Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 14 April 2023 - 20 April 2023

Something I saw at my first Fantasia getting a 20th Anniversary Blu-ray release the other day was a heck of a thing, but something else I discovered there hitting the big time is pretty cool.

• It's kind of crazy, really, that I saw Makoto Shinkai's first feature there and thought it was a kind of niche thing, but now Shinkai's latest, Suzume is opening pretty wide, including premium screens. This one's trailer was delightfully vague, but it appears to follow a girl visiting various disaster sites through mysterious doors. It's at the Coolidge, Boston Common (including Imax), South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards. Subtitled and dubbed showtimes in all locations, so check before reserving tickets.
  
  Apple Fresh Pond picks up three from India: Rudhran is a Tamil action flick about an IT guy who comes upon a criminal network; Soppana Sundari is a dark Tamil comedy about a young woman whose contest win leads to more trouble; and Shaakuntalam is a romantic fantasy about lovers reunited after a curse causes King Dushyant (Dev Mohan) to forget Shakuntala (Samantha Ruth Prabhu), with some of its showings in 3D. They also hold over Viduthalai Part 1.
  
  Fresh Pond also gets matinees of Once Upon a Time in Ukraine, presumably a big hit in that area when it opened Christmas 2020.
• My favorite film from the recent Boston Underground Film Festival, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, opens at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square, and Boston Common. It's a pretty terrific little thriller about (mostly) Gen-Z radicals who have decided that peaceful protest will not sufficiently deter corporate interests defiling the environment and opt to take more direct action.
  
  The Coolidge's midnights this week feature films from the books of Michael Crichton, with a 35mm print of The Lost World on Friday and a DCP of Congo on Saturday. Aside from Suzume, there's even more anime on Saturday (a 35mm print of Rintaro's adaptation of Tezuka's Metropolis) and Wednesday (Katsuhito Otomo's Akira). On Sunday, there's Goethe-Institut presentation The Ordinaries, a fantasy about a "supporting character" who dreams of being a lead. Monday's Big Screen Classic is a 35mm print of Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine, while Tuesday's "Shakespeare Reimagined" presentation is Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. And on Thursday, which I'm sure just happens to be 4/20, there's a "Rewind!" presentation of of the live-action Scooby Doo.
• Lots of monsters opening otherwise. Perhaps the screwiest is Renfield with Nicholas Hoult as Count Dracula's long-suffering familiar and Nicolas Cage as the count himself, with Awkwafina as a New Orleans cop and Shoreh Aghdashloo as the local crime boss. It's at the Somerville, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Kendall Square, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.
  
  There's also The Pope's Exorcist, with Russell Crowe playing the title role and being dispatched to deal with what appears to be no ordinary demon - from the trailer, it seems to be targeting the priest himself, hoping to gain the pontiff's ear It plays Fresh Pond, Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row. If that's not enough demonic possession for your weekend, there's also Nefarious, with Sean Patrick Flanery as a death-row claiming he's a demon and Jordan Belfi as the psychiatrist sent to examine him, at Boston Common.
  
  If you're not up for supernatural stuff, Mafia Mamma opens at Assembly Row, a comedy starring Toni Collette as a Jersey housewife who discovers she is the granddaughter (and heir) of an Italian crime family, with Monica Bellucci guiding her through the sticky situation she has inherited. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  Also opening at Boston Common is Sweetwater, with Everett Osborne as the first Black player to sign an NBA contract, with a heck of a group of That Guys in supporting roles (Cary Elwes, Richard Dreyfuss, Kevin Pollak, Mike Starr, Eric Roberts, Jeremy Piven).
  
  There are 25th anniversary shows for The Big Lebowski on Sunday and Thursday at South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards. This week's religious film is Mirando al Cielo, which plays South Bay Assembly Row on Tuesday. Concert film Coldplay - Music of the Spheres: Live at River Plate plays Kendall Square, Boston Common, Assembly Row on Wednesday. There are also early shows of Guy Ritchie's The Covenant at Boston Common on Sunday; Beau Is Afraid at Boston Common (Imax Xenon) on Tuesday; and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. at Boston Common, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill on Wednesday
• The latest collaboration between director Kelly Reichardt and star Michelle Williams is apparently much lighter than some of their usual work - Showing Up has Williams playing a sculptor with a new show while dealing with friends and family who apparently also need a lot of attention. It plays Landmark Theatres Kendall Square and Boston Common.
  
  Tuesday's Retro Replay at the Kendall is Dark Passage, which pairs Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in a thriller which is shot first-person until Bogart's character gets plastic surgery so that he can take his new face on the lam.
• As is traditional, The Brattle Theatre celebrates Patriots' Day weekend with the Muppets and other creations from Jim Henson's Creature Shop: The Muppet Movie (35mm) Friday/Saturday, Where the Wild Things Are (35mm) Friday/Saturday, The Great Muppet Caper & The Muppets Take Manhattan as a 35mm double-feature Saturday, Babe Saturday/Sunday, a The Dark Crystal & Labyrinth double feature Sunday, plus the Muppet Marathon on Monday with The Muppet Movie, Caper, Take Manhattan, Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth.
  
  After that, they offer The Emperor & the Wolf: The Films of Akira Kurosawa & Toshiro Mifune all the way to IFFBoston, all on 35mm. The series kicks off with Stray Dogs & Drunken Angel Tuesday, The Bad Sleep Well (get out of work early) & High and Low Wednesday, and Rashomon on Thursday.
  
  Later on Thursday, they host the latest GRRL HAUS CINEMA program, a collection of international and Boston-area shorts, with many of the local filmmakers in attendance.
• The Museum of Fine Arts and RoxFilm have a special shorts program Friday night, "On Being Black Outdoors", which has three shorts that are part adventure film, part something else.
• ArtsEmerson's has two "Shared Stories" presentations in the Bright Screening Room this weekend, with Landfall examining post-hurricane Puerto Rico on Friday evening, A Letter To A'Ma following a Taiwanese art teacher back to her hometown Saturday afternoon, and "Meet and Eat and Lee's Garden" recalling one of the first Chinese restaurants in Montreal outside of Chinatown Saturday evening. All three will have post-film discussion and are pay-what-you-can.
  
  Bright Lights gets the room back on Thursday to show Women Talking, with post-film discussion with faculty. Admission free at the door.
• The Boston International Film Festival runs through Monday at AMC Boston Common, and while as usual some of it looks good, the website really does not make learning about what's showing straightforward.
• The Harvard Film Archive continues Med Hondo and the Indocile Image this weekend with West Indies (newly-restored DCP) and Soleil O playing separate shows Friday night, 35mm prints of Watani and West Indies on Saturday, and a 35mm print of Les Bicots-Nègres, vos voisins Sunday evening. They also wrap their "Reimagining Latin American Cinema: Chilean Film 1963-2013" series with The Wandering Soap Opera Sunday afternoon and The Tango of the Widower and Its Distorting Mirror on Monday evening.
  
  There's also a free screening of All the Beauty and the Bloodshed listed on Joe's Free Films, though it is not on the main HFA website, so it is likely presented by some other campus organization and just using the room
• The Somerville Theatre has some live events making use of the big room on Friday/Saturday, but does use it to show a 35mm print of Jawbreaker as Saturday's Midnight Special and Reefer Madness on Thursday (heh, 4/20).
  
  The Capitol has an April vacation film series with Minions: The Rise of Gru Sunday and Monday and Space Jam Tuesday through Thursday.
• Belmont World Film offers Turkey's Burning Days (with BU prof Roberta Micallef) at Fresh Pond on Monday, and then will start streaming Farewell Mr. Haffmann on Tuesday, before its in-person screening in Watertown next week.
• The Regent Theatre two adventure-film programs this week: The Trail Running Film Festival on Wednesday and Mountains on Stage on Thursday.
• The Museum of Science adds "Sea Lion 4-D" to its offerings in the 4D room starting Saturday.
• Wicked Queer has virtual encores of many of this year's festival selections available to stream.
• The Lexington Venue is open through Sunday with The Quiet Girl, Air, and Champions.
  
  The West Newton Cinema is the only local screen playing Only in Theaters, which follows the Laemmle family, which has been exhibiting films since the start of the medium, and will have director Raphael Sbarge on hand for a Q&A after Sunday's 3:30pm show. In addition to that, they are showing Air, Super Mario Brothers, Dungeons & Dragons, Women Talking (Saturday/Sunday), A Man Called Otto, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and The Fabelmans (no show Thursday). Closed Monday.
  
  The Luna Theater has Enys Men on Friday, Saturday, and Thursday evenings; Paint on Saturday, Night of the Living Dead on Sunday, and a Weirdo Wednesday mystery show.
  
  Cinema Salem is open at least through Wednesdayfor April vacation, with Air, Close, Dungeons & Dragons, Linoleum, and Super Mario Bros.. There's a Miz Diamond Wigfall show of Legally Blonde Saturday night.
  
  If you can make it to the Dedham Community Theatre, they have Róise & Frank, an Irish-language film about a widow who believes a stray dog is her reincarnated husband.

I am down for Metropolis and Suzume this Saturday, Showing Up and Air at some point, and we'll see just how much Kurosawa I can get to. Would kind of like some assurances that the 3D Indian film is subtitled.