Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 14 January 2021 - 20 January 2022

New Hosoda! And Almodóvar! And a long weekend to get it in!

Also: Note that starting Saturday, you're going to need to show proof of vaccination/negative test to see a movie or any sort of indoor event in Boston proper, as is already the case at most of the local independent theaters. So, obviously, get vaccinated if you haven't yet, and maybe plan

• The new one from Pedro Almodóvar is Parallel Mothers, with Penélope Cruz as one of two single women who give birth in the same hospital on the same day, and will see their lives overlap over the coming years It plays The Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square. The Coolidge also plays Volver, another Almodóvar/Cruz collaboration, on Tuesday evening, and Almodóvar's All About My Mother on Wednesday, both including Almodóvar's recent short "The Human Voice".
  
  Also opening at the Coolidge is Drive My Car, one of two films from Ryusuke Hamaguchi getting a great deal of best-of-2021 acclaim. Based on a short story given nearly three hours to breathe, it follows a theater director doing his first work since the death of his wife, a tense affair where his unlikely confidant is the quiet young woman hired as his driver.
  
  For special presentations, the Coolidge has A Clockwork Orange (on 35mm film) and Cats at midnight on Friday, with Cinematic Void's Jim Branscome introducing giallo Orgasmo at midnight Saturday. There are kids' matinees of My Neighbor Totoro on Saturday and Sunday (both dubbed; a subtitled version will play a week later). Losing Ground, one of the first theatrical films directed by an African-American woman, is the BIg Screen Classic on Monday night, while Jane Campion's The Piano takes that slot on Thursday.
• The latest episode in the Scream franchise (and the first without creators Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven) arrives ten years after #4 which itself came the better part of a decade after #3, with Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette still kicking and looking to protect the teenage potential victims of the latest Ghostface killer. It's at the Somerville, Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Fenway, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), the Embassy, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Boston Common has a "Thrills and Chills" surprise screening on Friday, and also has screenings of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in tribute to the late Sidney Poitier. Boston Common and South Bay also have a screening of Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America on Saturday (Dr. Martin Luther King's actual date of birth), and Boston Common also brings King Richard back for matinees.
  
  There are a lot more showtimes at Boston Common, Fenway, Assembly Row, South Bay, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill than are typical for Fathom one-nighter "Betty White: A Celebration", pegged by what would have been her 100th birthday on Monday.
• This week's noteworthy anime is the new one from Mamoru Hosoda, Belle, which superficially looks like he's back in Summer Wars territory with its young cast and virtual-reality worlds, but slyly goes off in unexpected directions in its story of a withdrawn young girl who finds anonymous fame online. It plays the Somerville, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Kendall Square, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards. Note that most theaters have both dubbed and subtitled versions; check which one you're buying tickets for if this matters.
  
  Telugu-language drama Bangarraju opens at Apple Fresh Pond and Boston Common, described as two grandparents looking to settle affairs for their grandson and preserve a local temple. Fresh Pond also gets Hero, a Telugu-language action-adventure starring Ashok Galla and Nidhhi Agerwal, and Tamil-language comedy Naai Sekar, starring Sathish as a man who switches bodies with a dog. '83 continues at Boston Common and Fresh Pond.
• Landmark Theatre Kendall Square also opens The Velvet Queen, a documentary which follows nature photographer Vincent Munier and writer Sylvian Tesson as they travel Tibet in an attempt to capture the snow leopard on film. They also get Netflix film Munich: The Edge of War, a thriller taking place against the backdrop of 1936 Europe as two British and German officials, longtime friends, desperately seek a way to avert the coming war.
• The Brattle Theatre opens the final film by Nobuhiko Obayashi, Labyrinth of Cinema, in which lightning strikes a closing cinema and transports its viewers into the marathon of war movies being shown. If the name is familiar, it's likely as the director of House/Hausu, his delightfully bizarre horror movie from 1977, which also plays those days on 35mm.
  
  On Monday, they kick off a lengthy look at "Some of the Best of 2021", including MLK/FBI (Mondah), Pig (Monday), Zola (Tuesday), Candyman '21 (Wednesday/Thursday), and Days (Thursday). The series runs into February.
• Belmont World Film will present their annual Family Film Festival starting Friday and continuing through . It's mostly on-line with the exception of Laura's Star at Arsenal Yards on Sunday afternoon. There are weekend Junior Film Critic workshops, and several screenings also have filmmaker Q&A sessions.
• Part of the The Somerville Theatre's reconfiguration hinted at more non-first-run material, and that kicks off Monday with The Power of the Dog playing through Thursday (Belle is matinee-only Monday-Wednesday, with Licorice Pizza losing its evening show Thursday). Bookings through the end of February have been posted, and there's some great stuff.
• Joe's Free Films lists a screening of documentary Paper & Glue on the MIT campus on Thursday, about renowned French artist JR. Seats are free but limited, so an RSVP is necessary (plus proof of vaccination/negative test).
• The West Newton Cinema opens Parallel Mothers and keeps Sing 2, Licorice Pizza, Spider-Man, West Side Story, and Saturday/Sunday matinees of Encanto; The Lexington Venue holds over Licorice Pizza and Sing 2.
• Cinema Salem has Belle, Scream '22, and West Side Story (no show Sunday) playing Friday to Monday (open-caption shows Monday afternoon). The Friday Night Light is Starship Troopers, a repertory screening of John Carpenter's The Thing on Saturday, a Betty White tribute show of Lake Placid on Sunday, and Wait Until Dark as part of an Audrey Hepburn series on Sunday & Monday,
  
  The Luna Theater has Red Rocket Friday and Saturday, a masked matinee of The Tender Bar and a regular show of C'mon C'mon on Saturday, Carrie on Sunday, and Weirdo Wednesday.
• The Museum of Science has The Matrix Resurrections on the Omni screen through the end of the month (once on Friday, twice on Saturday).
• 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.

Am I up for two three-hour Japanese movies this weekend? If not, I'm prioritizing Labyrinth of Cinema, then looking at Parallel Mothers, and probably also catching up with The 355, King Richard, and maybe Licorice Pizza (even if I've dithered away the chance to see it on film). After that, there is good stuff at the Brattle and enough recent arrivals that I've kind of got to put up another shelf or two.