Friday, January 22, 2016

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 22 January 2016 - 28 January 2016

Big week for mainstream imports, compared to the dumping ground elsewhere at the multiplex.

  • Two big releases from the Chinas. At Boston Common from Hong Kong, we have Ip Man 3, which features Donnie Yen reprising his most famous role, as the grandmaster who trained Bruce Lee, and is shockingly enough the first time I can remember Yen having a movie open in the area where he grew up. It's not as great as the first, but it's a fair amount of fun. From the mainland comes Monster Hunt, China's top-grossing movie ever, a family adventure from a former DreamWorks animator starring Bai Baihe and Jing Boran. It's supposedly being released in both 2D and 3D versions, dubbed and subtitled, although all the showtimes listed at Boston Common are 3D and presumably in the original Mandarin, although it may still be the American cut (about ten minutes shorter). They keep Detective Chinatown around, too.

    Apple Cinemas Fresh Pond picks up Airlift, starring Akshay Kumar as an Indian businessman who has lived most of his life in Kuwait but finds himself needing to flea as the Gulf War approaches, and eventually spearheaded the evacuation of all 1.7 million Indians in Kuwait. They also have Malayalam comedy Two Countries on Saturday

    From the other side of the world, Brazilian comedy Vai que Cola: O Filme plays at Revere; it comes from Brazil and appears to be a follow-up to a popular TV comedy series in that country, that I cannot find any information on.
  • Hollywood has what looks like lesser material hitting theaters. The biggest is probably Dirty Grandpa, with Robert De Niro as the title character who drags his grandson (Zac Efron) on a spring break trip to Florida. It's at the Capitol, Apple Fresh Pond, Fenway, Boston Common, Assembly Row, Revere, and the SuperLux.

    For genre fare, there's The 5th Wave, a young-adult adaptation starring Chloe Grace Moretz as a teenager joining and underground resistence to an alien invasion. And yet, I'm curious, because it's from the director of The Disappearance of Alice Creed, a darn good thriller. It's at Apple Fresh Pond, the Embassy, Fenway, Boston Common, Assembly Row, and Revere. And this week's PG-13 horror movie is The Boy, with Lauren Cohan of The Walking Dead as a nanny hired to look after a doll in the image of its owners dead son. But is it just a doll? Anyway, this one is at Apple Fresh Pond, Fenway, Boston Common, Assembly Row, and Revere.

    Showcase Revere ha a special screening of The Pastor on Tuesday. In terms of Oscar-related returns and expansions, Boston Common brings back Brooklyn, The Somerville Theatre and Fenway return Room, Belmont Studio Cinema picks up The Revenant, and The Capitol adds Carol. It also looks like Lazer Team comes out on Wednesday, removing that trailer from local screens.
  • Kendall Square brings in two Oscar nominees. 45 Years stars Charlotte Rampling as a woman about to celebrate the anniversary in question until the her husband's first love is found. They also get Son of Saul, the Hungarian nominee for Foreign Language Film, a Holocaust drama about a man trying to give his son a proper burial in Auschwitz; that also plays at West Newton. There's also a GlobeDocs presentation of An Open Secret on Wednesday; this documentary focuses on sexual abuse of children in Hollywood.
  • The Brattle Theatre has more of (Some of) The Best of 2015: A double feature of 99 Homes and Crimson Peak on Friday, the narratively-odd The Forbidden Room and The Duke of Burgundy on Saturday, Court and Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem on Sunday, single features of The Tribe on Monday and Goodnight Mommy on Tuesday, two separate single features of Clouds of Sils Maria and It Follows on Wednesday, and a twin bill of Heart of a Dog and A Pigeon Sat on a Bench Reflecting on Existence Thursday. The series also includes noon matinees of Shaun the Sheep on Saturday and Sunday. Monday night has a free 35mm Elements of Cinema screening of Bicycle Thieves on Monday and the short documentary "Waking in Oak Creek" on Tuesday; both of those have special guests to lead discussion.
  • The Harvard Film Archive has their last Arabian Nights screenings on Friday and Saturday (both days with Volume 2 at 7pm and Volume 3 at 9:30pm). They have two Americans Abroad screenings on Sunday - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at 4:30pm and Roman Holiday at 7pm, both on 35mm. Monday features a 35mm print of Kent Mackenzie's The Exiles on Monday, with archivist Ross Lipman introducing it. They have also added a screening of Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence on Thursday as a tribute to David Bowie.
  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre continues its slate from last week, and also continues their Tarantino midnight series on Friday and Saturday with the Grindhouse cut of Death Proof on 35mm. They also have two Sunday morning screenings - a Talk Cinema presentation of Oscar nominee The War and a Goethe-Institut show (The Color of the Oceans). Then on Monday, the Science on Screen show is Orson Welles'sF for Fake on 35mm, the the MFA's head of scientific research Richard Newman giving an introduction. The Jane Fonda screening on Wednesday is Klute, also on 35mm.
  • At The Museum of Fine Arts itself, the Boston Festival of Films from Iran continues, with Taxi (Friday/Wednesday), Tales(Friday/Saturday), the pair of short films "Monir" and "Wolkaan" (Saturday/Sunday), The President (Sunday), Risk of Acid Rain (Wednesday/Thursday), and Atomic Heart (Thursday)
  • The Institute of Contemporary Art continue their screening of shorts from last year's Sundance Film Festival, with shows on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
  • Bright Lights returns the the Bright Screening Room at ArtsEmerson's Paramount Theater on Thursday, with The Final Girls hosted by director Todd Strauss-Schulson, an alumnus of the school.


I've already caught Ip Man 3, so I'll be looking for Monster Hunt, 99 Homes, Carol, The Revenant, The Final Girls, and maybe another thing or two (haven't made it to the furniture store for Star Wars yet).

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