Friday, February 15, 2019

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 15 February 2019 - 21 February 2019

A lot of this actually opened earlier in the week, because between Valentine's Day being on a Thursday and the tendency toward earlier previews, it's a perfect storm of stuff getting drawn out.

  • After being developed by James Cameron for a long time, Alita: Battle Angel finally makes it to screens because Cameron hired Robert Rodriguez do get the thing done (which Rodriguez is pretty good at). It should be something to look at, at least; both genuinely like shooting in 3D and so this isn't post-converted. It's at Fresh Pond (2D only), the Somerville (2D only), Jordan's Furniture (Imax 3D), Boston Common (including Imax 3D), Fenway (including RPX 3D), the Seaport (including Icon-X 3D), South Bay (Imax 3D and Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (Imax 3D and Dolby Cinema), the Embassy (2D only), and Revere (MX4D and XPlus 3D),

    The semi-conventional Valentine's release is Isn't It Romantic, with Rebel Wilson, Priyanka Chopra, and Liam Hemsworth sending up the romantic comedy in the month's second fantasy kicked off by a blow to the head. That plays the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, the Embassy, Revere, and the SuperLux. The less-obvious one is Happy Death Day 2U, although to be honest this sequel to one of the more inventive horror movies of recent years works pretty well as a date movie. That one's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Revere.

    Boston Common and Fenway both have Oscar Best Picture showcases this weekend, with the former playing The Favourite, BlacKkKlansman, and Bohemain Rhapsondy on Saturday and Fenway playing seven of the eight nominees over the course of the week (with a Roma-shaped hole), along with Best Animated Feature nominee Mirai on Monday. Fenway and Assembly Row have TCM Classics presentations of My Fair Lady on Sunday and Wednesday (with Revere also showing it the second day). Mobile Suit Gundam NT plays Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Revere on Tuesday, one which date Revere also has Patrick, about a young woman inherited her grandmother's pampered pug.
  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square, and Boston Common open Everybody Knows, the new thriller by Asghar Farhadi with Penelope Cruz as a woman returning to her hometown for the first time in years for a wedding, reuniting with an old friend (Javier Bardem) - and having her daughter go missing. Tuesday's 7pm show at the Coolidge is also an "off the couch" screening hosted by the Boston Psychoanalytic Society. The Coolidge and Boston Common also pick up Arctic, already playing at the Kendall

    February's Women in Horror Month continues with a 35mm print of The Mafu Cage at midnight on Friday (with The Room playing downstairs) and new favorite Revenge on Saturday. There's a Kids' Show of The Great Muppet Caper Sunday Morning, and a Wide Lens screening of Black Panther on Wednesday.
  • In addition to that, Kendall Square opens Best Foreign Language Film nominee Never Look Away, with The Lives of Others director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck returning to the Cold War, as viewed by an artist and the woman he loves.
  • The Lunar New Year/Spring Festival celebrations may be over, but The Wandering Earth continues strong, on two screens at the Common and one at Fenway. Pegasus also continues at Boston Common, which offers a Chinese-language valentine movie with Fall In Love at First Kiss, a high school romance starring "Jelly" Lin Yun from Chen Yu-shan, who made the pretty decent Our Times.

    Uri: The Surgical Strike moves from Fenway to Apple Fresh Pond, with both picking up Gully Boy, a musical drama about street rappers in Mumbai. Apple also picks up action/adventure Dev (with showtimes in both Tamil and Telugu), with Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga continuing through the week.
  • Next week is school vacation week, so The Brattle Theatre will be playing a Bugs Bunny Film Festival on 35mm all afternoon and into the evening, although there are 10pm late shows of black-metal tale Lords of Chaos (at a relatively early 8:30pm Thursday). The other exception is Tuesday, when it's Trash Night at 7:30pm
  • The Museum of Fine Arts continues their February calendar, with the Boston Festival of Films from Japan featuring Shoplifters (Friday), Ryu Sakamota: Coda (paired with Ryu Sakamoto: Async Live at the Park Avenue Armory on Saturday), and The Third Murder (Thursday); Down and Dirty in Gower Gulch: Poverty Row Films Preserved by UCLA including The Sin of Nora Moran (Friday), Mamba (Sunday/Wednesday), and Strange Illusion (Wednesday/Thursday); and screenings of Young Picasso on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The restorations play with restored newsreals and shorts
  • The Harvard Film Archive welcomes Mariano LlinĂ¡s for the weekend, and he will have the run of the place with magnum opus La Flor ("The Flower") stretching over the whole weekend - 3.5 hours Friday evening, nearly six each on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. After that, Monday's 35mm "Cinema of Resistance" screening of Young Mr. Lincoln on Monday must seem almost quaint.
  • Bright Lights (in the Bright Screening Room at the Paramount Theater) has two free festival favorites this week: Skate Kitchen plays Tuesday, with director Crystal Moselle on hand for a Q&A afterward, while writer/producer/star Rafael Casal is there for Blindspotting on Thursday.
  • Boston Sci-Fi FIlm Festival concludes at The Somerville Theatre with a couple days of documentaries, local productions, and other features, panels, and short programs on Friday and Saturday before the big old marathon from noon to noon Sunday to Monday which has a strong lineup, including Jeff Rapsis accompanying Woman in the Moon, a 70mm print of Star Trek VI, and much of the rest on 35mm. With a screen to fill after that, the Somerville will be playing the latest Banff Mountain Film Festival touring package from Tuesday to Thursday (it also plays the Regent Monday night), and the The Boston Underground Film Festival's monthly Dispatch From the Underground - a female-directed set of shorts called "Wiles" - in the micro-cinema on Wednesday.
  • New IMAX films get added to the rotations at the museums, with The Museum of Science picking up "Cuba" and the New England Aquarium opening "Turtle Odyssey".
  • School vacation means The Regent Theatre in Arlington is playing kid-friendly stuff all week, with three programs from the New York International Children's Film Festival on Monday and Wednesday and sing-along shows of Annie and The Muppet Movie on Tuesday and Thursday. They also have a "Deconstructing the Beatles" show on Wednesday evening, this one focused on the Magical Mystery Tour.
  • Where to see the Oscar-Nominated Shorts? The Documentaries are at the Coolidge, Cinema Salem, and the Luna (Saturday/Monday); the Animation is at the Coolidge, the Kendall, CinemaSalem, and the Luna (Saturday/Monday/Tuesday); the Live Action at the Coolidge, the Kendall, CinemaSalem, and the Luna (Saturday).
  • The Luna Theater also has Matilda (Saturday-Monday), Breakfast at Tiffany's (Monday), and "Weirdo Wednesday".


I'm not sure how much of the sci-fi fest I'll do aside from the Marathon (it's been really easy to skip stuff this year), but there's still Oscar shorts, Alita, Isn't It Romantic?, and maybe Fall in Love at First Kiss before and after.

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