Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 22 December 2021 - 30 December 2021

Extra-long holiday week approaching, with studios shoveling an unreasonable amount of movies into theaters over the next nine days despite likely being caught surprised by just how much demand there was for the Spider-movie.

• Some long-awaited and long-delayed films open at the multiplexes this week, perhaps most notably The Matrix Resurrections on Wednesday, in which Lana Wachowski and much of the original cast return to the thing they are arguably best known for, despite the main characters seeming quite dead when last we saw them. Previews have been very coy, and word is that it's a genuinely weird movie. It plays The Somerville Theatre, Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Imax Xenon), Fenway, South Bay (including Imax Xenon), Assembly Row (including Imax Xenon), Arsenal Yards, the Embassy, Chestnut Hill, and on HBO Max.
  
  Also opening Wednesday is the long-delayed The King's Man, Matthew Vaughn's third go at this material, this time set 100 years earlier against the backdrop of World War I, with Ralph Fiennes as the reserved recruiter, Djimon Hounsou and Gemma Arterton as fellow agents, Rhys Ifans as Rasputin, and Harris Dickinson as the new recruit. It's at The Capitol Theatre, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and the Embassy.
  
  Sing 2 is there for kids; it sure looks like you can guess everything it's going to do from the trailers, but maybe predictability isn't always bad. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including RealD 3D), Fenway (including RealD 3D), South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Christmas Eve (Friday) brings A Journal for Jordan, with Michael B. Jordan as an almost-certainly-doomed soldier writing a diary for his newborn son to later read and Denzel Washington in the director's chair. It plays Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row, and the Embassy. That day also brings American Underdog, with Zachary Levi as arena-football-turned-NFL quarterback Kurt Warner, playing Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and the Embassy.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre finishes their last "Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson" retrospective with Phantom Thread, on 70mm film this Wednesday, with Vertigo in that format Thursday night.
  
  On Friday opens Paul Thomas Anderson's latest, Licorice Pizza, which I guess was L.A. slang for vinyl records back in the day, projecting every show for at least the next week from 70mm film. It stars Cooper Hoffman, son of Anderson's frequent star Phillip, and Alana Haim as two young people (though one notably younger) falling in love in the 1970s. It also plays the Somerville (on 35mm), West Newton, the Lexington Venue, Boston Common, Kendall Square, Assembly Row, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Friday also brings out Sean Baker's Red Rocket, which stars Simon Rex as a former adult movie actor returning to his hometown and getting into the same mess. The 6:45pm show on Sunday has a virtual Q&A with Baker and co-star Brittney Rodriguez, and if that interests you, get tickets early, because that particular showtime is in the 40-ish-seat Screening Room (at least for now). The film is also at the Somerville (starting on Christmas), Boston Common, and Kendall Square.
  
  On Saturday (Christmas), they get Joel Coen's take on The Tragedy of MacBeth, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDorman as Lord and Lady MacBeth and looking Kurosawa-as-heck. There's a masked matinee at the Coolidge Sunday morning, and the film also plays Kendall Square and Boston Common.
• Landmark Theatre Kendall Square opens The Tender Bar on Wednesday for a week or two before it disappears into the Amazon algorithm. George Clooney directs a script by William Monahan with Ben Affleck as the uncle of a latchkey kid who winds up hanging around Uncle Charlie's bar.
• Bollywood film '83 opens at Boston Common and Apple Fresh Pond on Thursday the 23rd, with Kabir Khan directing Ranveer Singh as cricketer Kapil Dev, part of the team that won the World Cup in 1983, with Deepika Padukone as wife Romi. The shows are in Hindi. Fresh Pond also gets Telugu-language horror movie Shyam Singha Roy on Thursday, with Nani playing the title character who is apparently haunted by his past lives.
  
  Also continuing at Fresh Pond are Pushpa: The Rise Part 1 and Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (through Thursday the 23rd).
• The Brattle Theatre finishes "Let's Hear It for 1984!" with Old Enough (Wednesday via DCP), Repo Man (Thursday), and Streets of Fire (Thursday), the latter two on 35mm. The Weird Wednesday show on the 22nd is French oddity Dial Code Santa Claus, with The Visitor (35mm) on the 29th.
  
  On Christmas, they are finally able to bring the recent "World of Wong Kar-Wai restorations to the big screen, with featurette "The Hand" playing Saturday and Sunday, In the Mood for Love Saturday and Sunday on 35mm film, Chungking Express Sunday and Monday, As Tears Go By Monday, Fallen Angels Tuesday, Days of Being Wild Wednesday, and Happy Together on Thursday.
• The Regent Theatre has their annual Sing-Along The Sound of Music for Christmas break, with shows Sunday through Wednesday
• The West Newton Cinema adds Sing 2 on Wednesday and Licorice Pizza on Friday, continuing Spider-Man, Nightmare Alley, West Side Story, Encanto (through Saturday), and The French Dispatch (Tuesday and Saturday). The Lexington Venue is open all week starting on the 23rd, with House of Gucci that day and Licorice Pizza from the 24th to 30th.
• Cinema Salem has It's a Wonderful Life on Thursday , with The Matrix Resurrections, Spider-Man and Nightmare Alley playing Friday to Monday (with open-caption shows Monday afternoon).
  
  The Luna Theater Weirdo Wednesdays on the 22nd and 29th, Home Alone on Friday, Snowpiercer on Sunday, Spencer on Monday afternoon, double features of The Souvenir and The Souvenir: Part II Monday and Tuesday (with the latter showing daily until New Year's), matinees of Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road on Wednesday and Thursday, and C'mon C'mon on Thursday.
• 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.

That's a lot, eh? Somewhere around heading up to see my family on Christmas Eve, there should hopefully be time for The Matrix, The King's Man, Licorice Pizza, MacBeth, The Tender Bar, and maybe Red Rocket and some Wong Kar-Wai.