Friday, August 13, 2021

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 13 August 2021 - 19 August 2021

I almost wonder if Disney is four-walling just the 3D editions of some movies right now, because it was part of pre-pandemic contracts and after the Black Widow lawsuit they want to make sure they're technically doing what they're supposed to.

ANYWAY...

  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre opens CODA, an acronym for "Children of Deaf Adults", which features Emilia Jones as the teenage hearing child of Deaf parents who has spent much of her life interpreting but discovers a passion for music It's got a Masked Matinee show on Sunday and also plays Kendall Square.

    Since this Friday is a 13th, they head out to Rocky Hill Woods for a double feature of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday & Freddy vs. Jason, and hang around for a twin-bill of Wet Hot American Summer & The Final Girls on Saturday. The midnight screenings back home in Brookline include Night of the Demon for Folk Horror Friday and Blind Woman's Curse for Samurai Summer Saturdays. Samurai Summer also includes Lady Snowblood on Monday.
  • It's kind of a crowded weekend at the multiplexes, with three fairly noteworthy openings. Respect is the one meant to be prestigious, with Jennifer Hudson playing Aretha Franklin in a look at her rise and inevitable troubles at the top. It's at The Capitol (including a baby-friendly matinee on Monday), Apple Fresh Pond, West Newton, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Kendall Square, Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.

    Free Guy, starring Ryan Reynolds as a video game background character and Jodie Comer as a player who notices more than he seems, finally comes out after being delayed a long time between the Disney/Twentieth merger and the pandemic, and it's getting some surprisingly good reviews based on how rough most of the trailers have been. It plays The Capitol, Fresh Pond, West Newton, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Fenway (including before-noon 3D), South Bay (including Imax), Assembly Row (including Imax), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill. For horror fans, Don't Breathe 2 apparently features a new group of idiots trying to break into the home of a blind Stephen Lang and probably not living to regret it; that's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row.

    Boston Common also has Chance the Rapper's Magnificent Coloring World, which seemed like it was supposed to be a bigger thing at one point.

    A 50th Anniversary presentation of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory plays Fenway, South Bay, and Arsenal Yards on Sunday & Wednesday. On the opposite end of intended audiences, Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman plays Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards on Monday. Arsenal Yards also has 35th Anniversary screenings of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home on Thursday.
  • If you can't get to Fantasia or NYAFF, some of it will be coming to you this weekend with Raging Fire, a big of Hong Kong action starring Donnie Yen as a hard-line cop and Nicolas Tse as his former mentee turned criminal, and which is also the final film from director Benny Chan, who died last year after a long and lauded career. It's at Boston Common, as is Korean thriller (and NYAFF opener) Escape From Mogadishu.

    Telugu-language romantic comedy Paagal plays Arsenal Yards.
  • Also playing Landmark Theatres Kendall Square also opens Ema, starring Mariana Di Girolamo as a dancer whose marriage and life collapses after her son brings disgrace to the family.
  • The Brattle Theatre continues "Some of the Best of 2020" with this week featuring Kajillionaire (Friday/Saturday), Possessor (Friday/Saturday), the restored Lupin The Third: The Castle of Cagliostro (Saturday/Sunday), Wolfwalkers (Sunday), Martin Eden (Monday), Minari (Wednesday), and On the Rocks (Thursday). The Tuesday Movie Movie is a 35mm print of Sunset Boulevard.

    The Brattlite (their virtual space) picks up What We Left Unfinished, an examination of five unfinished films from when Afghanistan was a Communist country. It joins Sabaya, Summertime, Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters, and Witches of the Orient.
  • The Boston Jewish Film wraps the "Summer Cinematheque" series Here We Are available online through Tuesday (including pre-recorded Q&A with star Shai Avivi). Tuesday is also the make-up date for the outdoor screening of The Band's Visit that was postponed by rain a couple weeks earlier.
  • The West Newton Cinema is open all week with Respect, Free Guy, The Suicide Squad, Jungle Cruise, Stillwater, Roadrunner, Space Jam 2 (no shows Saturday/Sunday), Summer of Soul, and In the Heights. The Lexington Venue is on the weekend schedule, with Respect, Roadrunner and Summer of Soul, as well as Saturday & Sunday matinees of The Boss Baby 2.
  • Cinema Salem goes with Free Guy, The Green Knight, The Suicide Squad, and Annette Friday to Monday, with a Friday late show of John Waters's Multiple Maniacs.
  • 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.
  • SomerMovieFest wraps up Thursday with Guardians of the Galaxy playing Seven Hills Park in Davis Square. The Joe's Free Films also shows Hidden Figures at Christopher Columbus Park on Sunday, Trumbo on the Watertown Library's patio (RSVP required) and Missing Link at Fallon Field in Roslindale on Monday, Onward at Moakley Park on Tuesday, and The Descendants 3 at the Hynes Playground on Thursday, .
  • The New York Asian Film Festival has its shorts on Eventive and many features online via Film at Lincoln Center's virtual theater, 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. It runs through the 22nd.
And, indeed, I'll be heading out to Manhattan for the in-person offerings at NYAFF Friday through Sunday, returning Monday morning to hit of the 3D Free Guy and Raging Fire (unless it's too hot when I get to NYC to do anything but duck inside another theater). After that, it's back to the Fantasia screeners.

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