Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 7 April 2023 - 13 April 2023

I guess I kind of did a bunch of the work for this last week, but I honestly thought more would be coming out this weekend than just the two big ones. Ah, well.

• The Super Mario Bros. Movie opened Wednesday at the Capitol (including RealD 3D), Fresh Pond (including 3D), Jordan's Furniture (Imax), West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Imax Xenon/Dolby Cinema/RealD 3D), Kendall Square, South Bay (including Imax Xenon/Dolby Cinema/RealD 3D), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser/Dolby Cinema/RealD 3D), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill; it's gonna make all the money because folks have loved these games for forty years and there's been no mainstream kids' movies since Christmas.
  
  There's also Air, Ben Affleck's new movie and the first time he's directed friend Matt Damon, with Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, Viola Davis, Affleck, and more along for the ride. It's at the Somerville, the Capitol, the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common, Kendall Square, South Bay (Saturday preview), Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Young adult adaptation Beautiful Disaster - which already has a sequel in production - plays Boston Common, South Bay and Assembly Row on Wednesday and Thursday. Metallica: 72 Seasons Global Premiere gives audiences a preview of the band's new album at Boston Common on Thursday. There are also the first of several 20th Anniversary shows of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on Thursday at South Bay and Assembly Row. There are early screenings of Mafia Mamma at Boston Common,South Bay, and Assembly Row on Tuesday plus Renfield at Assembly Row on Wednesday, ahead of the regular previews on Thursday and the "real" opening on Friday.
• Paint, which I'd initially pegged as a regular Bob Ross biopic, but which instead ha Owen Wilson playing a guy with a similar perm who finds his public-access painting show being usurped by a younger woman who also happens to be a better painter. It's at Landmark Theatres Kendall Square, Boston Common.
  
  The Kendall also has a preview of Little Richard: I Am Everything and a Retro Replay show of Swing Time on Tuesday (also at the Somerville and Boston Common). They also show documentaries American Hospital: Healing a Broken System on Wednesday, with a number of expert guests on-hand for discussion, and The Lost Weekend: A Love Story on Thursday, with Beatles archivist Erik Taros discussing this film about the exceptionally productive period in John Lennon's career that coincided with his being paired with assistant May Pang (also at Boston Common with no guests).
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre opens Tori and Lokita in the GoldScreen this weekend, and I wonder if it would have gotten a bigger room if the two new screens were ready. It's the new one from the Dardenne Brothers, following two young African immigrants facing danger as their off-the-books work at a restaurant intersects with drug traffickers.
  
  At midnight, they have two of Schwarzeneggar's most iconic films, with a 35mm print of The Terminator on Friday and Predator on DCP Saturday. Monday's Science on Screen presentation has dream scholar Deirdre Barrett introducing a 35mm print of Richard Linklater's Waking Life, which is technically part of "Ani-Mania!" - that includes Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell on Tuesday and a 35mm print of Satoshi Kon's Paprika on Wednesday. There's also an Open Screen on Tuesday night, and they appear to be closed on Thursday.
• Three new films from India at Apple Fresh Pond has this week: Ravanasura is a Telguu-language thriller; Gumraah is a Hindi crime flick where the prime suspect is revealed to have a doppelganger; and Meter is a Telugu-language action-comedy about a reluctant police officer facing off against corrupt bureaucrats.
  
  Viduthalai Part 1 and Dasara continue at Fresh Pond; as do matinees of German (but likely dubbed) kid flick The School of Magical Animals.
  
  Boston Common for some reason does not get the new Jackie Chan movie despite having a standee up for weeks but does get Post Truth, the latest comedy from writer/director/star Dong Chengpeng, who made the pretty darn good Jian Bing Man and City of Rock, though only for matinees.
  
  Boston Common has high school archery-club anime Tsurune: The Movie Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, though I'm only seeing it on their app and not Fandango (though it is not eligible for A-List).
• The Brattle Theatre continues to host Wicked Queer through Sunday. Other shows are at The Museum of Fine Arts and ArtsEmerson's Bright Screening Room, with virtual encores streaming through the rest of the month and a free showcase at BU on Wednesday.
  
  After that, the Brattle takes another few days to show off their new sound system with an "About the Sound" series of films that explicitly demonstrate how good sound works. There a 35mm double feature of Blow Out and The Conversation on Monday & Tuesday, late shows of Berberian Sound Studio on Wednesday and Thursday, plus a 35mm print of The Birds on Thursday. In between, RPM Fest welcomes Mary Helena Clark for a program of several short films.
• The Somerville Theatre is not messing around with their rep stuff on the big screen this weekend, offering up a double feature of Johnnie To's Michelle Yeoh/Maggie Cheung/Anita Mui superhero flicks The Heroic Trio & Executioners through Sunday, while a $5 "Attack of the B Movies" double feature of Gamera The Invincible & Gamera vs Barugon plays early Saturday and Monday evening. They also offer Frankenhooker as a Midnight Special on Saturday
  
  and Little Richard: I Am Everything on Tuesday. The Capitol picks up The Quiet Girl second-run.
• Rwandan filmmaker Kivu Ruhorahoza wraps his visit to the The Harvard Film Archive (where he was awarded the McMillan-Stewart Fellowship on Friday with separate screenings of Europa, "Based on a True Story" and Things of the Aimless Wanderer. Saturday features two from Med Hondo: Black Light (on 35mm film) and the restoration of Sarraounia. On Sunday evening, they have a double feature of two hour-long films by Valeria Sarmiento, A Man, When He's a Man & Planet of the Children, the former on 16mm film and the latter digital. And on Monday, they welcome Alice Diop to present her recent first fiction film, Saint Omer
• Belmont World Film is streaming The Worst Ones, which looks like a multi-level meta take on "art house director hires non-actors to give his movie authenticity", through Sunday night, and then will present it in-person at Fresh Pond on Monday, with post-film discussion.
• The Regent Theatre has a double feature of movies about jazz musicians built around interviews on Wednesday: Rewind & Play combines a 1969 performance by Thelonious Monk in Paris with an apparently-condescending interview done for French television that preceded it, while The Key Man: Dave McKenna is built around the interviews the New England musician did with Boston Globe writer Jay Thomas
• Joe's Free Films shows a free screening of The Flight at the Goethe-Institut on Wednesday, including and introduction and post-film discussion of East German cinema.
• Holy crap, director Phil Tippett is at Bright Lights on Thursday to present Mad God, the surreal work of stop-motion horror/dark fantasy that the special-effects legend spent twenty years or so constructing (as is producer Golin Geddes)! As always, tickets are free and open to the public with doors opening at 6:30pm.
• The Lexington Venue is open through Sunday with The Quiet Girl, Air, and Return to Seoul.
  
  The West Newton Cinema picked up Air and Super Mario Brothers, streamlining their schedule offerings down to Dungeons & Dragons, John Wick 4, Women Talking (Saturday/Sunday), A Man Called Otto, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and The Fabelmans (no show Tuesday), . No shows Monday.
  
  The Luna Theater has Paint on Friday, Saturday, and Thursday. From Dusk Till Down plays Sunday, and there's a Weirdo Wednesday on the schedule too.
  
  Cinema Salem is open through Monday with Dungeons & Dragons, John Wick 4, Air, and Super Mario Bros.. The original King Kong plays Saturday, Sunday, and Thursday.

Yeah, I'm watching Super Mario in 3D, as well as Air, Post Truth, and the Gamera movies. I'd also really like to get Shazam 2 and a second viewing of Avatar 2 in before they leave theaters, but don't know if I'll have the time.