Friday, November 08, 2013

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 8 November - 14 November 2013

Want to see a movie this weekend? Well, it looks like your options are Thor, Thor in 3D, and Thor in IMAX 3D.

  • Seriously, how weird is it that Marvel Comics has become such a cinematic behemoth that a Thor sequel opens unopposed during a competitive season. But it does; Thor: The Dark World brings Chris Hemsworth back as the Norse God of Thunder and part-time superhero who returns to Earth to fight a primal evil played by Christopher Eccleston, with most everybody from the first movie along for the ride. It's in 3D at the Arlington Capitol and both 2D and 3D at Apple, Fenway (including RPX), Boston Common (including Imax), and the SuperLux.

    With a few more screens to fill, Boston Common also opens Dallas Buyer's Club, starring Matthew McConaughey as a Texas electrician who, in 1985, started smuggling HIV drugs into the country when diagnosed with the disease and given weeks to live. They will also have a screenings of Risky Business on Sunday and Wednesday. The Arlington Capitol, meanwhile, also picks up The Motel Life for one 8pm show per day in their smallest room; it follow a pair of brothers (Emile Hirsch & Stephen Dorff) fleeing from a hit and run, with Dakota Fanning and Kris Kristofferson somehow involved. It's scheduled for a one-week run, so you've got seven chances.
  • Aside from Dallas Buyer's Club, Kendall Square has also scheduled a one-week run for Spinning Plates, a documentary about three restaurants - one high-end, one small-town, one just getting started that are all facing tremendous challenges.
  • The Coolidge picks up Blue Is the Warmest Color this week, although it will mostly be playing in the screening room (though with some showtimes in the larger theaters and others in the GoldScreen); it also expands to the Somerville Theatre. They've also got the monthly 35mm screening of The Room at midnight on Friday, leading me to wonder if they have the print shipped to them every month or whether it just lives there.

    But ignore that, because it's Saturday's Midnight movie that you want to see. That'd be Israel's Big Bad Wolves, a dark, nasty, and at time blackly funny work by the makers of Rabies that is absolutely worth your time. It screens as part of the Boston Jewish Film Festival (which has a number of other screenings at the Coolidge from Saturday through Thursday and into next week. There's also a Science-on-Screen presentation of Run Lola Run on Monday, but that's sold out with maybe a few tickets available via a rush line, and the monthly Open Screen on Tuesday..
  • The bulk of the Boston Jewish Film Festival is going on at the Museum of Fine Arts, which has screenings on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. There are also screenings at the ICA on Sunday; West Newton on Sunday, Tuesday; Showcase Patriot Place on Monday; the Brattle on Monday; Cinema Salem on Tuesday; the Museum of Science on Tuesday; AMC Framingham on Wednesday; and the Arlington Capitol on Thursday.

    The MFA also has The Boston Turkish Film Festival's documentary and short features on Friday & Saturday, along with more screenings of Design Is One (Friday) and Diego Star (Sunday). There's also a Black Radical Imagination shorts program on Sunday afternoon, with both curators and some of the filmmakers on hand for discussion afterward.
  • In addition to their BJFF screening, The Brattle Theatre will have their fall Recent Raves series, and it's packed full of good stuff: A double feature of The World's End and This Is the End (35mm) on Friday (with The World's End getting an encore Saturday); a triple feature of Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight (all 35mm) on Saturday; the US cut of The Grandmaster (35mm) on Sunday; and Short Term 12 on Tuesday.

    On Wednesday and Thursday, they have two DocYard screenings with directors in person. Wednesday's Hollow is described as an "interactive documentary" (so it's maybe not surprise that MIT's Open Documentary Lab is co-presenting it) on the residents of a county in West Virginia. Thursday's Medora, on the other hand, is a more conventional film about a small town in Indiana whose fortunes are reflected by their high school basketball team that hasn't won a game in years.

    There's also a special free screening of Heaven's Story (35mm) on Sunday afternoon with director Takahisa Zeze in person, but be warned: It's over four and a half hours long and far from a simple revenge thriller.
  • That screening is presented by a Harvard office (among other folks), and The Harvard Film Archive is also presenting unusual Japanese films with the conclusion of their Shinsuke Ogawa series. The Magino Village Story - Raising Silkworms plays Friday evening, "Nippon": Furuyashiki Village Saturday evening, and Magino Village - A Tale/The Sundial Carved with a Thousand Years of Notches on Sunday (the latter also pushing four hours; good lord, Japan!). There's also more Chris Marker on tap, with Level Five at 9:15pm on Friday, Far From Vietnam Sunday afternoon, and a short-film program Monday evening. They also start Nicolas Rey's visit next weekend early with a screening of The Soviets Plus Electricity on Thursday evening (note that said screening will be in room B-04 rather than the usual location).
  • It's just Bright Lights at Emerson's Paramount Theatre this week (well, in terms of film; plenty of live theater downstairs). Tuesday's event is "Wander, Wonder, Wilderness"; which has filmmaker Paul Turano offering a preview of his video essay and companion interactive project on urban impact on the wild. Thursday's is the second annual Silversonic program, which showcases music videos made by Emerson students and alumni.
  • The Regent Theatre also has a music video program as part of the Glovebox Short Film & Animation Festival. That runs from 2pm to nearly midnight in 35-60 minute chunks that cost $6 a pop, or $30 for the whole day. The Gathr Preview Series screening is also a bit unconventional this week - it's billed as "Filmmaker Magazine's '25 New Faces of Independent Film'", but appears to be short films from three directors, who will be presenting them with the magazine's editor. I think they'll all be there in person, but the page does not make it clear.
  • Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine spent a week at the Somerville, and now it moves to the Arlington Capitol, making room for 12 Years a Slave (along with the aforementioned Blue is the Warmest Color to expand/move into Davis Square.


My plans? Well, not much chance left to see Blue Jasmine, it seems. I'll also hit Thor 2, Dallas Buyer's Club, and try to get to Hotel Life, along with whatever else fits.

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