Friday, June 21, 2019

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 21 June 2019 - 27 June 2019

The studios get cute with the likely biggest hit, and I try to flee temptation.

  • The cuteness has to do with the fact that the big deluxe-screen release this week is Toy Story 4, which kind of looks like a mash-up of the previous movies in the series - toys who can move when you're not looking on the road trying to get home, a new friend who doesn't identify as a toy, , confronting being left behind and outgrown. Not that this has failed for Pixar yet, and you can see how well they handle it this time at the Capitol (2D only), Fresh Pond (2D only), West Newton (2D only), the Belmont Studio (2D only), Boston Common (including Imax 2D), Fenway (including RPX 2D), the Seaport (including 2D/3D 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).

    The folks getting cute are the ones releasing the remake of Child's Play - this time with the doll having malfunctioning AI rather than possession and happening despite the fact that the original is still getting sequels and spin-offs - on the same day. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Revere. And for even more, the latest Conjuring spin-off, Annabelle Comes Home, opens Wednesday at Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Imax), Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax), Assembly Row (including Imax), and Revere.

    Also coming out is the new action piece from Luc Besson, Anna, at Boston Common, Assembly Row, South Bay, and Revere. There will be 25th Anniversary screenings on Sunday and Tuesday of Forrest Gump at Fenway, the Seaport, and South Bay, and Revere (Tuesday only). Boston Common will also have a screening of Milk on Monday.
  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre and Kendall Square both open Echo in the Canyon, a documentary about the bands that emerged from Los Angeles's Laurel Canyon in the mid-1960s, and both are going to be having director Andrew Slater and producer/musician Jakob Dylan on hand for Q&A and post-film performance. They'll be at the Coolidge for the Saturday 7pm and Sunday 5pm shows, and at Kendall Square for the Saturday 8:30pm and Sunday 2pm shows, getting across the river in a hurry.

    For midnights, the Coolidge has Penelope Spheeris's Suburbia on 35mm and The Room on Friday night and a 35mm print of Liquid Sky on Saturday. Sunday includes a Goethe-Institut screening of Gunderman (this music doc from German) and a special preview screening of Maiden with subject Tracy Edwards (Boston Common will have a preview with pre-recorded Q&A on Monday). Monday's Big Screen Classic is Titanic on 35mm.
  • Not enough music documentaries for you? Kendall Square also has The Quiet One, a close-up look at Bill Wyman, a founding member of the Rolling Stones who never opted to be as flamboyant as his band-mates. They also have a sort of hybrid in Framing John Delorean, which integrates traditional documentary filmmaking with reenactments featuring Alec Baldwin, Morena Baccarin, and Josh Charles.
  • The Brattle Theatre opens documentary The Eyes of Orson Welles, with filmmaker Mark Cousins sifting through Welles's archives to get a better idea of what made him tick. They pair it with separate-admission programs of some of Welles's greatest: a 35mm print of Citizen Kane on Saturday, a double feature of The Lady from Shanghai & Touch of Evil on Sunday, Chimes at Midnight on Wednesday, and a 35mm print of F for Fake on Thursday. They also have a free Elements of Cinema screening of Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland on Tuesday evening.
  • Apple Fresh Pond open Hindi drama Kabir Singh and Malayalam action-comedy Unda (through Sunday), as well as The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir, an international co-production from the director of Starbuck (and its remake Delivery Man) that starts in India but leads to a globetrotting adventure.
  • The thing only playing in West Newton this week is Hampstead, which features Diane Keaton and Brendan Gleeson as an unlikely couple fighting developers, and appears to have taken two years to cross the Atlantic from the UK (it's also available to stream). They also have the finale of Belmont World Film's annual World Refugee Month series on Monday, the US premiere of French documentary To the Four Winds.
  • The Museum of Fine Arts is home base for The Roxbury International Film Festival this week, with screenings Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday, many films featuring Q&A and panel discussions afterward. They decamp for Hibernian Hall on Monday and a special Dinner and a Movie (actually a double feature) show at Haley House Bakery Cafe on Tuesday.
  • The Harvard Film Archive wraps up "Extreme Cinema: The Action Documentaries of Kazuo Hara" with Hara producer Sachiko Kobayashi on hand in person this weekend. They likely won't be in Cambridge in time for A Dedicated Life on Friday, but will present his latest Sennan Asbestos Disaster on Saturday and a 16mm print of Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 on Sunday. They also present a couple of 35mm prints from The Complete Howard Hawks, with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Sunday afternoon and His Girl Friday Monday evening.
  • The Slaughterhouse Movie Club returns to The Somerville Theatre on Friday, with John Waters's Crybaby the latest 35mm print to get a burlesque-show introduction. They also kick off their summer "Play It Cool" series, this year featuring movies about movies, on Wednesday, when original novelist Gary K. Wolf will stop by to introduce Who Framed Roger Rabbit? on 35mm. "Jack Attack!" has settled into Thursday evenings, with this week's Nicholson film a 35mm print of The Witches of Eastwick. The last Thursday of the month being "Throwback Thursday", their sister cinema The Capitol will show The Birdcage.
  • Boston Jewish Film presents Etgar Keret: Based on a True Story at Boston University's Tsai Performance Center on Tuesday, with a pre-recorded Q&A with director Stephanie Kaas.
  • The Regent Theatre is the latest place for Nureyev to show up, with the documentary about the famous Russian dancer playing Wednesday evening. They also have the local premiere of Parallel Love: The story of a Band Called Luxury on Thursday.
  • Cinema Salem has Amazing Grace in the little room this week, and an 11:30pm show of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Saturday (Boston Common has of late moved their Saturday Rocky Horror shows earlier, to 9:30pm). The Luna Theater has The Who's Quadropenia on Friday and Saturday nights, Okko's Inn dubbed on Saturday and subtitled on Tuesday, Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché on Saturday, Rock 'n' Roll High School as the main show on Sunday, and surprise free movies of "Magical Mystery Movie Club" on Saturday & Sunday and Weirdo Wednesdays. The AMC at the Liberty Tree Mall has Ladies in Black, a comedy set in a circa 1959 Australian department store featuring Angourie Rice and Julia Ormand.
  • The only outdoor screenings on Joe's Free Films this week are on Friday night, with City Slickers at the Boston Harbor Hotel and Ralph Breaks the Internet at the Hatch Shell.


With any luck, I will see none of that, as I am headed out on vacation and if I'm at the movies, it probably means it's rainy or something (or maybe there's something playing London that I'm not likely to see back home).

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