Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 3 February 2017 - 9 February 2017

I think that at least two of this week’s movies have pushed from last year, which isn’t a great sign, but there’s a Tsui Hark/Stephen Chow movie in Imax 3D, so that’s cool.

• The Space Between Us, for instance, was tagged for a mid-December release, but decided there was no need to be a sci-fi film coming out at about the same time as Rogue One. It looks like it’s based upon some popular young adult novel, but it’s a original, with Asa Butterfield playing the first child born on Mars and Britt Robertson as the girl on Earth that he falls for. Gary Oldman and Carla Gugino are in it, too. It’s at Apple Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Assembly Row, Fenway, and Revere. Also opening after a delay is Rings, a follow-up to the American The Ring movies that upgrades the series’s villain from a haunted VHS tape to streaming and other digital platforms (in Japan, they’ve crossed it over with the Grudge movies). That one’s also at Apple Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Assembly Row, Fenway, and Revere.
  
  Not necessarily a lot of awards expansions going on, although some places will be adding an 8-minute behind-the-scenes segment to Arrival, while La La Land grabs the Imax screens at Jordan’s Furniture and Assembly Row. Moonlight does (re)open at the SuperLux. For special screenings, Fenway has Sailor Moon R: The Movie: The Promise of the Rose on Friday and Saturday, while Revere begins a month-long animated Disney series with screenings of Alice in Wonderland from Friday to Sunday. There are also 25-year-anniversary screenings of Wayne’s World at Fenway on Tuesday and Boston Common on Wednesday.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre and Kendall Square open IFFBoston Fall Focus selection I Am Not Your Negro, a pretty great documentary based upon an unpublished book by James Baldwin about the civil rights movement that evolved into being as much about Baldwin himself. The Coolidge also kicks off another month of midnight comic book movies, this time focusing on the 1990s, with Michael Jai White as Spawn on Friday night and Dolph Lundgren as The Punisher on Saturday, both in 35mm.
• The Brattle Theatre also has something from the Fall Focus, nifty horror movie The Autopsy of Jane Doe, with Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch as small-town coroners examining a very peculiar body, running all week. There are a couple of special screenings as well, with an IFFBoston preview of A United Kingdom on Tuesday and author John Darnielle introducing Peter Bogdanovich thriller Targets on Wednesday.
• Kendall Square doesn’t just get the Baldwin movie, but is also among those opening The Comedian, starring Robert De Niro as one of New York’s most famous stand-up comics who, though he his career is on the ebb, may be able to reinvent himself by mentoring someone younger. It’s also at the Embassy, Boston Common, and Revere. The Kendall also has a “Deconstructing the Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’” lecture on Monday, while they and Fenway have screenings of the animated version of Ghost in the Shell on Tuesday and Wednesday. Not sure whether it’s the original or remastered “2.0” version; Kendall has subtitles on Tuesday and a dub on Wednesday, though I’m not sure how Fenway is playing it.
• In addition to last week’s Lunar New Year programming of Buddies in India & Kung Fu Yoga, Boston Common gets Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back both in Imax 3D and regular 2D/3D shows. It’s the sequel to the Stephen Chow film from a couple years back, though Tsui Hark is in the director’s chair this time.
  
  Apple Cinemas Fresh Pond keeps Raees and Kaabil around, and also adds Telugu comedy Nenu Local, Tamil action/adventure Bogan, and Kannada college comedy Kirik Party, with Saturday screenings of Marathi romance Ti Saddhya Kay Karte and Malayalam drama Jomonte Suvisheshang. Singam 3 returns in subtitled Tamil and Telugu on Wednesday, and Telugu biopic Om Namo Venkatesaya opens Thursday.
• The Harvard Film Archive begins a monthlong Ha Gil-Jong and the Revitalization of the Korean Cinema series this weekend, with the first selections being The Pollen of Flowers (Friday 7pm), Woman of Fire (Friday 9pm), March of Fools (35mm Saturday 7pm), Yeong-Ja’s Heydays (35mm Saturday 9:30pm), and Night Journey (Monday 7pm). On Sunday, they have two 16mm prints of Jonas Mekas films - Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania at 5pm, and Lost Lost Lost at 7pm.
• This month’s “On the Fringe” screening at The Museum of Fine Arts is Abel Ferrerra’s Ms. 45 at 8pm on Friday. Aside from that, they continue their two filmmaker focuses, with The Shining (Friday), Paths of Glory (35mm Sunday/Thursday), and Fear and Desire (35mm Thursday) by Stanley Kubrick and Hospital (Sunday/Wednesday), Basic Training (Sunday), Law and Order (Wednesday), and High School (Thursday) by Frederick Wiseman.
• The ICA has their last two screenings of a program of last year’s Sundance Film Festival Shorts on Sunday.
• Bright Lights has a couple of good ones in the Paramount Theatre’s Bright Screening Room next week, as always for free and followed by discussion. Tower plays on Tuesday, with animation director Craig Staggs on hand to talk about transforming a documentary into something different, while Loving will be followed with a Skype discussion with producer Sarah Green/
• CinemaSalem remains kind of nifty-looking, as they are the only guys picking up the release of Studio Ghibli’s The Ocean Waves in the area (though not new, this has been part of the touring series but never had a release of its own before now).

Time to buckle down; aside from Journey to the West, there’s a bunch of catch-up to do before the sci-fi festival starts up in a week.