Friday, August 16, 2019

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 16 August 2019 - 22 August 2019

Mid-August, kids already back in school, studios getting the not-great stuff out.

  • A couple of these are getting surprisingly good reviews, though. Good Boys, for instance, has been getting great reviews, although the previews for this movie where 12-year-olds get into decidedly R-rated misadventures have been dreadful. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Revere. So is Blinded by the Light, the new one from director Gurinder Chadna, about a teenager in 1987 Britain who becomes a big fan of Bruce Springsteen. It's at Somerville, the Lexington Venue, West Newton, Boston Common, Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema and a repeat of the "Springsteen Fan Event" on Tuesday afternoon), the Embassy, Revere, and the SuperLux.

    There's also Where'd You Go, Bernadette, the new film from Richard Linklater, starring Cate Blanchett as a suburban mom who needs some adventure in her life, at the Somerville, Kendall Square, West Newton, Boston Common, Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Revere, and the SuperLux. 47 Meters Down: Uncaged comes from the same team as the first and is disappointingly not called "48 Meters Down", featuring four teenagers providing the sharks multiple targets. It plays Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, Revere.

    Angry Birds 2 opened on Wednesday, and continues this week at the Capitol (2D only), Fresh Pond (2D only), Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Revere. Next Wednesday's opening is Ready or Not, a Fantasia selection featuring Samara Weaving as a new bride whose in-laws intend to kill her on their wedding night as part of some ritual, unless she can win a game of hide-and-seek. It will open at Boston Common, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and probably others.

    The Lexington Venue has 50th Anniversary screenings of A Boy Named Charlie Brown on Saturday & Sunday mornings, while Revere shows it Wednesday afternoon and the Regent in Arlington has it Wednesday afternoon and evening. Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress plays Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay, and Revere on Tuesday. Boston Common and Revere have Fantasia alum Kingdom, a fun Japanese take on China's warring kingdom period, from Tuesday through Thursday Fenway also has concert film Rush: Cinema Strangiato on Wednesday, and Revere has Taxi Driver on Thursday. Bring the Soul: The Movie continues at Revere through Sunday and Boston Common through Wednesday
  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre picks up the The Nightingale, although on the smaller screens, which also hold over Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am.

    The midnights at the Coolidge this weekend come from Paul Verhoeven, with Showgirls on Friday and Starship Troopers on Saturday, both on 35mm. They've got a special screening of Sonic Youth: 30 Years of Daydream Nature on Sunday afternoon, followed by a panel discussion with Steve Shelley, writer Byron Coley, and Sonic Youth archivist Aaron Mullan. Monday's Big Screen Classic is the annual The Big Lebowski party. There's also a Tuesday screening of Dateline-Saigon with a post-screening discussion, as well as a (free/RSVP required) GlobeDocs screening of Behind the Bullet with director Heidi Yewman. Thursday's "Summer of '69" show is Medium Cool.
  • Kendall Square and West Newton open After the Wedding, with Michelle Williams as a woman running an orphanage who finds herself in increasingly difficult situations after meeting her benefactor (Julianne Moore). The two places also open Tel Aviv on Fire, a comedy that takes place behind the scenes of a Palestinian soap opera.

    The Kendall also opens IFFBoston selection One Child Nation (aka Born in China), in which director Wang Nanfu looks back at China's One Child policy as she has her first child and remembers how her family was ostracized because of her younger brother.
  • Apple Fresh Pond does a big refresh of their movies for Indian Independence Day, with Hindi-language Mission Mangal featuring Akshay Kumar in a film about the Indian Space Research Organization launching the Mars Orbiter Mission on a strict budget. Batla House is also in Hindi, an action movie based on a real-life 2008 raid. Ranarangam is a bit of "mobster who thought he was out but gets pulled back in" in the Telugu language. Also in Telugu is Evaru, with Adivi Sesh as an internal affairs officer investigating the murder of a high-ranking cop who had been killed by his alleged rape victim.

    Line Walker 2 opens at Boston Common, though it's maybe not a great time for a movie about undercover Hong Kong cops, although it looks less like a continuation of the TV series as the first was and more Francis Ng, Louis Koo, and Nick Cheung are fighting Taiwanese hackers. They also have night-time screenings of Chinese firefighting movie The Bravest.
  • The Brattle Theatre gives most of the weekend to a new restoration of Olivia, a 1951 film directed by Jacqueline Audry, one of the few female filmmakers working at that time. It follows a new girl at a 19th-century boarding school with two manipulative headmistresses. It plays Friday through Sunday, although the last show of the day at 9:30 is reserved for Booksmart, Olivia Wilde's hilarious comedy about two high-achieving girls trying to fit all the fun they missed into the night before graduation.

    Noirversary falls on Monday this week with the pairing of The Woman in the Window & The Mask of Dimitrios, both on 35mm, while Tuesday is Trash Night. Wednesday's Recent Rave is Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir; and Reel Music on Thursday is a two single showings, a special presentation of the "Buy Me Boston Video Loft" and Penelope Spheeris's Suburbia.
  • The Harvard Film Archive has a full slate of The Complete Howard Hawks this week, with seven prints: Rio Lobo (Friday 7pm), The Road to Glory (Friday 9:30pm), A Song Is Born (Saturday 7pm on 16mm), O. Henry's Full House (Saturday 9pm), Come and Get It (Sunday 4:30pm), Barbary Coast (Sunday 7pm), and The Crowd Roars (Monday 7pm).
  • The Museum of Fine Arts continues two repertory series this weekend. "Space Exploration on Film" features Apollo 11 (Friday/Sunday) and the Tarkovsky Solaris (Saturday); "A Splinter in Your Mind: Films from '99" includes Magnolia (Friday), Boys Don't Cry (Saturday), and Election (Sunday), with the 1999 films all on 35mm.
  • Saturday's Midnight Special at The Somerville Theatre is The Song Remains the Same, and they're also starting to let other things share screen #1 with Once Upon a Time In Hollywood during regular hours. Sunday, for instance, features the return of "Silents, Please", with Jeff Rapsis accompanying The Woman Disputed, which stars Norma Talmadge in an adaptation of a Guy de Maupassant story about an adventuress who becomes a general's mistress to free hostages. "Play It Cool" returns on Wednesday with California Split, while Jack Attack continues on Thursday with Wolf. All of those repertory programs are on 35mm film. That's not likely the case with Wednesday's The Boston Underground Film Festival "Dispatches from the Underground", although that's still listed as TBA and so may not still be on this month.
  • The Regent Theatre has live performances much of the weekend, but Tuesday's presentation of Jiro Dreams of Sushi is free with RSVP and includes a small popcorn and soda. A Boy Named Charlie Brown plays Wednesday.
  • Cinema Salem has nifty Swedish science fiction film Aniara in the screening room this weekend, as well as screenings of Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. The Luna Theater has Midsommar on Friday and Saturday evenings, Psycho Beach Party on Saturday afternoon, and Rosemary's Baby on Sunday, along with the free mystery boxes of the "Magical Mystery Movie Club" on Saturday and Sunday mornings and Weirdo Wednesday.
  • Joe's Free Films shows the outdoor films as very Marvel-oriented this week, with multiple chances to see Captain Marvel and Into the Spider-Verse along with at least one Black Panther, in addition to other mostly-family-friendly options.


I didn't catch The Nightingale last week, so I'll likely do that, Line Walker 2, Ready or Not, the noir, the silent, and maybe whatever one of the new releases is playing when I happen to be getting out of work.

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