has been hollowed out by foreclosures and isn't close to anything. One of the directors, Jason Tippet, will be there for Q&A after the movie.
• Kendall Square offers up Quartet, Dustin Hoffman's first film as director. It features Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, and Pauline Collins as former opera singers at a home for retired musicians who find old emotions coming out as they plan a benefit performance tied to Verdi's birthday. (Not to be confused with A Late Quartet). They also have a pair of single screenings: Bill W. runs again on Tuesday the 29th, and Sound City, a documentary-with-performances about a California recording studio where many of the greats cut rock albums.
• Things pretty much stay the same at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, aside from Barbara taking back the 9:30pm show from the departing Searching for Sugar Man. The midnight show on Friday and Saturday is John Waters's Female Trouble; there's a Science On Screen presentation of Rushmore (Dr. Steven Scholzman will discus the adolescent brain) on Monday, but it's sold out except for maybe a few seats released that night. The same goes for the Sundance USA screening of The Lifeguard on Thursday the 31st, with director Liz W. Garcia on-hand for a Q&A after her Kristen Bell-starring movie about a girl who retreats back to her hometown when life in the city goes south.
• The Harvard Film Archive continues its Susumu Hani retrospective all weekend, with Hari in person for screenings of Nanami: The Inferno of First Love on Saturday, The Morning Schedule on Sunday, and Children Hand in Hand on Monday (all at 7pm). The series also includes She and He and The Song of Bwana Toshi on Friday and a set of short documentaries on Sunday afternoon.
• ArtsEmerson has a weekend of films about transsexuality in all its various forms: Boys Don't Cry Friday evening, Paris is Burning Friday night and Sunday afternoon, Tomboy Saturday afternoon, XXY Saturday evening, and Transamerica Saturday night. Most play on 35mm, although Boys Don't Cry is projected from a DVD.
• The MFA finishes its January calendar with the rest of The Boston Festival of Films From Iran, including The Iran Job (Friday & Saturday), One. Two. One (Friday), Nessa (Saturday), The Last Step (Saturday & Sunday), Reluctant Bachelor (Sunday), No Men Allowed (Sunday), and Modest Reception (Wedesday & Thursday).
• iMovieCafe is offering an English-subtitled Hindi movie at Fresh Pond this week; Race 2 features Saif Ali Khan moving from South Africa to Turkey to avenge the death of... Well, I guess the folks who didn't survive Race. Abbas & Mustan Alibhai Burmawalla return as directors, and what looks like a pretty A-list cast of Anil Kapoor, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, and Jacqueline Fernandez join them.
• If you want to gear up for the upcoming Boston Sci-Fi Marathon and Film Festival, MIT is hosting their own 34th Annual Science Fiction Marathon on Saturday for $8 in Room 26-100, including Wall-E, Looper, a 50-minute surprise, The Andromeda Strain, and Galaxy Quest. The price goes down to $5 after Looper, pizza orders will be taken after Wall-E for midnight delivery, and all films are listed as 35mm (aside from the surprise, which is 16mm). Not a bad deal, especially if you can blend in with the college kids.

My plans? I've already got a ticket for The Lifeguard. Add Hansel & Gretel, Parker, Movie 43, and Quartet; maybe I can fit Barbara and Amour in as well.