Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 9 September 2022 - 15 September 2022

Have I said "weird week coming up" lately? Yeah? Well, there's apparently going to be a lot of that until October or something.

• I think I actually saw a preview for this week's big Indian release, Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva, when I saw something that wound up being unsubtitled this spring, positioning it as the first movie in the "Astraverse", with filmmaker Ayan Mukerji working on it for the best part of a decade, with Ranbir Kapoor as Shiva, Alia Bhatt as his love interest, and Amitabh Bachchan as his guru. It is taking advantage of the quiet week from Hollywood to open at Fresh Pond (2D/3D Hindi), Jordan's Furniture, Boston Common (2D/Imax 3D/RealD 3D Hindi), Fenway (2D RealD 3D Hindi & 2D Telugu).
  
  Apple Fresh Pond has even more science fiction from the subcontinent, with Telugu time travel story Oke Oka Jeevitham also playing in Tamil as Kanam through Sunday (or the other way around; I'm not sure which is the language it was filmed in); Tamil-language Captain is an action-adventure about a soldier assigned to fend off an alien invasion. Oru Thekkan Thallu Case looks like a more conventional Malayalam-language crime drama.
  
  Anime The House of the Lost on the Cape plays Fenway in a regular run after spotty previews, with both dubbed and subtitled screenings of this film about a teenager discovering peace and maybe kappas at a traditional Japanese beach home; they also play another anime, Fantasia selection Goodbye, Don Glees!, on Wednesday. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero still plays Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row; there's an interesting paper to be written about how these bookings shift between dubs and subtitles over the weeks.
  
  Boston Common puts on a few more times for Chinese comedy Moon Man, seeing as it seemed to do pretty well, all but sold out every time I tried to get tickets.
• The big American is Barbarian, a nifty-looking horror movie about two people who wind up in the same rental only to discover that it may be on top of a tunnel to hell. It's at the Somerville Theatre, Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Fenway, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  There's also Unfavorable Odds, an indie comedy where a man seemingly bets his wife with his player buddy. It's directed by someone called "Boogievision", which seems like a bold choice for your first film. It's at Boston Common and Assembly Row (although there are a lot of shows grayed-out meaning they're either sold out or just aren't going to be listed until day-of in case something else looks like a better bet).
  
  Boston Common and Fenway get Medieval, an English-language film from a Czech director about Czech warlor Jan Zizka (Ben Foster). Apparently Michael Caine is still picking up paychecks, though I thought he'd retired.
  
  Fenway opens Beautiful Blue Eyes, the new name for Iron Cross, which had its original run back in 2009/2010, but is being re-released with some of the pieces star Roy Scheider couldn't finish (he passed away during post-production) updated with VFX and AI voice work.
  
  Pitch Perfect gets 10th anniversary shows at Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards on Sunday and Wednesday (no Arsenal Yards). Jaws hangs around Boston Common (3D), Assembly Row (Imax Xenon); Spider-Man: No Way Hope at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards (including CWX). Boston Common also have various Disney tie-ins for the D+ anniversary - Cars (Friday/Saturday/Monday/Thursday), Encanto (Friday/Sunday/Wednesday), the Newsies musical (Friday/Sunday/Wednesday), Thor: Ragnarok (Saturday/Monday/Tuesday), Rogue One (Saturday/Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday). It overlaps with a series of Spanish-language/subtitled films starting on Thursday with Pan's Labyrinth and The Secret of La Llorna. South Bay moves Bullet Train back to the Imax Xenon screen.
  
  There are early Imax screenings of Moonage Daydream Monday night at Boston Common and Assembly Row. Clerks III plays single shows Tuesday to Thursday at Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards; apparently that's how Kevin Smith's movies come out now. Some of the Thursday previews of Pearl is a double feature with X, the movie it's a prequel to; apparently single-admission at Boston Common and double-admission at Fenway.
• Landmark Theatres Kendall Square opens documentary Loving Highsmith, based upon the personal writings of famed novelist Patricia. They also get romantic comedy About Fate, with Emma Roberts and Thomas Mann as two people thrown together on New Year's Eve.
  
  The Tuesday "Back to School" picture is Fame. They've also got a one-night booking for horror/thriller The Retaliators on Wednesday.
• The Brattle Theatre plays Mark Cousins's The Story of Film: A New Generation, a 2.5-hour documentary on the last decade or so of movies, following up his original film about the medium in the Twentieth Century. They pair it with a number of films that are part of his examination - Holy Motors (Friday), Zama (Saturday), The Babadook (Saturday), Good Time (35mm Sunday), Cemetery of Splendor (Monday), Leviathan (Tuesday), Moonlight (Wednesday), and It Follows (Thursday).
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre picks up Funny Pages a couple weeks into its run. The midnights include a 35mm print of El Topo on Friday and Cats on Saturday, so, clearly, no theme this month. Monday's Big Screen Classic is Grey Gardens; Thursday's is Killer of Sheep
• The Somerville Theatre continues to play the new 4K restoration of Apocalypse Now in its Final Cut on the main screen through Sunday, with Love Story getting the room on Wednesday and Thursday. Saturday's Midnight Special is Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury.
  
  Their sister cinema in Arlington, The Capitol, picks up Gigi & Nate.
• The Harvard Film Archive continues the Early Kiarostami program And Life Goes On (aka Life and Nothing More, Friday/Sunday), The Report (Saturday), The Experience (Saturday), Through the Olive Trees (Sunday), and The Traveler (Monday).
• The New England Aquarium has Jaws on their Imax screen as part of their $5 Cult Classics series, though it's not clear if it's the new Imax presentation that opened elsewhere the week before or the previous DCP.
• The Regent Theatre has the premiere screening of The Greatest Radio Station in the World, a documentary about Bridgeport's WPKN, which started as college radio in 1963 and has been community-funded/run since 1989.
• The Lexington Venue refreshes their screens with Vengeance, Emily the Criminal, and The Good Boss playing through Sunday.
  
  The Luna Theater has Bodies Bodies Bodies Friday and Saturday, the Sundance Institute Indigineous Shorts Tour Saturday afternoon and the "regular" Sundance Shorts program Saturday evening, Carrie on Sunday, Weirdo Wednesday, and a Thursday night UMass Lowell Philosophy & Film presentation of The Lighthouse.
  
  Cinema Salem Friday to Sunday line-up is Funny Pages and Emily the Criminal; they've also got Legally Blonde hosted by Miz Diamond Wigfall on Friday Night.
• Joe's Free Films shows a fair number of outdoor movies on Friday, including Greyhound on the deck of the Constitution.
• 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.

I'll be doing Greyhound, Shiva, Moon Man, and Barbarian, at least, will try and get to Goodbye, Don Glees!, and it's probably now or never for catching up on stuff you missed, with some pretty big turnover coming on the 16th (says the guy who still hasn't seen Elvis or Maverick).

Also, farewell to the Embassy Cinema in Waltham, which closed after its Labor Day shows. It was not fancy and probably got the life sucked out of it when the Arsenal Yards multiplex opened a few miles away on the 70 bus line, but it got the job done when I was stuck working late at my employer's old location and when Netflix needed to book a screen in the Boston area because they promised directors something would open in the top 10 markets. I hope someone else takes it off Landmark's hands, moves in there, and makes it work.