Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 23 September 2022 - 29 September 2022

Could be kind of a trainwreck this weekend, with two films that seem to be real messes opening and a re-release that will put a few pop culture assumptions to the test.

• James Cameron's Avatar returns to theaters for a couple of weeks, with new 4K 3D HDR presentations, ready to build excitement for the upcoming sequel and answer the claims that it made no pop-cultural impact and test my theory that it's a pretty impressive movie but lousy TV. It's at Jordan's Furniture (Imax 3D), Boston Common (Dolby Cinema 3D & RealD 3D), Fenway (RealD 3D), South Bay (Imax Xenon 3D & RealD 3D & Dolby Cinema 2D), Assembly Row (Imax Xenon 3D & RealD 3D), and Chestnut Hill (RealD 3D); I think only South Bay has 2D shows, if you're into that.
  
  David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream moves from Imax to standard screens at Boston Common and Assembly Row as it opens at the Somerville, the Coolidge (including a Saturday Masked Matinee), Fenway, and Kendall Square. In new releases, Don't Worry Darling arrives after the trailer playing long enough to go from intriguing to too-familiar and crazy drama going on while it played festivals. It's Olivia Wilde's follow-up to Booksmart, with Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, Gemma Chan, and others in an atomic-age planned community where the wives stay home while the husbands work on some defense project, although Pugh's character seems to be chafing at something which isn't quite right. It's at the Somerville, the Coolidge, West Newton, Boston Common (including Imax Xenon), Fenway, Kendall Square, South Bay (including DOlby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Boston Common and Fenway open On the Come Up, with Jamila Gray as a teenaged aspiring rapper whose family faces eviction and a neat cast including director Sanaa Lathan and Method Man (also available on Paramount+). Railway Children, a kids' adventure set in WWII with evacuated kids in the North of England aiding an American soldier, has one or two shows a day at Boston Common.
  
  Boston Common continues Latino Month screenings of In the Heights (Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Tuesday/Wednesday), Selena (Friday/Saturday/Monday/Wednesday), Pan's Labyrinth (Sunday), and The Curse of La Llorona (Monday/Thursday) Anvil! The Story of Anvil has a one-night stand at Boston Common on Tuesday prior to its new Blu-ray release. Fenway has the Harry Potter movies on the big screen, though you may need to leave work early to see all of them in chronological order. Poltergeist has 40th Anniversary shows on Sunday and Monday at Fenway, South Bay, and Arsenal Yards, plus one Wednesday and Fenway and South Bay. In addition to the normal Thursday previews, Fenway has a "Monday Mystery Movie", Amsterdam gets an "Imax Live Experience" presentation at Boston Common and Assembly Row on Tuesday, and Smile has an "Early Access Fan Event", also Tuesday at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
• Landmark Theatres Kendall Square has a couple movies a week or two before they arrive on their streamers. Catherine Called Birdy is the latest from Lena Dunham (or second-latest, if it was actually shot before Sharp Stick; I dunno), a young-adult adventure set in 1290 with Bella Ramsey as a spirited teen trying to avoid an arranged marriage, two weeks before Amazon Prime. At the other end of the spectrum is Andrew Dominik's Blonde, Andrew Dominik's fictionalized account of the life of Marilyn Monroe starring Ana de Armas; it's got an NC-17 rating and runs long, but is apparently pretty miserable. It hits Netflix next Wednesday.
  
  One likely not destined for the obvious streaming service is The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, with directors Abigail Disney (yes, of those Disneys) and Kathleen Hughes looking at how systematic inequalities help the rich get richer; Ms. Disney has had a front-row seat, obviously. There's also Tuesday's Retro Replay, winding up "Back to School" with Mean Girls, and Wednesday's rock-doc DIO: Dreamers Never Die (the latter also at Boston Common).
• Apple Fresh Pond has a new batch of films from India, most notably Hindi thriller Chup, with a director who sees his star fall while the actress he discovered becomes a star, perhaps also the serial killer targeting film critics in Mumbai (just what is diretor R. Balki working through?), also at Boston Common. They also pick up Telugu-language "romantic entertainer" Krishna Vrinda Vihari; Dhokha: Round D Corner, a Hindi film whose description includes multiple personality disorder, terrorists, and cheating hsubands; and Malayalam-language drama Kotthu on Friday. Telugu actioner Chenna Kesava Reddy plays Saturday, while Kannada-language sports drama Guru Shishyaru plays Saturday and Sunday. Aside from Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva continues at Fresh Pond (2D Hindi), Boston Common (2D/RealD 3D Hindi), and Fenway (2D Hindi); Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu Part 1: The Kindling also sticks around Fresh Pond (no show Saturday/Monday).
  
  Fresh Pond also opens Nepali period epic Prem Geet 3, which is apparently not a sequel but the third time star Pradeep Khadka has played a character named "Prem", though he's apparently on his third Geet. It plays through Monday.
  
  This month's "Studio Ghibli Fest" film is Howl's Moving Castle, playing Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards on Sunday (dubbed), Monday (subtitled), Tuesday (subtitled), Wednesday (dubbed). Boston Common and Fenway also have Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island on Tuesday (subtitled) and Wednesday (dubbed). Dubbed shows of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero are still going strong at South Bay.
• The Brattle Theatre has a bunch of New Restorations this week, starting with Keane on Friday and Saturday, if you're ready to accept that films made in the Twenty-First Century are already old enough to need restorations, and, folks, I am not (movie's pretty darn good, though). Friday and Saturday also feature a restored Drunken Master II for the late-ish shows, with some of Jackie Chan's best action and Anita Mui awfully funny as his stepmother. Alma's Rainbow plays Saturday & Sunday, and Mississippi Masala Sunday & Monday. There's also a few Centennial Screenings for Silent Movie Day, with Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler on Wednesday; Buster Keaton in "Cops", "The Electric House", "The Blacksmith", and "The Goat" on Thursday; and Murnau's Nosferatu next Friday.
  
  Revolutions Per Minute welcomes Ariana Gerstein with "Still/Distill", a collection of short films made over the past 20 years, some via scanning documents.
• In addition to the new-ish releases, The Coolidge Corner Theatre has The Rocky Horror Picture Show< at midnight on Saturday (no shadowcast listed; the usual folks are at Boston Common Saturday at 9:30pm) and welcomes Greg Sestero to present his new film Miracle Valley in a double feature with The Room. Goethe-Instiitut presents My Son Sunday morning, with Jonas Dassler and Anke Engelke on a road trip to a rehab facility in Switzerland. They get the first of the new restorations of Seminar: Three Colors: Blue's "Three Colors" trilogy, Blue, on Wednesday with a pre-screening seminar, while Northeastern professor Sina Fazelpour introduces Thursday's 35mm Science on Screen show of Minority Report
• The Somerville Theatre has a 35mm print of Wait After Dark as their Midnight Special on Saturday, featuring a blind Audrey Hepburn fending off thieves including a young Alan Arkin. Dinner in America finally plays theaters for one night on Monday after doing the virtual festival circuit back on 2020, while a 35mm double feature of Crusing & Windows on Tuesday and Wednesday, sending Barbarian to the micro on those nights.
• The Harvard Film Archive shifts gears to "¡Rebeladas! Una aproximación al cine de mujeres en Latinoamérica" this weekend, with each Latin American feature preceded by a short or two. Features include Cara Roshell (Friday), One Way or Another (Saturday/Sunday), Araya (35mm Saturday), and The Devil Never Sleeps (Sunday). On Monday, they start a series of silent-era films from Soviet Georgia, with the first selection Eliso, presented on film with Robert Humphreville on piano.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has the Boston Women's Film Festival Fall Showcase in the Remis Auditorium this weekend, with Piggy on Friday, Clara Sola and Murina on Saturday, and Happening on Sunday.
• The Regent Theatre has this year's edition of The Manhattan Short Film Festival from Tuesday to Wednesday (and next Sunday), a program of short films where attendees around the world get to vote for the audience awards.
• This Thursday's Bright Lights selection in the Bright Screening Room of Emerson's Paramount Theater is Salvadoran documentary Fly So Far, which looks at a woman whose miscarriage got her a ten-year sentence for aggravated murder because of the country's strict abortion laws. Tickets are free (available on the day of screening) and it's open to the public, with a post-film panel discussion on abortion access.
• The Boston Film Festival continues on Friday with Bromates at the Wilbur Theatre, Wild Beauty in Rockport, while Saturday's shows including "The Power of Activism" and "The Temptation of Trees" at the Boston Public Library, The Wind and the Reckoning at the Omni Hotel in the Seaport, and American Murderer & Always Lola at Fenway; most in-person shows list guests. A selection of shorts are available via their Eventive page through Monday.
• The Lexington Venue has Vengeance and The Territory playing through Sunday.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Don't Worry Darling and Jaws (no show Wednesday), with The Silent Twins (no show Thursday), and See How They Run (no show Thursday), Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Three Thousand Years of Longing (Saturday/Sunday afternoons), Where the Crawdads Sing (no show Thursday), Hallelujah (no show Tuesday), Minions (Saturday/Sunday), and The Bad Guys (Saturday/Sunday matinees). No shows on Monday.
  
  The Luna Theater has one more weekend of Bodies Bodies Bodies Friday & Saturday, with the Sundance Institute Indigineous Shorts Tour and Sundance Shorts programs on Saturday. Donnie Darko plays on Sunday, and there's a Weirdo Wednesday show.
  
  Cinema Salem Friday to Sunday line-up is Pearl and See How They Run. VideoCoven presents the "Out There Halloween Mega Tape" on Friday and Salem Horror Fest alumni The Strings and Landlocked on Thursday. Thursday also has a premiere screening of Alone in the Woods with writer/director/star Douglas Rouillard on-hand for a Q&A. Apparently the Salem Horror Fest is now in April, but VideoCoven has a string of events planned for the fall
• 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.

Yeah, I'm seeing Avatar again - I'm curious what it looks like on the Dolby screen in Boston Common, which I don't think has shown a 3D movie since first opening a couple years pre-pandemic. I will likely be unable to resist Don't Worry Darling and Blonde, despite both sounding pretty rough. I can be a sucker.