Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 19 May 2023 - 25 May 2023

Not saying the ten days I was on vacation is the longest is the longest I've gone without seeing a movie in years, but it was a fun week. Fortunately, catching up won't be as hard as it could be, because we're entering the "one big release and everything else looking for scraps" portion of the movie year.

• That big opening this week is Fast X, which has practically everyone from previous films back plus Jason Momoa and Brie Larson joining the group. Somehow, there has been no "Fast-ten your seatbelts" to the title and promotion, which is nuts to me. It plays the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture (Imax), Boston Common (including Imax Xenon/Dolby Cinema), Kendall Square, South Bay (including Imax Xenon/Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser/Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  The Little Mermaid has an early access screening on Wednesday at Boston Common (Imax Xenon), South Bay (RealD 3D), and Assembly Row (RealD 3D) before the regular Thursday early shows.
• IFFBoston narrative centerpiece Master Gardener opens at The Coolidge Corner Theatre and Boston Common; it's the new one from Paul Schrader, starring Joel Adgerton as the title character, whose employer (Sigourney Weaver) asks him to take her niece on as an apprentice, perhaps not knowing what he did before he took up horticulture.
  
  The Coolidge's midnights this week are Angel Heart on Friday and the 1982 remake of Cat People, which just happens to be directed by Schrader, with Salem Horror Fest/CinemaSalem's Kay Lynch giving an introduction. Sunday morning's Goethe-Institut film is Schächten — A Retribution, with the group also showing Movements at their own location on Wednesday (free, but RSVP). Monday's Big Screen Classic is a 35mm print of The Philadelphia Story; A Pocketful of MIracles has its New England premiere on Tuesday with filmmaker Aviva Kempner there for a Q&A as part of the National Center for Jewish Film's series; the Jim Jarmusch film on Wednesday is Coffee and Cigarettes' and Thursday's "Rewind!" show is the new restoration of Party Girl.
• Landmark Theatres Kendall Square has a fair amount of independent openings. The Starling Girl follows a teenager in an evangelical community who is already struggling with how much she enjoys dance even before being drawn to her youth pastor; it's also at Boston Common. Also opening is Monica, which features Trace Lysette as a woman returning after a long time away, looking to reconnect with her mother; that one is also at the Somerville.
  
  There's also It Ain't Over, which examines the life of Yogi Berra, both as a genius baseball player and his life before and after his playing days. It also plays at Boston Common
  
  And, almost incidentally, there's Robots, starring Shailene Woodley and Jack Whitehall as a couple ne'er-do-wells who wind up chasing robot duplicates of themselves. It's based on a book by Robert Sheckley and adapted by some of the teams behind Klovn and Borat, which is an interesting group. Matinees only, though. Tuesday's Scorsese/DeNiro flick is Cape Fear, and there's also a live broadcast of Roger Waters: This Is Not a Drill from Prague on Thursday.
• Five Indian films open at Apple Fresh Pond this weekend. Pichaikkaran 2 is a Tamil action/adventure (also playing in Telugu as "Bichagadu 2") with a tycoon and a beggar on a crash course; Anni Manchi Sakunamule is a Telugu-language family drama; Charles Enterprises is a Malayalam comedy about a son who steals a Ganesh idol from his mother; Yaadhum Oore Yaavarum Kelir is a Tamil-language "musical thriller". There's also a 20th-anniversary re-release of Simhadri, one of the first big hits by RRR/Bahubali director S.S. Rajamouli, on Friday. Bangladeshi action movie Black War: Mission Extreme 2 plays Saturday., and Marathi biopic Maharashtra Shaheer plays Sunday.
  
  The Kerala Story continues at Fresh Pond, and Malayalam-language thriller 2018 has a full week of screenings at Fresh Pond.
  
  Hong Kong comedy Over My Dead Body plays Boston Common this week, with a nude corpse throwing the residents of an apartment complex into chaos. Interestingly, director Ho Cheuk-Tin was also behind the camera for last year's The Sparring Partner, which is not nearly that lighthearted.
  
  Anime Suzume continues at the Coolidge and Boston Common, subtitled.
• The Brattle Theatre opens Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, an animated film based upon the stories of Haruki Murakami (in English, though the original production is French). It plays afternoons and evenings, while BUFF standout How to Blow up a Pipeline plays at 9:15. Both run through Tuesday.
  
  After that, they kick off their Reunion Week shows, with Key Largo on Wednesday and Rope on Thursday, both on 35mm for their 75th anniversaries, and 25th anniversary screenings of Pi at 9:15 both nights.
• The Somerville Theatre, aside from opening Monica, has Cannibal!: The Musical as a Midnight Special on Saturday. Once Upon a Time in the West plays on 35mm Sunday. On Wednesday, they kick off their "F–k the Nazis!" program with a double feature of Casablanca (on 35mm) and The Guns of Navarone (in 4K). Thursday's Two-for-Thursdays presentation is The Best Years of Our Lives followed by Roman Holiday.
  
  Their sister cinema in Arlington, The Capitol, is renting out a screen for the Battlebots season finale on Thursday, with team members in person and a live Q&A; tickets are on sale via EventBrite
• The Harvard Film Archive has more of their Late Kiarostami series this weekend: Taste of Cherry (35mm Friday), ABC Africa (Friday), Shirin (Saturday), The Wind Will Carry Us (35mm Sunday), Close-Up (35mm Sunday), and 24 Frames Monday.
• The Museum of Fine Arts finishes the Festival of New Films From Japan with My Neighbor Totoro (subtitled Friday evening and dubbed Saturday morning), animated drama Miss Hokusai (dubbed Friday night, replacing a screening of Akira), and Saturday's closing film A Man, a drama about a woman who finds out her husband was not what he seemed.
  
  They also show Aftershock in association with RoxFilm, with co-director Tonya Lewis Lee on hand to discus her film about the high infant mortality rates in the African American community.
• RoxFilm also presents Stonebreakers at ArtsEmerson's Bright Screening Room at the Paramount on Sunday; it's a pretty darn decent movie about the battle over controversial monuments in America. On Saturday, The Boston Asian-American Film Festival co-presents Blurring the Color Line: Chinese in the Segregated South. Both films will have panel discussions afterward.
• The Museum of Science continues to screen Everything Everywhere All At Once on the Omnimax screen Saturday nights through May for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
• The Regent Theatre has "Ocean Angels", a group of short documentaries about whales and other aquatic mammals, on Sunday afternoon.
• The Lexington Venue is open through Sunday with Book Club: The Next Chapter and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
  
  The West Newton Cinema continues Book Club: The Next Chapter, Guardians, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, Beau Is Afraid (no show Thursday), Air, and Super Mario Brothers. Closed Monday.
  
  The Luna Theater has Beau Is Afraid Friday and Saturday evenings; How to Blow Up a Pipeline Saturday afternoon, The Goonies on Sunday; plus a Weirdo Wednesday show.
  
  Cinema Salem adds Polite Society to holdovers Book Club, Fool's Paradise, Evil Dead Rise, and Guardians.

Somehow, I resisted seeing Guardians 3 in Copenhagen, in part because there were no obvious super-fancy screens near me, so I'll likely catch up with that, Fast X, and Evil Dead Rise at some point this week. Limited screen times are going to make fitting Over My Dead Body, Robots, and Once Upon a Time in The West tricky over the weekend, but I'll figure it out somehow.