Friday, July 18, 2014

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 18 July - 24 July 2014

There's some good stuff coming out in Boston that I likely won't get a chance to see because I'm out of town. Not complaining too much, though, because I'm going to be binging on crazy movies in Montreal. But for those back home...

  • One that will be playing as part of Fantasia and played IFFBoston as well as a number of other festivals where it got heaped with praise is Richard Linklater's Boyhood, which he filmed over twelve years so that audiences could see its protagonist (and the other characters) grow up without any fakery. Audacious as heck - what happens if the kid who started this at five decides he wants no part of it at nine? - and by all accounts brilliant. It's at Kendall Square and Boston Common. Those two locations, as well as the West Newton Cinema, also open Zach Braff's Wish I Was Here, with the writer/director/star playing an out-of-work actor home-schooling his children as a number of other major life changes occur.

    The one-week booking at the Kendall is Borgman, a nifty-looking film from the Netherlands about a sinister homeless man who insinuates himself into a suburban family, implying some sort of secret history with the wife. The one-day screening is The Endless Summer on Wednesday night, with the classic surf documentary digitally remastered for its fiftieth anniversary.
  • It's a busy week at the multiplexes as well, with three movies opening wide. Planes: Fire & Rescue is Disney's latest spin-off of the Cars franchise, this time with a former racing plane taking up work as a firefighter. It plays in 2D and 3D at the Capitol, Apple, Boston Common, Assembly Row, and Fenway. Those same theaters open another sequel, The Purge: Anarchy, which extends the idea of the original (all crime is legal for one night every year) by following someone out to take revenge for what he lost in a previous purge. And though not actually a sequel, Sex Tape re-unites Bad Teacher director Jake Kasdan with stars Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel, as the latter play a couple whose recorded lovemaking winds up easily-accessed on the internet. It's at the Somerville, Apple, Fenway, Boston Common, Assembly Row, and the SuperLux.

    Boston Common's regular series are still running, with The Rocky Horror Picutre Show Saturday night, The Breakfast Club playing for $6 Sunday and Wednesday, and 300: Rise of an Empire playing at 9:30 Monday-Friday for $3. Fenway has what looks like the first showing of Monty Python Live (Mostly); the reunion of the comedy troupe at London's O2 auditorium will be playing all over the place over the next couple of months. And if you want to haul yourself out to Revere, that's where they're playing Persecuted, a thriller with the dubious premise of a governmental conspiracy against American Christians.
  • Apple Cinemas in Cambridge isn't opening any Bollywood this week - the new Indian movie they've got is Oggarane, in the Kannada language which I'll admit to never having heard of (it looks like a food movie of some sort). They're also opening Among Ravens, with longtime friends meeting up for an anual summer holiday along with a couple of outsiders. It's not at great times, but it's got a somewhat interesting cast, tagging Johnny Sequoyah with an "introducing" credit even though she starred in Believe all spring.
  • The Somerville Theatre picks up a couple of movies that merit a screen in a new neighborhood, Begin Again and Snowpiercer, and also kick off their summer midnight series with Harold & Maude in 35mm and on the big screen Friday and Saturday (they'll be doing midnights for things in other theaters, too). Both they and the Capitol in Arlington are skipping the family film this week (I wonder if attendence on those plummets the week something like Planes comes out), and the Capitol wraps up the "Bill Murrathon" with Groundhog Day at 10:30pm on Friday and Saturday.
  • The Brattle has a great double feature for those who like action this weekend, with The Raid and its sequel The Raid 2: Berandal playing in 35mm. That is a lot of bones breaking in an afternoon. They'll also be using the 35mm projector for an 11:30pm screening of Alex Proyas's Dark City on Saturday, kicking off their "Reel Weird Brattle" summer series with a bang. Then as the weekend closes, they'll be screening a free preview of I Origins, reteaming Another Earth's director Mike Cahill with co-star Brit Marling. Cahill and co-star Michael Pitt will be on-hand for a Q&A, probably having just flown down from Montreal (where the movie is part of Fantasia on Saturday). No guests on Monday for the one-off screening of Video Games: The Movie, a documentary on how games have risen from a children's toy viewed with suspicion to a huge cornerstone of the entertainment industry in roughly one generation.

    Once the work-week begins, it's back to the vertical calendar, with the Robert Wise centennial series offering a double feature of the director's noirs Born to Kill and The Set-Up on 35mm Monday (matinees only) and Tuesday. Wednesday's "Girls Rule!" show is Clueless, while the Recent Raves on Thursday are a pair of great-looking weird fantasies, Only Lovers Left Alive (on 35mm, which should look gorgeous) & Under the Skin.
  • Venus in Fur opens at The Coolidge Corner Theatre after a week at Kendall Square (in the Goldscreen, so arrive early to get one of the 14 tickets per show). The special screenings include midnights of Ken Russell's awesomely lurid The Devils on 35mm Friday & Saturday (and the monthly presentation of The Room at midnight Friday) and a Big Screen Classic presentation of The Wizard of Oz on Monday, also in 35mm. There's also a preview of some sort of The Hundred-Foot Journey, featuring Helen Mirren as a French chef not pleased at the Indian restaurant opening across the street, on Thursday night.
  • The Harvard Film Archive starts its always-fun summer programming this weekend featuring The Complete Fritz Lang. That series kicks off with the restored Metropolis (Friday 7pm), then continues with The Big Heat (Saturday 7pm), Ministry of Fear (Saturday 9pm), India-based two-parter The Tiger of Eschnapur & The Indian Tomb (Sunday 5pm & 7pm), and silent film Harakiri (Monday 7pm). All are in 35mm except Metropolis, because it looks like they just made one print of that reconstruction and it doesn't leave Germany.
  • The 19th Annual French Film Festival chugs on at The Museum of Fine Arts; potential highlights include Catherine Breillat's new one Abuse of Weakness (starring Isabelle Huppert) and Domestic Life starring Emmanuelle Devos.
  • From Joe's Calendar, noteworthy free outdoor films this week are Citizen Kane at the Boston Harbor Hotel on Friday, The Goonies at several places over the course of the week, and Soylet Green in Davis Square as part of Somerville's "Summer Movie Feast" series.


My plans? None of the above, likely, as I'll be continuing to binge at Fantasia, but if you're in Boston, catch Borgman, Dark City, and some Fritz Lang for me.

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