Friday, March 29, 2019

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 29 March 2019 - 4 April 2019

I'm weirdly glad that Avengers 4 opens during the next local festival, because it should be a little easier to mute that on social media than "Us". I'm shocked I have only heard as little about it as I have.

  • The first of three big Disney 3D live-action remakes of an animated film this year is Dumbo, with Tim Burton making a film twice as long as the original and apparently focusing more on the human characters than the flying elephant, and that those humans include Michael Keaton, Danny Devito, Eva Green, and Colin Farrell is likely to moderate that a bit. It's playing the Capitol (2D only), Fresh Pond (2D only), Jordan's Furniture (Imax 2D), Boston Common (including Imax 2D), Fenway (including 2D RPX), the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax 2D), Assembly Row (including Imax 2D & Dolby Cinema), the Embassy (2D only), Revere (including MX4D/XPlus), and the SuperLux (2D only).

    A differently-peculiar director, Harmony Korine, also has a slightly smaller film out, with Matthew McConaughey as The Beach Bum, who hopefully gets into misadventures with Snoop Dogg, Isla Fisher, Martin Lawrence, and Zac Efron instead of just getting high. That's at the Somerville, Kendall Square, Boston Common, the Seaport, South Bay, and the Embassy. There's also Hotel Mumbai, a true-life thriller about a terrorist attack on a Mumbai hotel with the guests and staff trying to help each other survive a hostage situation. That plays the Capitol, West Newton, the Lexington Venue, Kendall Square, Boston Common, Fenway, and the Seaport.

    Cruel Intentions hangs around at Fenway, pretty good for something that seems like it would be a one-or-two show thing, like The Karate Kid, which celebrates 35 years with Sunday and Tuesday shows at Fenway, South Bay, and Assembly Row (and Revere on Tuesday). Rolling Stones concert film Rock and Roll Circus plays the Seaport in Icon-X on Monday & Wednesday and the RPX screen at Fenway on Tuesday, while Boston Common, Fenway, and Revere have Free Spirit, the "companion short film" to Khalid's album by the same name, on Wednesday.
  • Kendall Square also picks up The Mustang, starring Matthias Schoenaerts as a convict with a history of violence placed into a rehab program caring for horses, with Bruce Dern as his mentor, and that's some nice casting for this sort of movie.
  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre has just announced a visit from Julianne Moore to receive their eponymous award next month, so reserve your tickets if you're interested. In the meantime, they have booked the new restoration of Babylon for 9:30pm shows on screen #2; it premiered in 1980 but never had a U.S. run because the film about a London DJ was considered racially "incendiary" at the time.

    In addition to its regular showtimes, the Coolidge is giving Us midnight shows, though the killer machines keep coming with The Matrix Reloaded on 35mm Friday and a print of Runaway on Saturday.
  • Puerto Rican comedy Los Domirriqueños 2 opens in South Bay and Revere, with the Dominican and Puerto Rican communities from the first once again coming together to raise money for the community, this time running a circus. Another Spanish-language sequel whose predecessor may not have played locally, No Manches Frida 2, continues at Revere. For Chinese-movie fans, More than Blue continues at Boston Common, while Ash Is Purest White continues at the Common and Kendall.

    Apple Fresh Pond opens a few INdian movies this weekend, with Bollywood action movie Junglee, featuring Vidyut Jamwal as a veterinarian encounters poachers in his father elephant preserve directed by… Chuck Russell? Huh. There's also Notebook, with Zaheer Iqbal as a former soldier turned teacher drawn to the woman who had his classroom the previous year (Pranutan Bahl), also in Hindi. Tamil-speakers get Super Deluxe, an action epic featuring four unlikely heroes in different situations, and supernatural thriller Airaa (opens Saturday). Malayalam crime thriller Lucifer also opens, as does what I think is the third Telugu-langauge Nandamuri Taraka Ramarao biography in as many months, this one focused on his marriage and co-directed by the prolific Ram Gopal Varma (through Sunday). Sticking around are Kesari (also at Fenway) and Badla.
  • The Brattle Theatre switches festivals from BUFF to Wicked Queer, although there is a bit of overlap, as one of the Underground festival's best, Knife + Heart plays the Brattle Friday night. The festival also has shows at the MFA, French Cultural Center, Fenway Community Health Center, and the Paramount's Bright Screening room, including two free Bright Lights presentations (Lizzie on Tuesday, We the Animals with director Jeremiah Zagar on-hand Thursday).

    The Brattle also takes a break from the festival on Monday with renowned director Claire Denis there to present her new film High Life, a sci-fi story starring Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth, and Andre Benjamin.
  • The Harvard Film Archive welcomes FIlipino filmmaker Lav Diaz for a visit this weekend, which means lots of long days and nights even before the Q&As - 4 hours for his new one, Season of the Devil, on Friday, 6 for Century of Birthing Saturday afternoon, and 4+ on Sunday for Norte, the End of History. There's also a 35mm print of Lucrecia Martel's The Holy Girl Sunday afternoon, a short program of Japanese New Wave rarities on Monday, and an evening of 16mm shorts with Fern Silva on Thursday.
  • The Museum of Fine Arts hosts not just Wicked Queer but also 18th Annual Boston Turkish Film Festival this week, including The Wild Pear Tree (Friday), Trust (Saturday), Family Matters (Saturday), The Pigeon (Sunday), Butterflies (Sunday), Ayaz (Thursday), and Siren's Call (Thursday). They also have their last screening of Bauhaus Spirit: 100 Years of Bauhaus on Friday afternoon.
  • The Belmont World Film show at The Belmont Studio this Monday is The Heiresses, a Paraguayan film about a once-wealthy woman who becomes a driver for her former social circle, though it's a younger woman who may change her life.
  • The ReelAbilities film festival wraps with Mind Over Matter at Boston University on Friday, Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable and Pick of the Litter at the Coolidge on Sunday, I'll Push You at the Cotting School in Lexington Monday, American Veteran at Showcase Revere and Defiant Lives at the Cambridge Public Library on Tuesday, and Intelligent Lives at the Museum of Science on Wednesday. Screenings are free but pre-registration is recommended.
  • Cinema Salem is one of the hosts for the all-documentary Salem Film Fest, kicking off on Friday and running through Thursday.
  • Aeronaut Brewery and Jeff Rapsis launch their quarterly Silent Film Club on Sunday evening with a "We'll Always Have Paris" program featuring The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower, a 1927 thriller with a climax filmed on the tower itself.
  • The Regent Theatre has the annual No Man's Land Film Festival program on Tuesday, a night of adventure films featuring all female subjects, and Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church on Wednesday.
  • The Luna Theater plays The Field Guide to Evil on Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday; I found it very uneven at Fantasia last year, but the good bits were worth it. They also have matinees of Mary and the Witch's Flower on Saturday and Sunday, with The Craft playing the rest of the latter day's schedule. Then, of course, there's Weirdo Wednesday.


Well, I really have to see Us before I just accidentally hear too much, and maybe The Beach Bum, Hotel Mumbai, Mystery of the Eiffel Tower, and The Mustang. Dumbo looks pretty, but between Tim Burton and all, one can't help but be wary.

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