Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 8 November 2019 - 14 November 2019

A lot to see this weekend, and the rain and MBTA have kept me from getting a head start on it. Well, probably more traffic that their buses got stuck in than the MBTA itself, but, still, not pleased!

• Let's start off with the stuff from China, which finally sends Better Days our way after yanking it from release - apparently the story about a bullied girl involved in a murder mystery and dangerous romance during her college exams freaked their censor board out, and I'm not sure how much it's been cut since, but it was a big hit when it dropped with three days notice a couple weeks ago. It's from the director of the pretty great SoulMate with star Zhou Dongyu also coming from that film. Those looking for a funnier Chinese movie can check out My Fair Liar, with Da Peng as a single father who gets involved in a scam that involves him marrying a camgirl (Liu Yan). Both are at Boston Common, with Better Days also at the Seaport.
  
  Over at Apple Fresh Pond, they open Bollywood comedy Bala, which apparently spins a movie out of a man dealing with going bald in his twenties. They also continue Housefull 4 and Kaithi (through Monday), with Girgit having an encore show on Sunday, but the herd has thinned out enough for them to have room to (likely) four-wall Love Is Blind, in which a woman with a selective perception condition cannot see her mother despite living in the same house.
• It's busy at the multiplexes, too, with the biggest release Doctor Sleep, Mike Flanagan's adaptation of Stephen King's sequel to The Shining which takes a lot of visual cues from the movie despite King not liking that film much, but it's great seeing Flanagan doing this sort of major project. It's at the Somerville, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway (including RPX), the Seaport (including Icon-X), South Bay (including Imax & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax & Dolby Cinema), Revere (including XPlus), and the Superlux.
  
  Down the hall(s), many places will have Midway, Roland Emmerich's recreation of a key battle in World War II, which looks spiffy enough, like most Emmerich movies. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, the Seaport (including Icon-X), South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), the Embassy, Revere (including XPlus), and the Superlux. There's also Last Christmas, a romantic comedy starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding, built around the songs of George Michael and written by Emma Thompson (who also pops up in a supporting role, as does Michelle Yeoh). That plays the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, the Embassy, Revere, and the SuperLux. For the kids, there's Playing with Fire, with John Cena as a smoke-jumper who winds up saddled with three kids at his fire station until their parents can be found. That's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Revere.
  
  There are also 45th anniversary shows of The Godfather Part II at Fenway and Assembly Row on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (note that it and the first will be at the Brattle on 35mm in December). Anime fans can catch KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World on Tuesday and Thursday at Fenway, South Bay (Tuesday only), Assembly Row, and Revere (Tuesday only). For music, John Fogerty: 50 Year Trip Live at Red Rocks plays Revere on on Monday; Everybody's Everything, a documentary on musician Lil Peep plays Boston Common and The Regent Theatre on Tuesday (with the Regent having an extra show on Wednesday with the first sold out); and Shakira in Concert: El Dorado World Tour plays Boston Common, Fenway, and Revere on Thursday. South Bay and Revere have a program of six remastered Twilight Zone episodes on Thursday, while Revere also shows The Matrix that night (including MX4D shows). There are also "Girls' Night Out" shows of the new Charlie's Angels at Boston Common, Fenway, the Seaport, Assembly Row, and Revere on Wednesday.
• Kendall Square gets Synonyms, about an Israeli man who moves to France to escape a country that seems to have no place for him, and Frankie, directed by Ira Sachs and following a family on an eventful day while on vacation in Portugal, with Isabelle Huppert, Brendan Gleeson, and Marisa Tomei.
• The Brattle Theatre spends much of their schedule on "Make My Day: The Cinematic Imagination of the Reagan Era", with Risky Business late Friday (oddly, the only thing on the schedule); a matinee double feature of E.T. & Gremlins Saturday afternoon, both on 35mm; a twin bill of The Terminator & The Running Man on Sunday; a "Cinema in Context" show of WarGames, in 35mm and with an introduction by J. Hoberman, whose book gives the series its title, on Tuesday; and a pairing of Ishtar & Walker, the latter in 35mm, on Wednesday.
• The rest of the Brattle's schedule is dedicated to Boston Jewish Film's annual festival, which also has shows at the Coolidge, the Bright Screening Room, the MFA, the JCC Reimer-Goldstein Theater, the Capitol, West Newton, NewBridge on the Charles, Patriot Place in Foxboro, the Somerville, .
  
  The Capitol Theatre also plays host to Arlington International Film Festival, which runs through Sunday and as usual is packed incredibly tight, with barely a break between programs.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre mostly continues their current line-up, but with fun extras along with the repertory programs. The midnight shows on Friday and Saturday are a restoration of Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead with a new score and sound mix, with Saturday night's show being a special "Haus of Oni" presentation with a special horror-drag preshow - although, let me tell you, if that new 4K disc I bought just a year ago is already obsolete… A more conventional Big Screen Classic, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, plays Monday evening with an optional seminar presentation; Thursday's 35mm Rewind! presentation of Welcome to the Dollhouse has an afterparty at Osaka down the street.
• The Harvard Film Archive has more B-Movies this weekend with Peter Lorre in The Face Behind the Mask up first Friday night before a Richard Fleischer double feature of Armored Car Robbery and Narrow Margin later that evening. Would-be franchise starter Dr. Broadway plays Saturday night. There's also a Western double feature of Thunderhoof & Ride Lonesome (DCP) on Sunday before the evening show of Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore. All but one are on 35mm and the run something like 63 to 77 minutes, so there's no wasted time.
  
  The HFA's also in on the "Make My Day" series it shares with the Brattle, with The King of Comedy on Saturday night and J. Hoberman introducing Being There on Monday, both on 35mm film.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has more shows of What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire? (Friday/Sunday) and Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (Wednesday), as well as the first of their mini-run Mr. Klein, which is sort of adjacent to the Boston Jewish Film festival to which they also dedicate a lot of screen time.. There's also the final show in their quick "New Cinema from Brazil" program, Marighella, with Seu Jorge in the title role, on Saturday.
• With the holidays coming up, The Museum of Science adds the stripped-down version of The Polar Express to their 4D shows.
• Bright Lights partners with Wicked Queer for Trans Awareness Week on Tuesday, with Adam playing Tuesday with screenwriter Ariel Schrag on hand, and then with the Roxbury International Film Festival and Boston Women's Film Festival for Warrior Women on Thursday with director Elizabeth Castle afterward, both free and in the Paramount's Bright Screening Room. Emerson's Films From the Margin club shows Cleo 5 to 7 in Walker 202 on Wednesday; I'm not sure how open-to-the-public that is.
• The ICA has short film program "A Wall Is a Wall" on Sunday afternoon, free with museum admission (it plays in conjunction with an exhibition), although tickets need to be reserved.
• The Luna Theater has a run of indie comedy Greener Grass this week, with evening shows on Friday/Saturday/Monday/Tuesday. They also have the kind of neat Irish-American surfing documentary The Crest on Saturday afternoon, Official Secrets on Saturday evenings and Monday afternoon, a full day of Mars Attacks on Sunday, and their first show of the New York Dog Film Festival on Monday. As usual, the Saturday Morning Cartoons, Sunday "Magic Mystery Movie Club", and Weirdo Wednesday shows are surprises but free. Oddly, Cinema Salem doesn't seem to have anything on their little screen this week; maybe it's getting an upgrade.

B movies Friday night, Chinese movies Saturday, the multiplexes other days (Doctor Sleep, Last Christman, and Midway all interest for various reasons), and some stuff I should really have seen already as well