- First up is Parasite from Bong Joon-ho, and let's give a big hand to everybody around the world who didn't blab about everything that happens even though they got it weeks or months before the United States. It apparently starts out as a scheming family running a grift on a wealthy one, but supposedly takes a lot of turns along the way. It's at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square, and Boston Common. Those same theaters (along with West Newton) also open Pain and Glory, a new picture from Pedro Almodóvar with long-time collaborator Antonio Banderas playing an aging film director (hmmm) whose body and inspiration are both failing him.
As Halloween approaches, the Coolidge continues to not mess around with their midnight program, kicking this weekend's festivities off at 8pm Friday at Rocky Woods with a double feature of Sleepaway Camp & The Blair Witch Project, while those of us who are not even going to consider watching that second one out in the middle of the woods can choose between From Dusk til Dawn and The Room at midnight on Friday while the original 1954 Godzilla plays Saturday. Monday's 35mm "Science on Screen" presentation of Purple Rain with producer and professor of music production Susan Rogers is apparently already sold out, but there are still tickets available for Thursday's "Rewind!" showing of I Know What You Did Last Summer on 35mm with an after party across the street. - It's mostly sequels at the multiplexes for English-speakers, and they're both head-scratchers. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil follows up a first part that inverted its source material in interesting ways but seems like it's just universe expansion here. It plays the Capitol (2D only), Fresh Pond (2D only), Jordan's Furniture (Imax 2D), Boston Common (including 3D), Fenway (including 3D & 2D RPX), the Seaport (including 3D Icon-X), South Bay (including 3D & Imax 2D) , Assembly Row (including 3D, Imax 2D & Dolby Cinema) , the Embassy (2D only), Revere (2D only), and the SuperLux (2D only). Zombieland: Double Tap follows up a movie I didn't love that seemed to play out its joke, but still has a pretty terrific cast. It's at the Somerville, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway (including RPX), the Seaport (including Icon-X), South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), the Embassy, Revere, and the SuperLux.
Some of the multiplexes have extra screens to fill, with Boston Common the first place in the area to get The Lighthouse while locally-produced indie horror movie Habitual opens in Revere.
Bruce Springsteen's performance film of his new album, Western Stars, has preview screenings at Boston Common, Fenway, and Assembly Row on Saturday and Wednesday before its official opening next week, while Neil Young's documentary on his latest album, Mountaintop, plays The Regent Theatre and Revere on Tuesday. If you like filmmakers more than musicians, Quentin Tarantino doc QT8 plays the Seaport, Assembly Row, and Revere on Tuesday. Interesting-if-messy anime Human Lost plays the Kendall and Boston Common Tuesday (subbed) and Wednesday (dubbed), while major franchise entry One Piece: Stampede has its first shows at Boston Common, Fenway, the Seaport, and Revere on Thursday, with scattered shows for the next week. Faith-based actioner The Reliant plays Fenway, South Bay, and Revere on Thursday with a whole cast of people who may or may not deserve better, while Revere has the first of a couple shows of The Goonies on Thursday. - In addition to the big foreign movies, Kendall Square has a couple documentaries. Midnight Traveler has Afghani filmmakers Hassan Fazili and his wife Fatima Hussaini putting together their iPhone footage for their escape from Afghanistan after the Taliban put a price on Fazili's head. They also open IFFBoston alum Jim Allison: Breakthrough for a couple shows a day, with director Bill Haney following Allison, one of the foremost researchers in the fight against cancer.
- The Boston Underground Film Festival continues their 2019-and-a-half Buffoween festival at The Somerville Theatre this weekend, with Fantasia's "Born of Woman" program and Fatih Akin's The Golden Glove on Friday, the restored (and now gory rather than PG-13) Tammy and the T-Rex and Blood on Her Name on Saturday, and Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life and Ghastly Death of Al Adamson (with director David Gregory on hand) and Daniel Isn't Real closing it out on Sunday. The Somerville also has a Friday night Slaughterhouse Film Club entry of A Nightmare on Elm Street on 35mm with burlesque pre-show, a special screening of movie palace documentary Going Attractions on Sunday afternoon, the Reel Rock action-sports shorts on Wednesday, and the first entry in their "All Killer, No Filler" Halloween Hullabaloo on Thursday, with a double feature of Battle Royale & Ju-On: The Grudge. It's also worth checking their site, as some screenings of Joker are still 70mm and some of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood are 35mm.
- The Captain opened in China for National Day back at the end of September but just makes it to North America now as distributors stagger their releases a bit. This film built to stoke national pride stars Zhang Hanyu as the pilot of a plane that had a loss of cabin pressure six miles above Tibet, with Andrew Lau directing. My People, My Country is also sticking around.
The Sky Is Pink and War continue at Apple Fresh Pond for those who go for Indian movies; they also show indie horror movie Candy Corn on Saturday and open Tamil movies Bigil and Kaithi on Thursday. - The Brattle Theatre and The West Newton Cinema have The Elephant Queen, a documentary on Kenyan elephants narrated by Chiwitel Ejiofor, ahead of its premiere on Apple TV+ (insert jokes about the only chance anyone will have to see this movie here!).
The Brattle will mostly have it as matinees with other features getting the later hours. For the weekend, that's their new "Film and…" Festival, which includes The Man Who Laughs with a live score by Jeff Rapsis on Friday, Nicholas Ray's Bigger than Life with (and without) live commentary by authors Jonathan Lethem & Susan Choi on Saturday evening, a screening and poster release for the director's cut of Midsommar later than night (with two special metallic versions award as door prizes), and director Julie Smith and subject Eugene Mirman on-hand for a special screening of IFFBoston alum It Started as a Joke on Sunday.
Special events continue through the work week, with the DocYard planning to welcome directors James Blagden (in person) and Roni Moore (via Skype) for their film Midnight in Paris on Monday. The Goethe-Institut welcomes German filmmaker Andreas Dresen with his film Grill Point on 35mm Tuesday before showing his latest Gunderman on Wednesday. The Brattle then hosts opening night of the Boston Asian American Film Festival with two screenings of Lucky Grandman on Thursday. BAAFF also presents 9-Man at the Newton City Hall on Sunday, before the festival proper begins. - The Harvard Film Archive starts series for two contemporary filmmakers this weekend. Uncomfortably Yours: The Films of Alex Ross Perry features Listen Up Philip (35mm Friday), The Color Wheel (35mm Saturday with Perry also inflicting Herschell Gordon Lewis's The Magic Land of Mother Goose on the audience). Four Films by François Ozon features Swimming Pool (35mm Saturday) and Ozon in person for a preview showing of his latest, By the Grace of God, on Monday. Going back a bit further, they start "The Transcendent Cinema of David Brooks" with a program of short feature "The Wind Is Driving Him Toward The Open Sea" & short "Redcap or Peanut Butter on My Roof" on 16mm Sunday. B-Movies also continue with a double feature of My Name Is Julia Ross (35mm) & So Dark the Night at 9pm Friday and 4pm Sunday.
- The Museum of Fine Arts has their final screening of I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians on Friday afternoon before kicking off their annual Boston Palestine Film Festival on Friday afternoon. Screenings for that include It Must Be Heaven (sold-out Friday/tickets available Saturday); Emwas, Restoring Memories (Saturday), Hurdle (Sunday), The Journey of the Others (Sunday), You Come From Far Away (Sunday w/director Amal Ramsis), On the Doorstep (Wednesday), Gaza (Wednesday w/director Ahmed Mansour), Between Two Crossings (Thursday), and Samouni Road (Thursday).
- Ahmed Monsour and the Palestine Film Festival are also upstairs at the Paramount on Tuesday for a free Bright Lights show of his film Brooklyn Inshallah. Thursday's screening is Gloria Bell, co-presented by the Boston Latino Film Festival.
Before that, ArtsEmerson hosts the second annual Baltic Film Festival, with The Foundation of Criminal Excelency (Friday 6pm), Mystery of the Old Garden (Saturday 10am), Back to the Dreamland (Saturday 12:45pm), The Little Comrade (Saturday 3pm & Sunday 10:20am), Ahto: Chasing a Dream (Saturday 5:40pm), Summer Survivors (Saturday 8:30pm), The Mover (Sunday 3:30pm), and And All Their Men (Sunday 6:30pm). - Boston University's annual Tournées Film Festival has it's final entry, Tazzeka in the Photonics Center on Friday evening.
- Cinema Salem is still all-in for Halloween, with indie horror film Trick playing in one of the larger rooms while their original short documentaries "The History of Halloween", "The True 1692", and "The Spirit of Salem" occupy the smaller screen, the first two in 3D. They also welcome the Teseracte Players for two screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Saturday (with Boston Common's weekly showing at 9:30pm that night as well; I don't know if Full Body Cast still accompanies those). The Salem Horror Fest hibernates for a week before next weekend's Steven King blitz.
- The Luna Theater has one of their simpler schedules, with three shows of The Craft on Saturday, three of Hitchcock's Psycho on Sunday, one last show of documentary Wrinkles the Clown on Tuesday, plus the free Saturday Morning Cartoons, Sunday's "Magic Mystery Movie Club", and Weirdo Wednesday.
Lots to take in, including Buff-O-Ween, Parasite, Pain and Gain, The Captain, and some things that I'll probably hit because they're almost gone or at convenient times.
No comments:
Post a Comment