Friday, November 02, 2018

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 2 November 2018 - 8 November 2018

Weird weekend - two days after Halloween and we get a couple horror movies, a Christmas adventure, and Oscar hopefuls with various degrees of likelihood.

  • I suspect Bohemian Rhapsody was expected to be an awards contender when it got started, but apparently the surviving members of Queen wanted it to be less about Freddie Mercury, the studio didn't want to talk about his sexuality, and the director flaked enough to get fired. It's apparently got some impressive recreations of the band making their music, though, at the Somerville, Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture (Imax), West Newton, Boston Common (including Imax), Fenway (including RPX), the Seaport (including Icon-X), South Bay (including Imax and Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax and Dolby Cinema), and Revere (including XPlus).

    I'm not sure how The Nutcracker and the Four Realms wound up with its two directors (I imagine Joe Johnston did anything with 3D effects and Lasse Halstrom did the rest), but between them they adapted The Nutcracker into a non-ballet adventure with Mackenzie Foy, Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, and more. It's at the Capitol (2D only), Fresh Pond, the Embassy, Boston Common, Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby CInema), Revere (including MX4D), and the SuperLux.

    There's also the new Tyler Perry movie, Nobody's Fool, which features Tiffany Haddish as a woman just out of prison with a knack for finding trouble who also intends to help out her straight-laced sister (Tika Sumpter), with Whoopi Goldberg as their mother. It's playing Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Revere. There's also a seemingly-late arrival for the remake of Suspiria, which apparently has a completely different take on witches in a dance academy than the Argento original. It's kind of art-house-y, so a smaller release: Boston Common, Fenway, and Revere. Boston Common alone gets In Search of Greatness, which looks at what top athletes have in common.

    There's a DragonBall Z Saiyan Double Feature (Bardock: The Father of Goku & Fusion Reborn) at Fenway & Assembly Row Saturday afternoon and Monday evening (the last show also at Revere). The It's kind of weird to have places booking Black Mass so quick in response to Whitey Bulger's death, but they are, with it playing the Seaport on Saturday and Revere on Wednesday. Revere has a 10th anniversary screening of Mamma Mia! on Tuesday and a presentations of locally-produced comedy Sweeney Killing Sweeney on Wednesday (it plays other Showcases on Thursday). Boston Common and Assembly Row have special "Girls' NIght Out" preview of The Girl in the Spider's Web on Wednesday before the regular early shows on Thursday.
  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square, and Boston Common have Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which features Melissa McCarthy as Lee Israel, a writer who used to work steadily but winds up forging others' letters, a grift which can't last forever. That group also have Wildlife, Paul Dano's directorial debut which has Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal as a couple whose marriage is disintegrating from the point of view of their son.

    The Coolidge starts a "Midnite Meltdown Month" with The Incredible Melting Man on Friday and Body Melt on Saturday, both gloppy movies on 35mm. They've got two special early programs on Sunday, both with guests - Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a Science on Screen Jr. show with naturalist Tia Pinney discussing modern & traditional farming, while the Goethe-Institut brings producer Miriam Düssel in to introduce The Silent Revolution. There's also Open Screen on Tuesday.
  • On top of the movies they share, Kendall Square also have Viper Club, which stars Susan Sarandon as a woman whose son is kidnapped by terrorists, bringing her into a group of private investors who raise ransoms and keep things in the public eye. They also open Peter Bogdanovich's The Great Buster: A Celebration, and for those who also want to see Buster Keaton in action, they'll have a double feature of "Sherlock Jr." & "Seven Chances" on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
  • The Brattle Theatre has Museo from Friday to Tuesday, with Gael Garcia Bernal in a true story of a natural-history museum heist that left the perpetrators with no idea how to unload what they've stolen. They also have 9:30pm shows of Mandy for those of us who couldn't stay up late to see Nic Cage in Panos Cosmatos's new feature. That's through Monday, they switch it up for a 35mm print of Back to the Future Part II on Tuesday as an election-night special. Wednesday night is the first of three nights presenting recent German award winners with Goethe-Institut, with producer Karsten Stöter there to present 3 Days in Quiberon on Wednesday while LOMO: Language of Many Others plays Thursday.
  • Apple Fresh Pond picks up Savyasachi, a Telugu action movie whose hero absorbed a twin who now controls his left hand in the womb. Andhadhun and Badhaai Ho continue, with Kannada-language thriller The Villain playing Saturday and Sunday, while the big Diwali movies apparently kick off with Sarkar in Tamil on Monday and Thugs of Hindostan on Thursday.

    Korean medieval zombie flick Rampant opens at Boston Common, which is cool although I worry that it may have crowded Burning out (though maybe there's room for a two Korean movies over the next couple weeks). Dominican comedy Trabajo Sucio sticks around at Revere.
  • The Harvard Film Archive welcomes Australian experimental filmmakers Richard Tuohy & Dianna Barrie for a program of 16mm shorts on Friday, before starting a program of The Inexact Beauty of Early West German Cinema, 1949 – 1963: Chased By the Devil (Saturday 7pm on 35mm), No Way Back (Saturday 9pm on 35mm), Rose Bernd (Sunday 7pm), and The Day the Rains Came (Monday 7pm) with 35mm featurette "Asylrecht". They also move their weekend family matinees to Sunday, with Jacques Tati's Playtime on 35mm at 4pm.
  • The Museum of Fine Arts kicks off the month with an "On the Fringe" screening of Being John Malkovich on Friday while also presenting The Boston Turkish Festival's Documentary & Short FIlm Competition, with opening night selection Butterflies on Friday featuring a post-film concert, and shorts programs Saturday and Sunday. There's a free matinee of Christopher Robin Saturday Morning, in conjunction with their Pooh exhibition. They also host the new Frederick Wiseman documentary Monrovia, Indiana, with screenings Sunday and Thursday.
  • The Capitol plays host to the Arlington International Film Festival through Sunday, packing their program tight with barely any time between programs.
  • Boston Jewish Film's Annual Festival opens on Wednesday with Sammy Davis Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me at the Coolidge with director Samuel D. Pollard on hand, as well as a live performance. It expands to more locations on Thursday, with Working Woman & Echo at the Coolidge, Who Will Write Our History? at the MFA, FreshFlix shorts at the Somerville, and The Interpreter at West Newton, with another week and a half to go after that.
  • Emerson's Bright Lights program welcomes alumnus Jim Cummings to present his highly acclaimed featureThunder Road on Tuesday and The Tale director Jennifer Fox on Thursday. As always, they're free and open to the public, but you may want to get there early for both as they're likely to fill up.
  • The good folks at The Somerville Theatre could not include The Sound of Music in their recent 70mm fest because Fox gave Fathom Events a window, but they put it on the schedule as early as possible, with two 70mm screenings on Sunday. They also have Warren Miller's Face of Winter on Tuesday and Wednesday. Also, just as a heads-up, they've got a special premiere of The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot on Thursday 15 November, with plenty of special guests.
  • Belmont World Film wraps their two week Czech film mini-series at the Belmont Studio Cinema with Family Friend on Monday.
  • The Regent Theatre has craft-beer documentary Brewmaster on Wednesday.

I'm going to start the weekend off with Museo, Mandy, and Rampant, then will probably be tempted by Nutcracker and The Great Buster, and hopefully not too put-off by the endless previews of seen for Can You Forgive Me.

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