Friday, January 20, 2023

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 20 January 2023 - 26 January 2023

Well, this stinks: It looks like the Fenway multiplex is on a list of 39 leases Regal intends to "reject" next month, which doesn't 100% mean they're closing then, but we certainly could be down 13 screens before Causeway Street and the Seaport re-open. Which is a bummer, because they're where some off-the-beaten-path foreign films play (Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, Russian, Nigerian). It'd be funny if AMC took over the lease, since Regal only has the location because AMC had to sell after the mergers with Loews & GCC, lest they control too much of the market. It'll be interesting who actually does show some interest in the location.

But enough of that for now! Lunar New Year is Sunday, Oscar nominations drop Tuesday, and it's Indian Republic Day on Thursday, all of which have an impact on what's opening at various points this week!

  • The biggest opening this week is Missing, a "screen-life" movie from some of the same crew as Searching, this time inverted so that a teenager is looking for her missing mother. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.

    Alice, Darling, starring Anna Kendrick as a woman whose friends try to pull her out of an abusive relationship, opens at Boston Common.

    Seventieth anniversary screenings of Roman Holiday play Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row on Sunday and Wednesday.
  • Despite the presence of Anthony Hopkins and director Florian Zeller, The Son does not appear to actually be connected to The Father. This one focuses on a man played by Hugh Jackman, who fears that he may be failing his own son in the way that his father failed him. It's at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square, Boston Common.

    The Coolidge's January Giallo midnights this weekend include Astron 6's The Editor on Friday (like most of their stuff, better when paying sincere homage rather than spoofing) and What Have You Done with Solange? (preceded by locally-made short "The Five Fingers of a Dog") on Saturday. The Room also plays Friday night. There's also Saturday & Sunday morning kids' shows of The Great Muppet Caper, while Sunday morning also features a Goethe-Institut presentation of Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush, with director Andres Dresen doing a long-distance Q&A afterward. Monday's Sounds of Silents show is Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, with Jeff Rapsis on the organ and Emerson professor Andre Puca leading a seminar beforehand. There's also a seminar for Lars von Trier's Melancholia on Tuesday, with UMass professor Sarah Keller. It's in 35mm as part of the art-house sci-fi series "Projections", which also features Born in Flames on Wednesday. Finally, Radio Boston will be doing a "Set in Boston" event on Thursday, with post-film discussion after The Departed
  • Landmark Theatres Kendall Square opens Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb, a documentary about an author and an editor who have worked for fifty years and are just now seeing the final volume of Caro's masterwork almost finished. They also pick up When You Finish Saving the World, a comedy starring Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard, directed by Jesse Eisenberg based on his audiobook, though with fairly limited showtimes.

    The Kendall also has Barry Lyndon on Tuesday as a part of its Retro Replay: Stanley Kubrick series.
  • The big Lunar New Year release from China is The Wandering Earth 2, which is actually a prequel to 2019's original from returning director Frant Gwo set before the Earth left its orbit, with Andy Lau joining Wu Jing. It opens Sunday at Boston Common (including Imax) and Fenway.

    Apple Fresh Pond opens drama Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam (which I believe is Malayalam but may be Tamil) on Friday, and also brings back Telugu blockbuster RRR for subtitled daily evening shows, ahead of some presumed Oscar attention. The next big release comes on Wednesday, with Pathaan starring Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, and John Abraham as a team of spies targeting drug lords in "the dystopian Middle East", opening at Fresh Pond and Fenway.

    Fresh Pond keeps most of last week's openings- Tamil-language Varisu (also playing in Telugu as "Vaarasudu" through Tuesday), Telugu-language Veera Simha Reddy, Telugu-language Waltair Veerayya (through Tuesday), and Thunivu (also at Boston Common).

    Anime That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Scarlet Bond plays Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row at various times during the week, sometimes dubbed in English and sometimes as subtitled Japanese; check which version is playing at any particular venue on a given day. There are also subtitled shows of Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love Starish Tours at Boston Common on Sunday and Monday.

    Egyptian comedy Nabil el Gamil, Plastic Surgeon continues at Fenway through Tuesday.
  • The Brattle Theatre reopens after a brief closure with the more indie half of their "(Some of) The Best of 2022" series, including Decision to Leave and Something in the Dirt on Friday & Saturday, a double feature of Memoria and TÁR on Sunday, Neptune Frost on Monday, Aftersun and We're All Going to the World's Fair on Tuesday, A Couple and Holy Spider on Wednesday, with a twin bill of X (on 35mm film) and Pearl on Thursday.
  • The Somerville Theatre reopens Everything Everywhere All at Once on their main screen in anticipation of some awards nominations, with Skinamarink opening downstairs, with actual matinee showings, which none of the other theaters did. They're also expanding their weekday hours a little, so that they can get it and M3GAN two shows each starting between 6pm and 9pm.
  • The Harvard Film Archive returns from winter break with a series celebrating "Kinuyo Tanaka - Actress, Director, Pioneer": Love Letter plays Friday, Flowing pl.ays on 35mm film on Saturday and Sunday, The Wandering Princess on Sunday, and Ugetsu on 35mm film Monday. The series will run, off and on, through the end of February.
  • Belmont World Film has the second weekend of their Family Film Festival with many of last weekend's films available via Eventive while also setting up shop at The Regent Theatre in Arlington for "LOL with Mo Willems Films", The Smeds and the Smoos, The School of Magical Animals 2, and Last Film Show on Saturday, the last only playing in-person
  • Bright Lights returns to the Paramount Center this Thursday with Triangle of Sadness, with professor Ken Feil leading discussion afterwards. As always, it's free and open to the public, with reservations available at the box office (or via phone) starting at noon the day of the show.
  • The Lexington Venue is open through Monday with A Man Called Otto and The Fabelmans.

    The West Newton Cinema has Living, A Man Called Otto, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fabelmans, Aftersun, The Banshees of Inisherin, and Tár. Closed Monday.

    The Luna Theater has a thin-ish schedule with Holy Spider on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday; All the Beauty and the Bloodshed on Saturday and Sunday; The Eternal Daughter on Saturday; and a Weirdo Wednesday show.

    Cinema Salem has A Man Called Otto, M3GAN, Aftersun, Eo, and The Whale from Friday to Monday, Skinamarink on Friday and Saturday, Broker on Saturday and Sunday, and Dirty Dancing on Sunday.
  • For those still not ready to join random people in a room for two hours, theater rentals are available at Kendall Square, West Newton, the Capitol and Somerville, The Venue, CinemaSalem, and many of the multiplexes.
Damn right I'm going to finally see Something in the Dirt on the big screen at the Brattle on Friday. I have also already reserved a ticket for The Wandering Earth 2, and will likely go for Missing and Pathaan, with some other catch-up as well. Plus the usual dice-rolling nonsense.

No comments: