Next Week in [Virtual] Tickets: Films sort of playing Boston 2 April 2021 - 8 April 2021

Last weekend was pretty quiet. This one, not so much.

• At The Coolidge Corner Theatre, they're picking things up in bulk. The "Small Screen Classics" series returns with the The Tales of the Four Seasons, Eric Rohmer's anthology series of romances that, I'm presuming, track the phases of life as well as the year. They also pick up all three Oscar Nominated Shorts - Animated, Live-Action, and Documentary - the latter of which is, for the first time I can remember, presented as a single program that fits snugly in just under two hours: They also continue The Mole Agent, Another Round, Collective, Wojnarowicz, Stray, and City Hall.
• The Brattle Theatre picks up the Foreign Language Film nominee from Lesotho, This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection, with Mary Twala Mhlongo as an 80-year-old woman who loses her son and then sees her entire village demanded to relocated to make way for a dam. They also pick up the reissue of Stanley Kwan's Center Stage, which features Maggie Cheung as one of China's first screen stars, Ruan Lingyu. They also continue to show The Fever, The Inheritance, Keep an Eye Out, Truth or Consequences, and F.T.A.. A24's streaming run of Minari has also been further extended to Sunday, and take-out concessions over the weekend.
• They also team up with Wicked Queer to present Bound from Friday to Sunday. The main WQ festival will get underway on Thursday, with 21 features streaming from the 8th to the 18th, but they've already made their 17 short film packages available, and they'll be streamable all the way through the end of "#Gaypril".
  
  Belmont World Film was only able to make Tunisian drama A Son available from 7pm Friday to 9pm Monday this weekend (74 hours total), with the last couple hours overlapping with a discussion with Wellesley College Professor Anjali Prabhu. Prabhu will also be doing similar duties a week later for France's Gloria Mundi, which comes online Tuesday afternoon.
• The Harvard Film Archive and their Eventive page continue to offer the second part of "Cities of Love and Sadness: Rediscovering the Taiwanese-Dialect CInema of the 1960s", featuring Early Train from Taipei, Dangerous Youth, and a series of lectures and conversations about the film and Taiwanese cinema featuring Dr. Chun-chi Wang and Dr. Evelyn Shih through Monday.
• The Regent Theatre continues to stream Long Live Rock: Celebrate the Chaos, along with a free stream of and "Easter Passion" presentation led by Max McLean and a number of Broadway performers through Sunday.
• ArtsEmerson's film program is busier in April than I can recall it being since they first re-opened the Paramount, with their streaming platform playing host to the Boston Baltic Film Festival for three weekends. The first entry is Self Made Cameraman, a comedy about Estonian filmmaker Johannes Pääsuke, whose 1912 commission to document the countryside resulted in only seven minutes of usable footage, which director Hardi Volmer proposes is the result of a number of surreal adventures. It's available through Sunday evening, and a Q&A with Volmer follows the stream. They start another program on Wednesday, with Far East Deep South being the first (I think) in the "Projecting Connections: Chinese American Experiences" series, which tells the tale of Chinese people in the American South during the Exclusion era through the search for a a long-lost relative. It plays through the 11th, including a discussion with director Larissa Lam, producer Baldwin Chiu, and a number of others.
  
  That overlaps the week's Bright Lights at Home presentation, with Her Socialist Smile available from noon on Wednesday to Thursday evening (free but capped at 175 total viewers). Director and professor John Gianvito will be there to discuss his film taken from Helen Keller's advocacy of progressive causes.
• If you want to see the Oscar Shorts in person, Landmark Theatres Kendall Square has you covered for Animation and Live Action (unless you go Monday or Tuesday, when they're closed), with those two packages also playing Boston Common. It's worth noting that the listing at Kendall Square lists a few "Highly Commended" animated shorts to get the runtime up to 75 or 80 minutes, but the description on the Coolidge does not (though the running time seems to be about the same).
  
  The Kendall also pick up two comedies that they have been pushing for a while: In French Exit Michelle Pfeiffer stars as a woman who has spent her inheritance and moves into a friend's unused Paris apartment with her son (ah, to have such friends!); it also plays Boston Common. Shiva Baby has its protagonist staying in New York, but running into a number of folks she would otherwise try to avoid at the title ritual.
  
  They also seem to be doing fairly well with the Indian films, as Tamil actioner Sulthan opens this weekend.
• In case you missed it, Godzilla vs Kong opens on Wednesday, big enough to bring back 3D glasses, 9pm showings, and even crowd out private rentals in some theaters. It's at West Newton, the Kendall, Boston Common (including Imax, Dolby Cinema, and 3D), South Bay (including Dolby Cinema & Imax), Chestnut Hill, and on HBO Max.
  
  Boston Common and South Bay also open The Unholy, which comes from Sam Raimi's company and digs into a young girl whose miracles seem to be connected to more sinister events. South Bay also has The Ten Commandments again for Easter Sunday.
• The West Newton Cinema is open through Saturday, with Godzilla vs Kong, The Father, and Raya and the Last Dragon playing full schedules and Nomadland showing Saturday morning only; stuff lingering for weekend matinees suggests things may be getting somewhat back to normal there! They're also open for private rentals.
• The Somerville Theatre and The Capitol are still not showing movies, though latter has their ice cream shop and concession stand open.
• Theater rentals are available at the Coolidge, the Brattle, Kendall Square, West Newton, the Capitol, The Lexington Venue, and the AMC & Showcase multiplexes. The Coolidge has extended the slots available to reserve online through the end of April now offers early and late evening chances to rent Moviehouse II, the screening room, and the GoldScreen, with "Premium Programming" including Judas and the Black Messiah, Nomadland, Minari, In the Mood for Love, and Sound of Metal; the AMC app lists some "sold out" showtimes that are probably just meant to show the movies are available as part of rentals. The independent theaters also have other fund-raising offers worth checking out, and The Majestic 7 in Watertown intends to open next weekend with rentals also available.

Planning to hit Godzilla vs Kong, French Exit, and a few others. Not sure what I'll do with the shorts, and may go for Self Made Cameraman. Plus, the first baseball of the year!