Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 26 August 2022 - 1 September 2022

Weird but a potentially very fun weekend!

• I'm a little worried that all the advertising for Three Thousand Years of Longing focuses on on the greatness of George Miller rather than how great this particular movie is, but, on the other hand, Miller directing Idris Elba as a genie found by Tilda Swinton's mousy widow, prepared to grant her wishes while regaling her with other tales, is certainly interesting if nothing else. It plays the Coolidge (including a Sunday Masked Matinee), Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Fenway, Kendall Square,South Bay, Assembly Row, the Embassy, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  The week's late-summer-why-not horror release is The Invitation, featuring Nathalie Emmanuel as a woman who finds more than she bargained for as her wedding approaches; it's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards. Also opening is Breaking, starring John Boyega as a PTSD-afflicted vet who takes a bank hostage, with Michael K. Williams as the hostage negotiator and Nicole Beharie as one of the employees stuck within. It's at Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and the Embassy.
  
  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story gets an Imax re-release ahead of Disney+'s Andor miniseries (a prequel to that prequel), playing at Jordan's, Boston Common, Assembly Row, and South Bay. Godzilla vs. Kong also returns to big screens, playing Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row Friday night.
• Korean blockbuster Alienoid opens at Boston Common, and it's a hoot, featuring aliens hiding their prisoners inside the brains of human beings for centuries, mystic martial arts in the 1480s, time travel in the first scene, humanoid extraterrestrial robots raising a daughter, an attempt to poison Earth's atmosphere in the present day, and honestly far too much craziness for just one summer movie. One of my favorites from Fantasia. Boston Common also gets Chinese romance, featuring Li Wenhan and Xu Ruohan as college students who have been dating for eight years.
  
  The month's Studio Ghibli Fest presentation is Only Yesterday, playing Boston Common, Fenway, Assembly Row, South Bay, and Arsenal Yards on Sunday (dubbed) and Monday (subtitled). Anime feature Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero hangs around at the Arlington Capitol, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, Kendall Square, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards (including CWX), Chestnut Hill, and CinemaSalem; though most places are dub-only now.
  
  Boxing movie Liger, starring Vijay Deverakonda as the title character and featuring Mike Tyson, opened Wednesday in some spots and Friday in others, and plays this week at Fresh Pond (Hindi/Telugu), Boston Common (Hindi), and Arsenal Yards. Apple Fresh Pond also opens Malayalam-language thriller Theerppu and keeps Tamil-language comedy Thiruchitrambalam, Hindi comedy/drama Laal Singh Chaddha (also at Boston Common), and Karthikeya 2.
  
  Egyptian comedy-thriller Tasleem Ahaly, in which a couple finds themselves beset by a stalker, plays at Fenway.
• The Good Boss opens at The Coolidge Corner Theatre and Kendall Square; a black comedy starring Javier Bardem as a family business's owner striving to earn an award as a good place to work despite there apparently being multiple issues.
  
  The weekend's midnight's include a 35mm print of Ti West's X on Friday and another of Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 on Saturday. Saturday's "Stage & Screen" show is Once, tied to the Huntington's production of Sing Street. Samurai Summer shows include The Tale of Zatoichi on Tuesday and a 35mm print of Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai on Wednesday
• Funny Pages opens at Landmark Theatres Kendall Square, with Kevin Kline's son Owen directing the story of a teenager played by Daniel Zolghadri who aims to be an underground cartoonist by rejecting his comfortable suburban life.
  
  IFFBoston alum The Territory also opens at the Kendall and Boston Common; it's a thrilling "how-much-danger-was-everybody-in" documentary about indiginious people in Brazil attempting to maintain control of their land as European-descended settlers attempt to stake claims with the government turning a blind eye to their aggressive tactics.
  
  The Kendall also closes out their Retro Replay Hitchcock month with Vertigo on Tuesday.
• If Three Thousand Years of Longing is not enough George Miller for you, The Brattle Theatre offers The Mad Max Cycle this weekend, with Mad Max Friday & Saturday, Mad Max 2 on 35mm Friday & Saturday, Beyond Thunderdome on 35mm Saturday, and Fury Road on Sunday, with the original version in 35mm and "Black & Chrome" digitally later in the evening.
  
  The Judy Garland centennial wraps Monday & Tuesday with A Star Is Born on 35mm. IFFBoston presents rock doc Anonymous Club on Wednesday, and the Midnighter series ends Thursday with The Harder They Fall & Reefer Madness.
• Memoria makes its fourth or fifth stop in the Boston are at The Harvard Film Archive, playing Friday to Sunday at 7pm. It is supposedly never playing the small screen here, although I gather discs are starting to show up for pre-order in other countries. Still, an intriguing and unusual experience.
• IFFBoston opener Emily the Criminal comes full circle, landing at The Somerville Theatre for the week. Repertory material on the big screen includes a 35mm double feature of On Golden Pond & Stand By Me on Friday and Saturday, with a 35mm print of Friday the 13th as Saturday's Midnight Special. Midsommar plays Sunday and Monday, with second feature Season of the Witch (aka Hungry Wives) on Sunday. Nashville plays Tuesday and Wednesday.
• The Lexington Venue has A Love Song, Top Gun: Maverick, and Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris from Friday to Sunday; they also partner with the Arlington International Film Festival for a program of short climate-related documentaries on Saturday afternoon.
  
  The West Newton Cinema appears to be back down to only being open weekends, playing Bodies Bodies Bodies, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen A Journey, A Song, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Where the Crawdads Sing, Minions, Downton Abbey: A New Era, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On through Sunday.
  
  The Luna Theater has Marcel the Shell with Shoes On Friday and Saturday, Fire of Love Saturday evening, Plan 9 from Outer Space on Sunday, a Weirdo Wednesday show, and, on Thursday, the first of several screenings of a touring group of shorts by/about indigenous people from the Sundance Institute.
  
  Cinema Salem Friday-Monday line-up is Beast, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
• Hey, it's Films at the Gate weekend, with free subtitled Chinese-language movies at the Chinatown Gate, with martial-arts demonstrations beforehand and all the takeout in Chinatown as your concession stand! This year's features include Kung Fu Stuntmen: Never Say No on Friday, Ip Man 4 starring Boston's Own Donnie Yen on Saturday, and animated blockbuster Ne Zha on Sunday. Joe's Free Films has more; amusingly, it's also been announced that the city of Boston will be extending some of these programs because apparently they help stagger everybody trying to get on the Orange Line shuttles at the same time.
• 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.

Hitting Three Thousand Years of Longing and probably Rogue One and Emily the Criminal at the very least. I highly recommend TheTerritory and Alienoid, both jaw-dropping in very different ways.