Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 29 April 2021 - 5 May 2022

We're all shuffling between IFFBoston venues, right? No? Well, even if you're not (or want to sneak something else in along the edges), there's a bunch of "Fantastic Beasts wasn't the hit we expected but the Marvel movie doesn't open until next week" filler worth checking out.

• But, as I said, the big local event is Independent Film Festival Boston, which has four screens between the Somerville and the Brattle from Friday to Monday and then narrows choices considerably for its last two days, with The Janes at WBUR CitySpace on Tuesday and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On closing it out at the Coolidge on Wednesday.
  
  Wicked Queer still has five features and 14 shorts packages streamable through Saturday night.
• Possibly the most noteworthy non-IFFBoston opening is Petite Maman, Céline Sciamma's follow-up to Portrait of a Lady on Fire in which a young girl visits her mother's childhood home and, while exploring the woods, meets her mother as a child. Folks love it, in part because it's 72 minutes long and therefore doesn't have a chance to overcomplicate things. It's at The Coolidge Corner Theatre (including a Saturday masked matinee), Kendall Square, and Boston Common.
  
  The Coolidge also wraps up its April kung fu midnights with a 35mm print of The Black Dragon's Revenge on Friday and a digitally-restored Sister Street Fighter on Saturday. Monday's Big Screen Classic is Kinuyo Tanaka's The Moon Has Risen, while there's a special presentation of Happening on Tuesday and a 35mm "Cinema Jukebox" show of Dazed and Confused on Thursday. There's also a "Coolidge Education" series of "Essential Fellini" starting Thursday, with classes running weekly at 10am.
• Landmark's Kendall Square has another French import as well, with Anaïs in Love a romantic comedy in which the title character finds herself in a state of upheaval, and falling for the partner of her newest lover is probably not going going to make it easier.
  
  They also offer up The Duke, which stars Jim Broadbent as a taxi driver who steals a work from the National Gallery and holds it hostage; it also features Helen Mirren and also plays at West Newton and Boston Common. There's also Firebird, which tells the tale of two soldiers who fall for each other while serving in the Soviet military, with the penalties for being gay worse than just being discharged; it also plays Boston Common.
  
  The Kendall also switches their Tuesday repertory series up to "May Is for Mothers", kicking things off with Psycho.
• Memory, meanwhile, is the sort of thing that fills the between-blockbusters hole nicely for theaters - Liam Neeson as an assassin who is beginning to get a bit fuzzy mentally, on the run because there are lines he won't cross, which a cast that include Monica Bellucci, Guy Pearce, and Ray Stevenson. It's at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  That gap also means Everything Everywhere All at Once gets a bump to the Imax screens at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row. Boston Common also has a Focus Features anniversary series, with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Friday), the first Downton Abbey feature (Saturday), Brokeback Mountain (Sunday), Burn After Reading (Monday), Atonement (Tuesday), Harriet (Wednesday), and Darkest Hour (Thursday). Arsenal Yards picks up Viva Maestro! for late-afternoon showtimes through Wednesday and also has Planes, Trains and Automobiles on Monday.
  
  BUFF closing night film Hatching opens at Boston Common; it's a neat little Finnish thing about a girl who finds a mysterious egg and how the creature that emerges causes havoc when it bonds to her Kind of wants to be two horror movies when it might have been better served being one, but the core is good enough to make it work.
• Fun movie-making anime Pompo the Cinephile had special events last week but has a regular release at Boston Common, and Fenway, with both subtitled and dubbed screenings. Boston Common still hangs on to anime Jujutsu Kaisen: 0, with all subtitled shows.
  
  Indian openings for Eid include Heropanti 2, a Hindi-language actioner described as more a "spiritual sequel" than direct follow-up to the film where Tiger Shroff first made a big splash; this one has him being sent on covert missions in Russia and plays Fresh Pond and Boston Common. Another Bollywood thriller, Runway 34, opens at Fresh Pond and Boston Common with Ajay Devgn as a pilot whose flight has more going on than it would appear (with Amitabh Bachchan possibly the mastermind). Apple Fresh Pond opens Telugu-language action/adventure Acharya, Malayalam-language drama Makal and Tamil romantic comedy Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal, with Marathi-language flick Sher Shivraj, a period action piece, opening on Saturday and Malayalm-language thriller CBI 5: The Brain opening Sunday. K.G.F.: Chapter 2 hangs around at Boston Common (Hindi).
  
  Vietnamese thriller Bay Ngo Ngao (Naked Truth) continues to play South Bay.
• The Brattle Theatre is busy with IFFBoston through Monday, but fills out the week with a three-day celebration of Star Wars Day - the original (well, the current special edition) on Tuesday, The Empire Strikes Back on Wednesday May the Fourth, and Return of the Jedi on Thursday. They've also got two events in tandem with the Harvard Book Store with obvious movie tie-ins - John Waters will read from and sign his novel Liarmonth on Tuesday and Minnie Driver visits with memoir Managing Expectations on Thursday.
• The Somerville Theatre returns from its IFFBoston slumber by wrapping "Travolta vs Cage" with a 35mm print of Face/Off on Tuesday before jumping right into the next rep series, "Crime Pays Double", with a double feature of Drive and To Live & Die in L.A., the latter on 35mm, on Wednesday.
  
  The Capitol is still only open Friday-Sunday, but this weekend that includes Charlotte, an animated drama with Keira Knightley as the voice of Charlotte Salomon, a Jewish painter in Berlin in the 1930s who endeavors to paint her life story before the Nazis come for her.
• Belmont World Film continues with The Man from the Basement, featuring Bérénice Bejo and Jérémie Renier as a couple who convert their unfinished basement into a condo, only to find their new neighbor (François Cluzet) is more than they bargained for, online through 2 May with a Zoom discussion that night. Vera Dreams of the Sea takes its place starting the next night; that one is an Albanian drama about a woman fighting to retain her home after her husband's suicide.
• All of the expected places will be showing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness starting Thursday night, but among the unexpected ones is The Museum of Science, which will be showing it on the Omni dome for about a month of weekend shows, including the Thursday preview. The Coolidge will also be getting their hands on a 35mm print for three nights only from the 6th to the 8th.
• The Lexington Venue has The Bad Guys and Everything Everywhere All at Once from Friday to Sunday.
  
  The West Newton Cinema adds The Duke to The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, The Bad Guys, Fantastic Beasts, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, The Rose Maker (no show Friday), Sing 2 (Saturday), and Encanto (Saturday). They appear to be closed on Monday
  
  The Luna Theater has Everything Everywhere All At Once from Friday to Sunday, along with the Weirdo Wednesday show and a UMass Lowell "Philosophy and Film" screening of Her on Thursday.
  
  Cinema Salem has Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Northman, and The Bad Guys from Friday to Monday (Monday's matinees captioned).
• 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 and Somerville, The Venue, CinemaSalem, and many of the multiplexes. Jordan's Furniture and the film program at the MFA are still in limbo.

My IFFBoston plans include The Pez Outlaw and How to Rob on Friday; Riotsville USA, Every Day in Kaimuki, Descendant, and maybe Piggy on Saturday; The Territory, A Decent Home, Mija, and One Second on Sunday; Hold Your Fire and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande on Monday; The Janes on Tuesday; and Marcel the Shell on Wednesday. That's probably enough, although Tuesday does leave a bit of room where I might catch Morbius before it leaves town or The Northman on a Dolby screen.