Friday, June 07, 2019

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 7 June 2019 - 13 June 2019

Do you like atmospheric crime stories? Because if you do, it's a good week.

  • First off, it's Noir City weekend at The Brattle Theatre, with TCM host Eddie Mueller on hand for a full weekend of mostly 35mm double features: Trapped & The Turning Point (DCP) on Friday evening, City That Never Sleeps (DCP) & Pushover Saturday afternoon, Kiss Me Deadly (DCP) & A Kiss Before Dying Saturday evening, The Burglar & Murder by Contrct Sunday afternoon, and Odds Against Tomorrow & Blast of Silence on Sunday evening.

    After that, they have a DocYard presentation of The Raft on Monday with director Marcus Lindeen on-hand to discuss his documentary about a bizarre 1973 sociological experiment with both archive footage and a reunion. And then after that, they have a sort of mini-run of Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote playing Tuesday through Thursday.
  • Long Day's Journey Into Night is kind of noir-adjacent, but this atmospheric-as-heck Chinese film finally makes its way to Boston and Kendall Square, who is even breaking out the 3D lenses for the incredible final 58-minute tracking shot. You won't see much else like it and since relatively few of us have 3D televisions, the theater's a necessity. They also open Walking on Water, a documentary about Bulgarian artist Christo, working on a massive installation he conceived with his late wife. Director Andrey M. Paounov, producer Izabella Tzenkova, and collaborator Vladimir Yavachev will be on hand for a Q&A on Saturday afternoon.
  • If that's not enough Chinese crime, Boston Common has Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch, a Hong Kong thriller that's not really a sequel to Chasing The Dragon so much as another true-crime story from the same filmmakers, this one starring Louis Koo, Tony Leung Ka-Fai, and Simon Yang. They also have mainland romance My Best Summer as well as nightly 3D shows of Mayday Life.
  • In more conventional releases, two broader-appeal things also get 3D releases. Dark Phoenix is a disappointing (likely) end to the X-Men franchise, mostly dull and lifeless and wasting Jessica Chastain who, if I remember correctly, had talked about being picky about which superhero movie she signed onto. It shows at the Capitol (2D only), Fresh Pond (2D only), Studio Cinema Belmont (2D only), Jordan's Furniture (Imax 2D), West Newton (2D only), Boston Common (including Imax 2D), Fenway (including RPX 2D), the Seaport (including Icon-X), South Bay (including Imax 2D & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax 2D & Dolby Cinema), Revere (including XPlus & MX4D), and the SuperLux (2D only).

    There's also The Secret Lives of Pets, with the dog from the first one making a couple new friends: Harrison Ford's gruff farm dog and his owner's new baby. That's at the Capitol (2D only), Fresh Pond (2D only), Boston Common, Fenway (including RPX 2D), the Seaport (including Icon-X), South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), the Embassy (2D only), Revere (including XPlus), and the SuperLux.

    Apple Fresh Pond has one show a day for haunted-former-maternity-ward thriller The Child Remains, which seems to be doing a budget four-walling, playing one show a day and early at that. In other singles, documentary Free Trip to Egypt plays South Bay and Assembly Row on Wednesday evening, while Fenway, South Bay, and Revere play surfing film Heavy Water on Thursday. Revere also shows A Clockwork Orange on Thursday.
  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre, surprisingly, seems to be the only place getting Ron Howard's Pavarotti documentary - is it also streaming on CBS All Access, or do other places just figure that several previews sated the audience?

    They also have one of the best action movies ever made at midnight on Friday, with a 35mm print of Chow Yun-fat in John Woo's The Killer, with a print of Phantasm late night on Saturday (not really seeing a theme for June other than "necessary cult films", which isn't so bad). The Big Screen Classic on Monday (with optional seminar) is the 1954 version of A Star Is Born, also on 35mm. It's Open Screen on Tuesday, and a Cinema Jukebox show of A Hard Day's Night on Thursday.
  • The Museum of Fine Arts continues their runs of Before Stonewall (Friday), Eat Up (Friday/Saturday/Sunday), The Silence of Others (Saturday/Sunday), and the "Van Gogh in Japan" Exhibition-on-Screen (Wednesday/Thursday). They also have an Arab Film Week with Capernaum (Friday), The Man Behind the Microphone (Saturday), The Poetess (Sunday), and The Day I Lost My Shadow (Thursday). Last but not least, there's Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese on Wednesday evening.
  • The Harvard Film Archive mostly starts off the summer with what is mostly a Members' Screening weekend, but they do kick off a couple other series with things open to the public: Saturday afternoon's $5 family show is a "Moon Medley" that kicks off a series of moon movies for the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11, with this program including a 35mm print of Georges Méliès's "A Trip to the Moon", Wallace & Gromit in "A Grand Day Out", and more. They also start "Extreme Cinema: The Action Documentaries of Kazuo Hara" on Monday with a 16mm print of The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On.
  • The Regent Theatre has a free preview screening of Day Job on Saturday; it's a mockumentary based loosely on the life of its star, an attorney by day and cabaret performer by night.
  • The Somerville Theatre has more Jack Attack!, with Terms of Endearment on Thursday.
  • Cinema Salem picks up Wild Nights with Emily for their small theater. The Luna Theater has Okko's Inn subtitled on Friday and Saturday, The Biggest Little Farm on Saturday and Tuesday, Rafiki on Saturday, and the first of two weeks of Jaws as the main show on Sunday (it is now officially summer movie season in New England). If you like free movie surprises, there's the Saturday/Sunday "Magical Mystery Movie Club" and Weirdo Wednesdays .


I will be living at the Brattle for Noir City this weekend, with just a brief detour to Boston Common for the Hong Kong crime, before a couple of Red Sox games early in the work week. You all catch Long Day's Journey Into Night, so that it'll stick around another week and I get another chance to see it!

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