Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 6 August 2021 - 12 August 2021

Taking the better part of the week off to watch movies, although the amount I'm doing here...

• The week's big release is The Suicide Squad, which has Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn taking some of the survivors of Suicide Squad (not confusing at all), add Idris Elba, John Cena, and a bunch of other newcomers, and sending them of on a mission to stop one of DC's goofy-but-dangerous villains, in what everyone says is a marked improvement on its predecessor. It's at The Capitol, Fresh Pond, West Newton, Boston Common (including Imax & Dolby Cinema), Fenway, South Bay (including Imax & Dolby Cinema), Kendall Square, Assembly Row (including Imax & Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards, Chestnut Hill, and on HBOmax.
  
  The Great Muppet Caper gets theatrical showings at Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row on Sunday, while Top Gun plays Arsenal Yards every day except Sunday. Documentary Dear Rodeo: The Cody Johnson Story plays Boston Common on Tuesday. Horror movie The Stairs plays Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards on Thursday. Also, there will be special preview screenings of Aretha Franklin biography Respect at Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Chestnut Hill on Sunday, and some of the Thursday night previews are offering a live-streamed Q&A.
• Cannes came late this year but handed out awards to Annette a new musical from director Leos Carax starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard singing most of their dialog, with songs by Sparks. The Coolidge Corner Theatre (including a Sunday afternoon Masked Matinee) and Kendall Square. Those theaters also open Ailey, director Jamila Wignot's documentary about the pioneering choreographer that leans heavily on Alvin Ailey's own words.
  
  The Coolidge is running two programs "After Midnight" through August, with Folk Horror Fridays kicking off with Midsommar and Samurai Summer starting on Saturday with a 35mm print of Shogun Assassin, the English-dubbed combination of two episodes of Lone Wolf and Cub. Samurai Summer also includes Big Screen Classics, such as the 35mm print of Seven Samurai playing Monday. They also have their annual 35mm screening of The Big Lebowski on Thursday, always a big deal with lots of pre-show festivities.
  
  (And don't forget - next Friday is a 13th, which means a double feature in Rocky Woods with somewhat less lethal summer camp shenanigans on tap for Saturday the 14th.)
• Also playing Landmark Theatres Kendall Square and Boston Common is Nine Days, in which Winston Duke plays a man who must determine which of a number of souls get to be born into the world.
• Korean hit (and, incidentally, New York Asian Film Festival opener) Escape From Mogadishu plays Boston Common, with top South Korean director Ryu Seung-wan telling an action-packed story of how the diplomats and staff at North and South Korean embassies must work together to flee the erupting civil war. Boston Common also retains Chinese Doctors (although there are no listed showtimes after Sunday).
  
  Telugu-language movie SR Kalyanamandapam plays Arsenal Yards (through Wednesday) and Apple Fresh Pond.
  
  Blackpink: The Movie has an encore screening at Boston Common and Fenway on Sunday, while anime tie-in Shirobako: The Movie plays Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards on Tuesday.
• The Brattle Theatre isn't finished looking at "Some of the Best of 2020", with this week featuring Promising Young Woman (Friday/Saturday), Sabaya (Saturday/Sunday), Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Sunday), The Assistant (Monday), and Nationtime (Wednesday). The Tuesday "Movie Movies" offering is Hollywood Shuffle on 35mm film, and a new restoration of Layao Miyazaki's first feature Lupin The Third: The Castle of Cagliostro plays Thursday (plus matinees the next weekend)
  
  If you can't make it into town or are sensibly spooked by Delta, their virtual space (The Brattlite) will also be offering Sabaya this week, joining the new Grrl Haus Cinema package, Summertime, Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters, Witches of the Orient, and Sweet Thing.
• The Boston Jewish Film is scheduled to wind up their "Summer Cinematheque" series with Nir Bergman's Ophir-winning drama Here We Are coming online Thursday (including pre-recorded Q&A with star Shai Avivi). Or at least it was, as last week's outdoor screening of The Band's Visit was postponed until the 17th due to bad weather.
• The West Newton Cinema appears to be back down to Friday to Sunday shows, including The Suicide Squad, Jungle Cruise, Stillwater, Roadrunner, Space Jam 2 (Saturday/Sunday), Summer of Soul, and In the Heights. The Lexington Venue is also on the weekend schedule, with Roadrunner and Summer of Soul, and Stillwater, plus Saturday & Sunday matinees of The Boss Baby 2.
• Cinema Salem sticks with Jungle Cruise, The Green Knight, and Summer of Soul for their Friday to Monday schedule, with a Friday late show of John Carpenter's They LiveB/I>.
• The Somerville Theatre, The Harvard Film Archive, and Embassy Cinema are still closed for now. Theater rentals are available at Kendall Square, West Newton, the Capitol, The Venue, and many of the multiplexes.
• This week's outdoor SomerMovieFest show is at Baxter Park in Assembly Row, featuring Black Panther. The Joe's Free Films also shows Boston Parks Outdoor Movies starting again with How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World in Jamaica Plain's Pinebank on Monday.
• Despite "New York" being right in the title, most of the films that the New York Asian Film Festival is playing on Eventive and Film at Lincoln Center's virtual theater are available throughout the United States, including New England, with at least a couple of new ones coming on every night and available for five days. That festival opens on Friday and will run through the 22nd.

I'll mostly be watching Fantasia screeners and some NYAFF, but both The Suicide Squad and Escape from Mogdishu are part of those festivals, so I've got plenty of excuse to see them as well. And, hey, it's hard to watch stuff on my TV before it gets dark...