Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 3 December 2021 - 9 December 2021

There's usually not a lot the week after Thanksgiving, but it's seldom so quiet that the giant screens are pulling something else back or doing gimmick programming.

(And I conk out while writing this the night before, but that's mostly on time zones)

• They've broken ground for the expansion at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, but the place is still open for business, this week welcoming Paolo Sorrentino's The Hand of God, a story set in his hometown of Naples in the 1980s, with the title referring to the tumult a family goes through and the time Diego Maradona was able to cheat in front of the whole world and get away with it because the refs missed it. The shows on screen #1 are in 35mm, although that's mostly matinees through the weekend (including Sunday's masked matinee), Tuesday evening, and the late show on Thursday. It's also at the Kendall.
  
  The midnights at the Coolidge this weekend feature two sequels from James Cameron: Terminator 2: Judgment Day on Friday and Aliens on Saturday. They also have Wood and Water via the Goethe-Institut on Sunday, featuring a woman trying to reunite with her son in Hong Kong, amid the pro-democracy movement. The week's Paul Thomas Anderson film is There Will Be Blood, showing in 35mm on Wednesday.
• The latest from Paul Verhoeven opens at Landmark Theatres Kendall Square and the Embassy, starring Virgini Efira as a nun in the 1600s having what would be a scandalous affair with a novice on its own, except that she is also having religious visions. It is, by all accounts, one of his wildest and sexiest, going for sharp rather than solemn.
  
  Wolf looks to be an odd one, with George MacKay as a young man who thinks he's a wolf, Lily-Rose Depp thinking she's a jungle cat and Paddy Considine as the "Zookeeper" who operates a cruel facility tha apparently caters to people with this specific mental illness. It's at Kendall Square Boston Common. Kendall Square is also on before-streaming duty this week, with Encounter starring Riz Ahmed as a armine attempting to save his sons from something not of this world.
• Dune returns to screens this weekend, or at least gets more showtimes on larger screens, playing The Capitol Theatre, Boston Common, Kendall Square, South Bay (Imax), Assembly Row (including Imax), and the Embassy. South Bay picks up The Matrix in Imax on Tuesday and Wednesday.
  
  True to the Game 3 opens at Boston Common and South Bay, and I kind of love that there are series like this one, starring Erica Peeples and Columbus Short, which chug along doing well enough for more installments even if the mainstream ignores them. It apparently picks up right where #2 left off with a race against time.
  
  Anime feature Sword Art Online: Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night gets a big screen release, playing a fairly full slate Boston Common (including Imax) and single shows daily at South Bay and Assembly Row, although the latter two pre-empt it Sunday and Monday. On the other end of the anime spectrum (and apparently taking the other film's slot), My Neighbor Totoro closes out this year's Ghibli fest with shows Sunday (dubbed), Monday (subtitled), and Thursday (dubbed) at Boston Common, Fenway, and Assembly Row.
  
  There's a preview for A Journal for Jordan at Boston Common on Saturday. South Bay has mountain-sports doc La Liste: Everything or Nothing on Tuesday. Boston Common, Kendall Square and Fenway have Gorillaz: Song Machine Live from Kong on Wednesday evening with K-pop concert doc Monsta X: The Dreaming and Boston Common and Fenway on Thursday. Documentary To What Remains, covering the search for still-missing planes and pilots from World War II, also plays Wednesday at Boston Common.
• The big Bollywood release this week is Tadap, a remake of Telegu film RX 100< in which a man believes his girlfriend still loves him even though she married another, leading to what I'm guessing are increasingly violent confrontations. It's at Boston Common. Apple Fresh Pond continues Tamil-language thriller Maanadu, Telugu-language action drama Akhanda, and Malayalam adventure Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea.
  
  In a bit of a swerve, Chinese comedic mystery Be Somebody opens at Fenway rather than the Common; it offers the crew of a true-crime movie discovering that they are shooting on the actual locations of the murder - and that the killer is among them. The Battle at Lake Changjin is still hanging around Boston Common for fans of Chinese military action.
• If it seems like The Brattle Theatre continues "A Few of Our Favorite Films" with Timecrimes (Friday), Shaolin Soccer (dubbed 2pm/subbed 9:15pm Saturday), Blackboards (35mm Saturday), The Gleaners and I (Sunday/Monday), Mutual Appreciation (Monday), Daddy Longlegs (Monday/Tuesday), Chop Shop (Tuesday), and Memories of Murder (Wednesday).
  
  There's also a Grrl Haus Cinema show on Sunday, and author Todd Melby will introduce/discuss Fargo on Thursday. The DocYard's presentation of Prism moves virtual screening room The Brattlite after last week's in-person show.
• The West Newton Cinema continues to show Asia (no screening Saturday), Encanto, House of Gucci, King Richard, Belfast, and The French Dispatch. There's also a special filmed presentation of Russian stage production Boris on Sunday.
  
  The Lexington Venue is open Friday to Sunday with Belfast and House of Gucci sharing a screen.
• The Harvard Film Archive has their last "Devour the Land" virtual presentation, a pairing of shorts "Forward Looking Statements" and "Waste No. 4 New York, New York" available through Monday.
• Bright Lights at Home has Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché this week, with the a limited number of streams available for twenty-four hours starting at 7pm Wednesday, followed by a Zoom webinar featuring filmmakers Celeste Bell and Paul Sng at 7pm Thursday.
• Cinema Salem has Batman Returns (through Sunday), Ghostbusters: Afterlife, The Power of the Dog, Encanto (with a Spanish showing on Sunday), The French Dispatch (with open-caption shows Monday afternoon). Gremlins plays Thursday night.
  
  The Luna Theater has Spencer Saturday (including a masked matinee) and Thursday, Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road on Saturday, Home Alone all day Sunday, and Weirdo Wednesdays is still weekly, despite what it looked like on the site last week.
• For those still not ready to join random people in a room for two hours, theater rentals are available at Kendall Square, The Embassy, West Newton, the Capitol, The Venue, and many of the multiplexes.

By the time I'm acclimated to this time zone to the point where I won't zonk out during a movie, I'll be heading home, and then will likely just drop sometime around 6pm Thursday night after flights that aren't conducive to sleep.