Friday, January 19, 2018

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 19 January 2018 - 25 January 2018

It's not really a great week, but it's one where a couple trailers that have been playing in front of seemingly every movie for the last month come out, so that's a relief, even if you don't go to them.

  • So, say goodbye to the trailer for 12 Strong, which features Chris Hemsworth as a U.S. soldier who led one of the first missions in Afghanistan after 9/11, going into enemy territory on horseback. Yes, it's the U.S. Army as the low-tech underdog against Afghan rebels at the start of a never-ending war! It's at Fresh Pond, the Capitol, the Embassy, Boston Common (including Imax), Fenway (including RPX), the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax), Assembly Row (including Imax), Revere (including XPlus), and the SuperLux. And no more of the trailer for Den of Thieves, with Gerard Butler as the head of an elite unit of cops chasing down a similarly skilled group of robbers, both prone to excessive force. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay (including Dolby), Assembly Row, and Revere.

    There haven't been quite so many trailers for Forever My Girl, and I wonder if this would be playing (as many) theaters if star Jessica Rothe hadn't had a pretty decent hit in Happy Death Day, although here she's playing the high school sweetheart of a country star who is now returning home after ten years. It's at Fresh Pond and Boston Common.

    Boston Common also opens A Better Tomorrow 2018, a remake of the Hong Kong classic that first saw John Woo work with Chow Yun-fat. Ding Sheng directs this one with a group of up-and-coming young stars.
  • The Brattle Theatre almost has a conventional schedule this week, with Thelma playing all day from Friday to Tuesday and the latest shows on Wednesday and Thursday; it's a pretty nifty film by Joachim Trier about a young woman, away from home for the first time at college, who discovers that she may have uncanny and dangerous abilities. The 7pm shows on Wednesday and Thursday are A Woman A Part, with director Elisabeth Subrin on-hand to introduce her film starring Maggie Siff as an actress re-evaluating her life.
  • Apple Fresh Pond has no Indian films this week, but they do have a couple of American genre films that you'd otherwise have to catch on VOD. Mom and Dad features Nic Cage and Selma Blair as parents who are affected by a strange phenomenon which compels them to kill their kids. Written and directed by Brian Taylor, who's been doing nutty things on Happy! and also was half of the Crank team. There's also Small Town Crime, with John Hawkes as an ex-cop solving a brutal murder. Heck of a supporting cast on it.
  • Kendall Square gives half a screen's worth of showtimes to The Final Year, in which documentarian Greg Barker had incredible access to the Obama State Department in 2016.
  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre continues the 35mm "Snowed In" midnights with Let the Right One In on Friday and The Shining on Saturday; the monthly screening of The Room on Friday is apparently sold out, and that pushes The Midnight Man, featuring Robert Englund and and Lin Shaye. They keep Phantom Thread in the big room on 70mm film (except for one Sunday matinee), and further commemorate Daniel Day-Lewis's coming imminent retirement with a 35mm print of My Left Foot on Tuesday. They also have a special screening of Soul Witness: The Brookline Holocaust Witness Project on Thursday
  • The Somerville Theatre and West Newton Cinema both add Phantom Thread this week, with Somerville getting a 35mm print. The Somerville also programs two documentaries later in the week - Unrest, Jennifer Brea's film about her chronic fatigue syndrome, and 42 Grams, in which Jack C. Newell follows celebrity chef Jake Bickelhaupt as he makes his dinner club into a Michelin-starred restaurant.
  • The Museum of Fine Arts has screenings of Canaletto and the Art of Venice Friday, Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons. They also continue the UCLA Festival of Preservation with He Walked by Night (35mm Friday/Sunday), Open Secret (35mm Friday/Sunday), Desert Hearts (Saturday), The Murder of Fred Hampton (35mm Saturday), Sons of the Desert (35mm Wednesday), Stranded (35mm Wednesday/Thursday), and The Lost Moment (35mm Thursday).
  • The Harvard Film Archive is the latest place in the area to have a Frederick Wiseman series, with 16mm prints of High School (Friday 7pm), Hospital (Friday 9pm), High School II (Saturday 7pm), and Primate (Monday 7pm). They also continue their 35mm The World of Bob Fosse program with a $5 matinee of The Little Prince on Saturday, Kiss Me Kate (Sunday 4:30pm), and Cabaret (Sunday 7pm).
  • CinemaSalem once again books two movies in the 18-seat room - not only are they the place to go if you don't want to wait until midnight for The Midnight Man, but they also have Freak Show, the first narrative feature directed by Trudie Styler, in which a male high achiever at a conservative school opts to run for prom queen. Fun cast list, even if most are likely cameos.

I'm down for A Better Tomorrow and Mom and Dad, maybe seeing the stuff I'm behind on and further drilling into my unwatched disc collection.

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