Friday, February 08, 2019

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 8 February 2019 - 14 February 2019

Remakes, sequels, shorts, Chinese New Year, festivals… I am reasonably sure I'll be able to basically live in movie theaters for the next week and still miss out on a fair amount.

  • The big/3D screens go to The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, the sequel to a very funny and clever original which this time has the Lego minifigs heading out into space. It will be kind of interesting to see how the live-action bits of the first play into it - the spinoffs referenced but didn't integrate them, but it's got to be there from the start in this one. It plays the Capitol (2D only), Fresh Pond (2D only), West Newton (2D only), The Belmont Studio (2D only), Jordan's Furniture (Imax 2D), Boston Common (including Imax 2D), Fenway (including RPX), the Seaport (including 2D/3D Icon-X), South Bay (including Imax 2D), Assembly Row (including Imax 2D and Dolby Cinema), Revere (including XPlus and MX4D), and the SuperLux (2D only).

    Two remakes also come out, taking different routes. What Men Want is a gender-flipped version of What Women Want (already remade in China) which puts Taraji P. Henson in the Mel Gibson role as a woman who winds up able to hear men's thoughts after some sort of head injury, and runs at Fresh Pond, the Embassy, Boston Common, Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row, Revere, and the SuperLux. Cold Pursuit transplants In Order of Disappearance from Scandinavia to the U.S., with the same director apparently taking a broader, less dry approach. It stars Liam Neeson and plays Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, Revere, and the SuperLux. There's also The Prodigy, which looks like a possessed-kid thing, at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Revere.

    The "Burn The Stage: Love Yourself (in Seoul)" concert film pops back up, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at Fenway and Boston Common. Dirty Dancing plays pre-Valentine dates at Fenway (Sunday/Wednesday), Assembly Row (Sunday/Wednesday), and Revere (Wednesday only). Fenway has A Nightmare on Elm Street Tuesday night.

    Alita: Battle Angel gets 3D previews on the big screens at Boston Common, Fenway, Assembly Row, South Bay, and Revere on Tuesday, with night-before previews and regular shows starting Thursday at Fresh Pond (2D only), Boston Common (including Imax 3D), Fenway (including RPX 3D), South Bay (Imax 3D and Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (Imax 3D and Dolby Cinema), and Revere (MX4D and XPlus), with a couple other movies are getting a jump on Valentine's Day by opening on Wednesday: Happy Death Day 2U at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, and Assembly Row, with Isn't It Romantic at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, Revere, and the SuperLux. Other places may book them after the weekend.
  • Do you think Mads Mikkelsen knew that Polar and Arctic would be coming out within weeks of each other when he made them, or is that just a screwy last-minute thing? The former is on Netflix, but the latter, an award-winning story of survival after a plane crash in the North, and that one's at Kendall Square, with co-writer and editor Ryan Morrison answering questions after the 7:10pm show on Friday.

    They also give a screen to the Animation and Live Action Oscar-Nominated Short Films, with a couple extra shorts in the animation package to pad it out to 75 minutes. It will also be playing various other locations in the lead-up to the ceremony, including Cinema Salem and the Luna this week.
  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre gets the Documentary Oscar-Nominated Short Films, playing them in two programs in the screening room; those are a bit less likely to show up elsewhere and the room is small (though Cinema Salem and the Luna have it as one program), so tickets in advance are advised. They also get Lebanese foreign-language Oscar nominee Capernaum.

    After midnight, they continue their February Women in Horror Month with a 35mm print of The Descent on Friday and the new Suspiria on Saturday, when they'll also have documentary Survival of the Film Freaks. There's also a Science on Screen presentation of Inside Out Monday, with Northeastern Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett talking about how emotions work within the brain beforehand. The monthly Open Screen is Tuesday, with a 35mm print of Lost In Translation an interesting choice for the Valentine's Day Big Screen Classic on Thursday.
  • The Chinese New Year pictures got shuffled around, with Crazy Alien apparently off the schedule and The Wandering Earth getting early shows. It (re)opens at Boston Common and Fenway on Friday (albeit in 2D). Peppa Pig Celebrates Chinese New Year and Pegasus continue from Tuesday at Boston Common, which also gets Hong Kong thriller Integrity.

    Indian films include another few days (at least) of Uri: The Surgical Strike at Fenway and Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga at Apple Fresh Pond. They also get Amavas, a Bollywood horror movie with Nargis Fakhri & Sachiin Joshi as a young couple staying in a freaky old house, Telugu historical drama Yatra, and Kannada-language action-adventure Natasaarvabhowma (which also plays Fenway on Saturday afternoon). Something called Bhaai Part 2 plays Saturday and Sunday, but I can't find much information on it.
  • The Brattle Theatre opens Brazilian animated feature Tito and the Birds for matinees Friday through Sunday, with the first two screenings of this movie about a kid seeking a cure for a fear virus on Saturday and Sunday in English and the last one of the day in Portuguese. They spend the evenings of the weekend on a 35mm Tribute to Nicolas Roeg, with Performance on Friday, a double feature of Don't Look Now & The Masque of the Red Death on Saturday, and Walkabout on Sunday. There's a DocYard screening of The Grand Bizarre on Monday with director Jodie Mack bringing a 35mm print, and they kick off a new series, "Cinema in Context", with Jill Lepore discussing The Ipcress File after screening a 35mm print. Wednesday and Thursday are the annual Valentine's Day shows of Casablanca and The Princess Bride.
  • The Boston Israeli Film Festival opened on Thursday and continues at multiple venues this week, with the schedule including Shoelaces (Bright Screening Room Saturday); Operation Egg, Rachel Agmom, and You Only Die Twice (The West Newton Cinema Sunday); Outdoors (JCC Reimer-Goldstein Theater Monday); The Dive (West Newton Tuesday); An Israeli Love Story (MFA Wednesday); and The Unorthodox (West Newton Thursday)
  • The Museum of Fine Arts also has their own series going on, starting with their Boston Festival of Films from Japan, including Ramen Shop (Friday), We Make Antiques! (Sunday), and Night Is Short, Walk on Girl. They also begin an "Exhibition on Screen" run for Young Picasso (Friday/Wednesday/Thursday), with a Sunday screening of At Eternity's Gate to tie in. Their monthly "On the Fringe: Adventures in Cult Cinema" screening is on Friday with Zardoz.
  • Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor finish their visit to The Harvard Film Archive with Leviathan on Friday and somniloquies on Sunday. There's a $5 family matinee show of How to Train Your Dragon on Saturday afternoon, and Mariano Llinás's jumbo-sized Extraordinary Stories that evening. They then wrap their "Poets of Pandemonium" series on Monday, pairing Derek Jarman's War Requiem with Humphrey Jennings's short "The True Story of LIli Marlene", both on 35mm.
  • Bright Lights has two documentaries in the Bright Screening Room at the Paramount Theater this week with Three Identical Strangers (featuring post-screening discussion with microbiologist/Emerson associate professor Amy Vashlishan) on Tuesday and Love, Gilda (discussion with assistant professor Maria Corrigan) on Thursday. Both free and open.
  • The Somerville Theatre is homebase for Boston Sci-Fi FIlm Festival in the week leading up to the big marathon, this year featuring more documentaries about fandom topics, plenty of short films and panels, and several special presentations, including a work-in-progress screening of Wizards of Hollywood at the The Museum of Science on Tuesday.
  • The ICA has a program of Sundance FIlm Festival Shorts from the 2018 edition Friday evening as well as Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
  • In addition to the Oscar shorts, The Luna Theater has Grease (Saturday & Sunday matinees), Casablanca all day Sunday, and "Weirdo Wednesday".


In previous years, I'd be living at the Somerville for the sci-fi fest, but aside from having been burned before, the combination of Lunar New Year, the Oscar shorts, and the other good stuff makes it harder to take a risk on sub-VOD material. I'll still spend a fair chunk of time there, but Arctic, Integrity, The Lego Movie, the Oscar shorts, and maybe others aren't going get pushed off this year.

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