I feel as if I have grown as a person in recent years in that there's a second movie coming out based on a video game that I enjoyed with an actor that I've been a fan of, and I can look at it and say "I don't really need this".
- That movie would be Sonic the Hedgehog 2, with Jim Carrey returning as Doctor Robotnik and challenging Kenneth Branagh for the year's most gloriously absurd facial hair. Other characters from the games, including Tails the Fox and Shadow the Echidna (voiced by Idris Elba!), join up for a quest involving Chaos Emeralds. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (Dolby Cinema), Fenway, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Row (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
For a guy who directs big expensive movies, Michael Bay has been surprisingly prolific, cranking 15 movies out since Bad Boys in 1995; they by and large haven't been good but they're the sort of things that take some effort to mount. His latest is Ambulance, with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as a veteran recruited by foster brother Jake Gyllenhaal for a heist that goes spectacularly wrong, with them being chased through Los Angeles in an ambulance with a nurse (Eiza Gonzalez) and a wounded cop. This seems like the sort of thing that would be a great 90-minute Corman flick, so of course it's half-again that long. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Boston Common (Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Fenway, South Bay (including Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax Xenon), Arsenal Row (including CWX), the Embassy, and Chestnut Hill.
On Wednesday, Father Stu opens, with Mark Wahlberg as a boxer with a rough past who opts to become a priest. It's got Mel Gibson in a supporting role and his long-time partner Rosalind Ross writing and directing. That will be at Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row.
Singin' in the Rain gets 70th anniversary screenings at Fenway, South Bay, and Arsenal Yards on Sunday and Wednesday; Arsenal Yards has a Monday-afternoon show of Jesus Christ Superstar. Documentary Navalny plays Monday and Tuesday at Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards (Monday only), following Alexei Navalny, himself a Russian documentary filmmaker, as he recovers from an attempted murder by nerve gas and returns home to continue his investigations. The AMCs at Boston Common and Assembly Row have an "Investor Connect" preview of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent on Wednesday.
- The Coolidge Corner Theatre is the latest location to find a spot or two on its schedule for CODA following its Oscar win, on one of the bigger screens Friday & Saturday evenings (plus a Sunday Masked Matinee) and one of the the smaller ones Sunday through Thursday.
At midnight, they taunt me by playing 35mm prints of One-Armed Boxer (Friday) and Master of the Flying Guillotine (Saturday) as I head out of town for a day to, uh, see Hong Kong action on 35mm film. Saturday afternoon features a combined Goethe-Institut/Panorama presentation of Paul Robeson: I'm A Negro, I'm an American, including post-film discussion. The first of two Big Screen Classics screenings of The Godfather plays Sunday afternoon, while Monday night features a subtitled Science on Screen show of Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, with BU professor Pamela Templer relating its themes to environmental catastrophe. Tuesday's French New Wave film is The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Wednesday's "Sounds of Silents" is The General with Jeff Rapsis on the piano and Camera Man author Dana Stevens doing a Q&A afterward, and Thursday's Cinema Jukebox show is a 35mm print of Purple Rain.
- Landmark's Kendall Square and Boston Common open Mothering Sunday, which features Odessa Young as an maid with dreams of being a writer and a supporting cast including Colin Firth, Olivia Colman, and Glenda Jackson. I forget whether the word from the UK last fall was "pretty good" or "ugh, another thing full of pretty houses and nice uniforms for the old ladies".
One of the more peculiar releases is Aline, where writer/director Valérie Lemercier plays a French-Canadian chanteuse who is "freely inspired by" Celine Dion, which is an interesting way to play it; I wonder how much she makes this "her-but-not" thing part of the film. It's at Kendall Square and Boston Common.
A week after his last "heading home really quick" movie opened, Chris Pine is back in All the Old Knives, with Pine playing a spy investigating whether former partner and lover Thandiwe Newton is a double agent. It's at Kendall Square, the Embassy, and on Amazon Prime. Kendall Square's "Retro Replay" musical on Tuesday is Cabaret.
- Apple Fresh Pond opens Telugu-language boxing drama Ghani with Varun Tej in the title role on Friday Tamil-language actioner Beast, starring Vijay and Pooja Hegde, opens there on Tuesday (also in Telugu).
K.G.F.: Chapter 2 is the next really big Indian opening, though, with Yash returning as "Rocky", now running the underworld of the Kolar Gold Fields. I don't remember Chapter 1 playing particularly wide, or locally at all, back in 2018 (it's streaming on Prime), but this one does, hitting Fresh Pond (Kannada/Telugu/Tamil), Boston Common (Kannada/Telugu), and South Bay (Kannada/Telugu) on Wednesday.
RRR - Rise Roar Revolt continues at Fresh Pond (Telugu/Hindi/Tamil), the Lexington Venue (Telugu?), Boston Common (Telugu), and Assembly Row (Hindi). The Kashmir Files also continues at Fresh Pond through Monday.
Anime Jujutsu Kaisen: 0 continues at Boston Common, Fenway, Kendall Square, South Bay, and Assembly Row; pretty much all showtimes are subtitled now. Joe's Free Films also shows one more free screening of Ghibli's Howl's Moving Castle at MIT on Friday; MIT also has an overnight sci-fi film festival on Saturday night which includes The Iron Giant, Paprika, and Beauty Water.
- The Somerville Theatre is putting Everything Everywhere All at Once (mostly) on the main screen this week, and it should look phenomenal. They'll be playing IFFBoston alum On These Grounds (aka Spring Valley) on Monday in association with Justice for Flavia, with post-film discussion. Tuesday's "Travolta vs Cage" double feature offers up a 35mm print of Pulp Fiction in addition to Red Rock West; they'll also be screening Wings of Desire on Thursday. Note that their sister cinema, The Capitol, is only open Friday through Sunday at the moment (although it looks like they'll be moving back to seven days for school vacation week)
- The Brattle Theatre is all about Wicked Queer this week, with one notable presentations including a free screening of Cop Secret in association with Taste Of Iceland on Saturday. The festival also has a screening of Greek Retro-Futurist Experimental Opera ORFEAS2021 at The ICA on Friday and shows at ArtsEmerson's Bright Screening Room in the Paramount Center from Friday to Sunday, plus the free Thursday Bright Lights screening of Rebel Dykes.
- The Harvard Film Archive has their first "Cinema of Resistance" presentation in a couple of years on Sunday and Monday with Maidan, in which Sergei Loznitsa documented Ukraine's "Euromaidan" protests starting in November 2013, a movement that led to the country's Russia-friendly leadership being deposed.
(Aw, man, because it played back in 2014, the synopsis on their site is credited to the late David Pendleton! Miss that guy.)
- Belmont World Film has two offerings this week - Bootlegger is set in a First Nations community in Northern Quebec deciding whether to allow the sale of alcohol, and will be available to stream from Friday evening to Sunday evening, with an in-person show at the West Newton Cinema on Sunday, plus a Zoom conversation with producer Catherine Chagnon on Monday. Tom Medina starts streaming on Tuesday, and will be available through the next Monday, when it will have its own Q&A
- The West Newton Cinema and The Lexington Venue open The Rose Maker, a French comedy starring Catherine Frot as the owner of a venerable flower farm which is on the verge of bankruptcy but which (I'll bet) has a chance to avoid it if things go just right.
West Newton also opens Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to play alongside CODA, You Won't Be Alone, Cyrano (no show Saturday/Sunday), Parallel Mothers, Sing 2 (Saturday morning), West Side Story, Licorice Pizza, and Encanto (Friday-Sunday); the Venue adds RRR.
The Luna Theater once again has X Friday and Saturday evenings, plus more horror with the original Friday the 13th on Sunday. There's a Weirdo Wednesday, plus Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché on Thursday.
Cinema Salem has CODA, Morbius, and Sonic 2 from Friday to Monday.
- 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, and many of the multiplexes. Jordan's Furniture and the film program at the MFA are still in limbo.
As mentioned, I'm heading to Manhattan for Hong-Kong-a-Thon III on Saturday (postponed from January!), which I suspect will wreck me for most of the week, although I'm planning on Travolta vs Cage on Tuesday (I don't think I've ever seen
Red Rock West). Who knows what I'll be up for around that?
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