Friday, January 08, 2021

Next Week in [Virtual] Tickets: Films sort of playing Boston 8 January 2021 - 14 January 2021

January's gonna be really quiet, isn't it? It would be even if Boston hadn't announced its theaters would be closed through the 27th, but it seems like we're multiplying "January is slow anyway" by "nothing has been shooting" and by "everywhere is shut down" to get a super-slow movie month.

It's looking like some places may wind up closed for a whole year - here's the frozen posters on display at the Somerville Theatre when I went to get a haircut last weekend:
Some of those movies feel like forever ago. I legitimately couldn't remember what The Way Back was.

  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre is the closest to an exception to it being quiet, adding two new films to its roster and the start and gets back to conversation as well. The Reason I Jump is part of both, with director Jerry Rothwell and several subjects joining a Panorama discussion on Sunday afternoon to discuss his documentary on non-verbal autistic people. They also add I Blame Society, about a filmmaker torn between becoming a successful documentary filmmaker and committing the perfect murder. They join Shadow in the Cloud, Love Sarah, "The World of Wong Kar-Wai" (new restorations of As Tears Go By, Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express, Happy Together, Fallen Angels, Eros segment "The Hand" (from 48 to 56 minutes), and In the Mood for Love), The Emoji Story, Another Round, 76 Days, City Hall, and Martin Eden.

    They also have two other discussions where viewers must find the film on their own. On Wednesday, they begin a monthly "Shakespeare Reimagined" series in partnership with the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, with the first entry Akira Kurosawa's Ran featuring documentarian Peter Grilli, stage actor Will Lyman, and professor Yu Jin Ko. On Thursday, the weekly seminar returns with critic Beatrice Loayza discussing Blue Velvet.
  • Over at The Brattle Theatre they add Shadow in the Cloud to To the Ends of the Earth, Another Round, Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan, and City Hall.
  • Amazon's giving One Night in Miami... a week in theaters before it hits Prime. Regina King's adaptation of Kemp Powers's play imagines Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) meeting and discussing where they stand as part of the civil rights movement. It plays Watertown, Chestnut Hill, and places further out in the suburbs. Note that Chestnut Hill only seems to be open through Sunday, re-opening for business with The Marksman (Liam Neeson's new one) on Thursday.

    Indian movies are apparently starting to see release again, with Telugu-language actioner Krack starring Ravi Teja and playing Watertown from Saturday to Monday.
  • The West Newton Cinema looks like just one screen showing Wonder Woman 1984 this weekend. Or maybe it's on as many screens they need depending how many tickets they sell, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad way to run things right now.
  • The Japanese Embassy in Washington apparently offers a "New Year Japanese Film" series in January, and it's online for the whole country this year, with a different movie for the next three weekends. It opens this with Masquerade Hotel streamable for free from Friday to Sunday; it's a fun cozy mystery that I liked when I watched it on a Hong Kong import disc back in April (and which, so far, is not available for American stream or purchase otherwise).

    After that, It's time to gear up for a few more local virtual festivals, with Belmont World Film kicking off a virtual edition of their annual Family Film Festival on the 15th (say that five times fast). The Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival hasn't yet placed their complete lineup on sale, but it includes animated Korean horror movie Beauty Water (which has been tightly geolocked at other virtual festivals), the marathon, and a few other features.
  • The Somerville Theatre is basically pointing to the streaming version of The Slutcracker, which is apparently still available. The Capitol in Arlington still appears to be selling ice cream.
  • Theater rentals are available at the Coolidge, West Newton, the Capitol, The Lexington Venue, the AMCs out in the suburbs, and the Majestic in Watertown. The Coolidge is showing slots available to reserve online through January 31st for both Moviehouse II and the screening room, with "Premium Programming" including In the Mood for Love, Sound of Metal, and Wolfwalkers available along with the option to bring your own disc. The independent theaters also have other fund-raising offers worth checking out.
Time to make a dent in the shelf, and also remember not to delay too much on the stuff at the Brattle and Coolidge (I up and missed something because it ended earlier than I expected).

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