Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 25 December 2019 - 2 January 2020

Merry Christmas, everybody. The presents from the studios look pretty decent

• A couple of big prestige shows open this week, with Uncut Gems apparently continuing the Safdie Brothers' plan of getting something great out of much-maligned actors via tremendous tension, this time apparently getting a career-best performance out of Adam Sandler. It's at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, The Somerville Theatre, The West Newton Cinema, The Lexington Venue, Kendall Square, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, the Embassy.
  
  Down the hall, director Greta Gerwig reunites with Saoirse Ronan and brings in a terrific cast including Florence Pugh, Laura Dern, and Meryl Streep for Little Women. The Coolidge and The Somerville are getting 35mm prints, while Fresh Pond, West Newton, the Lexington Venue, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Fenway, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Revere, and the SuperLux, so far as I can see, only have DCP files.
• The multiplexes got the big release back on Friday, but do open Spies in Disguise for the kids on vacation, an animated adventure with Tom Holland voicing a boy genius working for an intelligence agency whose new camouflage technology changes a spy voiced by Will Smith into a pigeon. It's from the Blue Sky crew, who did the Ice Age movies, among other things, and plays Fresh Pond (2D only), Boston Common (including 3D), Causeway Street (2D only), Fenway (including 3D), South Bay (including 3D), Assembly Row (including 3D), and Revere (2D only).
• Ip Man 4 - The Finale is at least the second time this series starring Boston's Own Donnie Yen has declared itself over, but it seems to be stretching a bit more this time, apparently inventing a trip to America to visit him most famous student, but it means Yen will get to throw down with Scott Adkins with Yuen Woo-Ping choreographing. They also continue to play Only Cloud Knows and Sheep Without a Shepherd with the two splitting a screen.
• The Brattle Theatre offers Films for Kids of All Ages series for families on vacation, starting with a double feature of The Red Shoes & The Wizard of Oz (the latter on 35mm) on Christmas and Boxing Day, followed by The Boy with Green Hair (35mm) on Friday, Pan's Labyrinth (35mm) Friday and Saturday, a double feature of Song of the Sea & Howl's Moving Castle (dubbed 35mm) Saturday, a 35mm pairing of the original King Kong & Cocteau Beauty and the Beast Sunday, and single shows of a 35mm print of Airport and Eighth Grade (digital) on Monday.
  
  For New Year's Eve, they've got a rare 35mm print of Tom Waits concert film Big Time, which has not been legitimately released in the USA since it came out on VHS. On New Year's Day, they've expanded the traditional Marx Brothers Marathon to five features - The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, and Duck Soup, with the first two serving as a more manageable double feature on the 2nd.
• The Museum of Fine Arts wraps the December Calendar with the rest of their Coen Brothers program, including Burn After Reading (Friday/Sunday); A Serious Man (Friday/Sunday); Hail, Caesar! (Saturday/Sunday); O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Saturday); and The Big Lebowski (Saturday). I think they've hit everything but Paris, je t'aime and Buster Scruggs, which makes me worry a bit about these Netflix productions showing up in programs like this.
• The Regent Theatre is only doing one sing-along night for Christmas vacation, with White Christmas playing with the lyrics on screen on the evening of the 26th.
• The Luna Theater will have free surprise Magical Mystery movies throughout vacation, with 11am shows every day from Thursday the 26th to Tuesday the 31st, although Saturday's is Saturday Morning Cartoons. They also have The Lighthouse (Thursday afternoon/Friday evening), Waves (Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Monday), WBCN and the American Revolution (Friday/Saturday/Monday afternoons), Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace (Saturday afternoon), the original Ocean's 11 (Sunday), and Terror Train (Monday/Tuesday)
  
  The screening room at Cinema Salem continues Give Me Liberty through the 26th, with The Disappearance of My Mother taking over on Friday and continuing through the 2nd.

Already set for Ip Man 4, Little Women, and Uncut Gems, and will probably go for some of the Brattle's goodies as well as giving The Rise of Skywalker another look to see just where I stand on it.