Friday, March 22, 2019

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 22 March 2019 - 28 March 2019

Looking at this week's releases and thinking, hey, thanks for making it fairly easy to do BUFF without worrying about missing much

  • Said Boston Underground Film Festival runs all weekend at the Brattle, with Friday featuring short films from New England and a midnight program on either end, with Richard Bates's Tone-Deaf and Lucas Heyne's Mope in between. Saturday kicks off with Keir-La Janisse's Saturday Morning Cartoon program at the Brattle and a potential detour to a restoration of Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore at the Harvard Film Archive, then it's the Brattle the rest of the way, with music video and comedy programs before The Nightshifter, Knife+Heart, and a secret screening. Sunday is, as usual, packed, with Assassinaut, the animated shorts, Canary, Happy Face, and The Unthinkable before the closing night party.

    There's no rest for The Brattle Theatre after that, as they have the first leg of their "The Good Works of Claire Denis" series, playing Beau Travail on Monday, I Can't Sleep on Tuesday, and a double feature of No Fear, No Die & L'Intrus on Wednesday, all on 35mm. There's also a free Elements of Cinema screening of A Fish Called Wanda on 35mm earlier in the evening on Tuesday, and then on Thursday it's festival time again as Just Friends opens the 2019 Wicked Queer film festival.
  • At the multiplexes, there seems to be little desire to mess with Us, Jordan Peele's doppelganger-fueled follow-up to Get Out starring Lupita N'yongo. That plays at the Somerville, the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture Natick (Imax), Boston Common (including Imax), Fenway (including RPX), the Seaport (including Icon-X), South Bay (including Imax), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), the Embassy, Revere (including XPlus), and the SuperLux.

    The only other wide-ish opening is a 20th anniversary re-release of Cruel Intentions, which is playing multiple shows daily at Boston Common, Fenway, and Revere. More limited rep screenings include Sunday & Wednesday shows of To Kill a Mockingbird at Fenway, Assembly Row, and Revere (Wednesday only); . There are preview screenings of Shazam! at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay, and Revere on Saturday, and "Q&A Event" screenings of The Mustang at Assembly Row on Saturday (it's not clear whether someone is there or if it's pre-recorded). English-dubbed screenings of anime Made in Abyss: Journey's Dawn plays at Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Revere on Monday, while Kendall Square shows the first two episodes of the new Fruits Basket series on Wednesday (dubbed) and Thursday (subtitled). Documentary "event" Diana Ross: Her Life, Love, and Legacy showing Tuesday at Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay, Revere, and the SuperLux (the latter three also have shows on Thursday).
  • The Aftermath opens The Coolidge Corner Theatre, the Kendall, and Boston Common; it's a tony-looking period piece starring Keira Knightley, Jason Clarke, and Alexander Skarsgård in a post-WWII love triangle.

    The Coolidge continues their midnight killer machine series with 35mm prints of The Stepford Wives (Friday) and Hardware (Saturday). There's a Goethe-Institut show of acclaimed German high-seas thriller Styx Sunday morning, a Science on Screen presentation of Flirting with Disaster Monday (on 35mm with author Carl Zimmer signing his new book and discussing genetic testing), and a "Sounds of Silents" show of Yasujiro Ozu's proto-noir Dragnet Girl with Nashville ensemble Coupler providing music.
  • A The Embassy Theater in Waltham is once again the place where a Netflix movie gets a token theatrical release, with The Highwayman starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson as two former Texas Rangers hunting Bonnie and Clyde.

    Their sister theater at Kendall Square and the multiplex at Boston Common pick up The Hummingbird Project, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Salma Hayek as electronic-trading rivals in a plot to build a trunk line that, by being straight enough to give a nanosecond's advantage, can drastically increase profit. The Kendall also opens Irish multi-story "dramedy" Lost & Found, with filmmaker Liam O Mochain on-hand for Q&As Friday evening and Sunday afternoon, the latter presented by the Irish Film Festival Boston
  • Said Irish Film Festival Boston is not doing a full event this year, but they'll be keeping busy this weekend, with a "Director's Choice" presentation of Float Like a Butterfly with actors Hazel Doupe and Dara Devaney, director Carmel Winters and production designer Toma McCullim on had for a Q&A (preceded by Oscar-nominated short "Late Afternoon") at the Somerville Theatre Friday night. They're also part of the The Somerville Theatre's (very) limited run of Irish prison break thriller Maze. That runs Saturday to Monday, with actor Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, director Stephen Burke and producer Jane Doolan on hand for a Q&A after the 7:15pm show on Saturday.

    After that, the Somerville picks their Jack Attack! retrospective back up, with 35mm prints of Psych-Out (Wednesday) and The Monkees' Head (Thursday).
  • More than Blue continues at Boston Common, joined by Jia Zhangke's new crime epic, Ash Is Purest White which also plays Kendall Square and one screening at the Belmont Studio on Monday as part of the Belmont World Film series. Furie continues a pretty impressive run for a Vietnamese action film at South Bay, while Mexican/American comed No Manches Frida 2 continues at Boston Common and Revere.

    Kesari, a Bollywood action epic starring Akshay Kumar & Parineeti Chopra and set against the Battle of Saragarhi, has already opened at Apple Fresh Pond and Fenway, with Fresh Pond also keeping Badla and Gully Boy around.
  • The Harvard Film Archive flips the order of last week's screening of Aaron Katz's two "Accidental Detective" movies by Aaron Katz on Friday, with Cold Weather at 7pm and Geminiat 9pm. After Saturday's BUFF screening, they continue their family anime series with a $5 show of Mamoru Hosoda's The Boy and the Beast at 3pm, before finishing that day with Lucrecia Martel's La Ciénaga on 35mm at 7pm and Jean-Luc Godard's The Image Book at 9pm. After that, they begin a sort of prelude to their "The Other New Wave" series with three by post-WWII Japanese auteur Susumu Hani: Bad Boys (35mm) and A Full Life (16mm) on Sunday and Nanami: :The Inferno of First Love (35mm) on Monday. The University also opens VES classroom screenings of Lav Diaz's Batang West Side to the public (part 1 Wednesday, Part 2 Thursday) in advance of the Filipino filmmaker's visit next weekend.
  • The Museum of Fine Arts is home to the 18th Annual Boston Turkish Film Festival this week, with screenings of The Bus (Friday), Plane Tree (Friday/Sunday), Documentary & Short Film award-winners (Sunday), Let the Kid Play (Wednesday), Trust (Wednesday), Debt (Thursday), and Family Matters (Thursday).
  • The Belmont Studio hosts the Global Cinema Film Festival this weekend, mostly featuring an international selection of documentary features, many of which include post-film Q&As, along with a block of narrative shorts.
  • The ICA has a World Music/CRASHArts presentation on Friday night, combining The Animated Films of Karen Aqua with live soundtracks provided by the late animator's husband Ken Field, his alto sax quartet, and a drum section (for real this time).
  • The ReelAbilities film festival kicks off at the Somerville Theatre on Tuesday with Far From the Tree, with shows at the Reimer-Goldstein Theater (Bottom Dollars) and Mass General Hospital (Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw) on Wednesday and a Bright Lights presentation of The Rider at the Paramount on Thursday.

    The week's other Bright Lights show is on Tuesday, with Eating Animals director Christopher Dillon there for Q&A.
  • The Regent Theatre has a couple presentations this week, with punk rock documentary STIV: No Compromise, No Regrets on Wednesday and The Bikes of Wrath on Thursday.
  • The Luna Theater wraps up their Harry Potter series this weekend, with Half-Blood Prince Friday & Saturday, Deathly Hallows Part I Saturday & Sunday, and Part II Sunday afternoon. Dumb and Dumber plays Monday, there's an encore of Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams on Tuesday, and another Weirdo Wednesday show.


I'm living at the Brattle until BUFF ends, with probably just enough time for Ash Is Purest White, Us, and hopefully Dragnet Girl afterward.

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