Thursday, December 27, 2018

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 28 December 2018 - 3 January 2019

New year, new movies, right? Nah, not really. Most places are continuing what they had for Christmas, and the multiplexes aren't even doing any one-and-two-off presentations.

  • The main openings this week are both foreign-language movies, with China's Kill Mobile playing Boston Common. A remake of Italian dark comedy Perfect Strangers, it takes place at a dinner party where the seven attendees promise to share every call and message that comes through their phones, which is obviously a terrible idea. If it sounds familiar, Korean version Intimate Strangers just played in October, and a Mexican remake opens next month.

    From India, Simmba opens at Apple Fresh Pond; this Hindi-language action comedy is apparently both a spin-off of the popular Singham series and a remake of the Telugu film Tempest, featuring Ranveer Singh as a corrupt cop forced to go straight. They also continue Bollywood comedy Zero.
  • The Brattle Theatre continues their Keaton-esque series with the film that was likely its most immediate inspiration - Peter Bogdanovich's The Great Buster - on Friday afternoon and evening, before a late show of Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness on 35mm. Saturday offers a 35mm double feature from Jackie Chan, one those most influenced by Keaton, with Rumble in the Bronx & Project A 2 (no indication yet whether these are dubbed or subtitled prints), while Sunday has an afternoon pairing of two of Keaton's last appearances in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (on 35mm) & It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World before an 8pm show of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, which has Tom Cruise following in Keaton's footsteps doing his own stunts. The series wraps up on Monday with two from Wes Anderson, Rushmore (on 35mm) & The Grand Budapest Hotel.

    Tuesday is New Year's Day, which they ring in as usual with a 35mm Mark Brothers Marathon, with this year's quadruple feature including Duck Soup, Room Service, Monkey Business, and A Night at the Opera, looping back around to Duck Soup if you came in late. After that, they start a series of new restorations with a late celebration of Ida Lupino's 100th birthday, with The Hitch-Hiker paired with Not Wanted on Wednesday and with The Bigamist on Thursday.
  • The Museum of Fine Arts concludes the December calendar with the rest of their Color Tells a Story screenings - Fantastic Mr. Fox for orange (Friday/Saturday), Edward Scissorhands (Friday with "A Trip to the Moon") for blue, Vertigo (Saturday) for green, Eyes Wide Shut for violet (Sunday), and Black Narcissus for red - and one last "Exhibition on Screen" presentation of Degas: Passion for Perfection on Friday.

    After New Year's, they start the January calendar, which includes runs of Border (Wednesday) and Life and Nothing More (Thursday). They also start an "Ida Lupino at 100" series with screenings of The Bigamist on Wednesday and Thursday.
  • The Regent Theatre continues their vacation-week sing-alongs, with White Christmas on Friday and Frozen Friday and Saturday.
  • The Lexington Venue has a free screening of locally-produced short film "The Art Collector" on Saturday afternoon, with young director Saoirse Loftus-Reid on hand for a Q&A
  • Cinema Salem continues Wildlife, in their small screen.

So, yeah, I'm in for Kill Mobile, If Beale Street Could Talk, Army of Darkness, a couple by Jackie Chan and Ida Lupino, and I'll probably go or Welcome to Marwen and even Holmes & Watson if I've got time.Nex

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