Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 21 November 2018 - 29 November 2018

Maybe not exactly a quiet Thanksgiving weekend, but the sort where you can probably just choose one or two things while digesting rather than feeling overwhelmed.

  • So, if you like the big 3D animated movies, Disney is offering Ralph Breaks the Internet, a sequel to Wreck-It Ralph in which the title character and Princess Vanellope head out to a wider electronic world than their arcade. That's at the Capitol (2D only), Fresh Pond (2D only), West Newton (2D only), Boston Common, Fenway (including 2D RPX), the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Revere (including XPlus), and the SuperLux (2D only).

    Perhaps the biggest opening is Creed II, which continues the story of Adonis Creed and his trainer Rocky Balboa by putting him face-to-face with the son of the man who killed his father in the ring back in Rocky IV. It's at Fresh Pond, the Embassy, Boston Common, Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Revere (including XPlus), and the SuperLux. There's also a new version of Robin Hood, with Taron Egerton in the title role that looks much slicker than it seems like it should, playing at Fresh Pond, the Embassy, Boston Common, Fenway, the Seaport, Assembly Row, and Revere.

    A new Pokemon movie, Pokemon the Movie: The Power of Us plays Fenway and Boston Common on Saturday, adding Revere to those two spots on Monday and Wednesday the 28th. Fenway plays the 1977 Superman on Sunday and Tuesday, with Revere again being added once the weekend is over. Documentary Meow Wolf: Origin Story plays Fenway on Thursday the 29th, which is also the first day of a special "premiere event" for Mamoru Hosada's new animated film Mirai. Fenway and Boston Common are listing both dubbed 7pm and subtitled 8pm shows that night; Revere only lists a 7pm show but doesn't yet show language information. Revere picks up The Front Runner (already playing Boston Common), and Boston Common and Kendall Square have extra-early preview shows for The Favourite on Tuesday and Wednesday ahead of the Thursday night shows before the release on the 30th.
  • Green Book expands to The Coolidge Corner Theatre, The Somerville, West Newton, Fenway, and Revere after having already opened in Boston Common. The Coolidge and Kendall Square also open At Eternity's Gate, featuring Willem Dafoe as Vincent van Gogh.

    The Coolidge also has a kids' show of The Brave Little Toaster on Saturday morning. Monday's "Science on Screen" presentation is a 35mm print of Taxi Driver, with Nobel Prize winner Michael Rosbash on hand to talk about circadian rhythms beforehand. They too have an early screening of The Favourite on Wednesday the 28th, and then give their annual Coolidge Award to Michael Douglas on Thursday the 29th, with a special 35mm screening of Wonder Boys (including Q&A) at 1pm, and an on-stage ceremony/conversation that evening at 8pm.
  • Kendall Square gets their new movies on Friday, with two documentaries: Maria By Callas tells the tale of legendary soprano Maria Callas in her own words, while Chef Flynn follows a 19-year-old already on his way to becoming a master chef.
  • The Brattle Theatre spends the holiday weekend with Akira Kurosawa, offering up 35mm prints of some of his greatest historical films: A Yojimbo/Sanjuro double feature on Wednesday and Thanksgiving, Seven Samurai on Friday and Saturday, a twin bill of Hidden Fortress & Throne of Blood on Sunday, Red Beard on Wednesday, and the pairing of The Lower Depths & Rashomon on Thursday. Note that some shows were moved or canceled to make way for other presentations: The DocYard welcomes diretor Shevaun Mizrahi for Distant Constellation (looking at the residents of an Istanbul retirement home) on Monday, while Tuesday features a special free screening of Black Panther presented by Film Comment magazine, followed up by director Ryan Coogler answering questions that the audience has sent him via Twitter.
  • The Harvard Film Archive concludes Early West German Film with a free screening of labor union films (Friday 7pm), plus No Way Back (Friday 9pm), The Miracle of Father Malachia (16mm Saturday 9pm), and Many Passed by (Sunday 7pm). As that ends, a retrospective of Jiří Trnka, Puppet Master begins with The Czech Year (Saturday 7pm), a special $5 matinee of Bayaya preceded by short subject "Song of the Prairie" at 2pm Sunday, and Old Czech Legends at 4:30pm Sunday. They also have one screening of Taiwanese satire The Great Buddha+ on Monday.
  • The Museum of Fine Arts has more screenings of John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (Friday/Saturday/Sunday), Monrovia, Indiana (Saturday), and Milford Graves Full Mantis (Sunday/Thursday), as well as single screenings of Sorry to Bother You (Friday) and The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Films from Pooh Corner wraps this weekend with Winnie the Pooh on Saturday morning and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh on Sunday morning.
  • Thanksgiving break is just long enough to trigger The Regent Theatre's school vacation programming, in this case the Sing-Along The Sound of Music, starting the night of Thanksgiving and then playing three times each Friday and Saturday and two more on Sunday
  • Students are traveling this week but Bright Lights returns on Tuesday with free screenings of a couple of the summer's more popular documentaries: Won't You Be My Neighbor plays Tuesday, with Junlei Li (who appears in the film and held a chair at the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning) present, and RBG on Thursday, with producer Nadine Natour skyping in to talk afterward.
  • Thugs of Hindostan and Taxiwaala continue at Apple Fresh Pond, but the big event for Indian film fans is the long-awaited release of 2.0 on Wednesday the 28th, as Superstar Rajinikanth & S Shankar's sequel to 2010's Endhiran finally has its effects done and looks absolutely bonkers. Amy Jackson and Akshay Kumar co-star, there will be dragons, it's playing both 2D and 3D, it'll be nuts. For Chinese film fans, Boston Common keeps A Cool FIsh going for another week.
  • Cinema Salem continues The Guilty through Thursday, and then are the first folks in the area to blay Weightless (in the 18-seat room) starting on Friday.


The plans are Ralph Breaks the Internet, The Grand Buddha+, Mirai, and hopefully some Kurosawa. I will almost certainly break down and watch Robin Hood when I should be catching up on the likes of Can You Ever Forgive Me? and A Private War instead. I'll probably wait the crowds for 2.0 out a couple of days.

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