Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 21 July 2023 - 27 July 2023

A couple weeks ago, I was looking at the Facebook page for the still-not-open Alamo Drafthouse Boston, and someone in the comments was saying "can't you just have a one day sneak preview opening for Oppenheimer?" and I wanted to jump in like "what? You're in Boston! The Drafthouse is not going to do that movie better than the Somerville or the Coolidge!"

I mean, if it was open, there might be a screen freed up at Boston Common for The White Storm 3, but, c'mon, have some pride in your great local scene rather than wistfully wishing for something from Texas!

• So let's get to Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's star-studded, three-hour film about the man who led the team to build an atomic bomb during World War II, played by Cillian Murphy. Shot on genuine Imax film and likely finished on film as well, it should look fantastic, especially since many of the local places playing it have been preparing their projectors for months, eager to give the best presentation. It's at the Somerville (70mm film), the Coolidge (70mm film), Fresh Pond, the Museum of Science (Omnimax), Jordan's Furniture (Imax), West Newton (35mm film), CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Imax Xenon/Dolby Cinema/70mm film), Kendall Square, South Bay (including Imax Xenon/Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenall Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  The like box office champion is Barbie, with Margot Robbie as the titular doll who suddenly finds herself gripped by thoughts that don't fit into her fantasy world and going to the real one to learn what's up with that, with Ken (Ryan Gosling) along for the ride. Greta Gerwig writes and directs (with husband Noah Baumbach teaming with her on the script). It's at the Capitol, the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Kendall Square, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Horror movie Cobweb grabs a few stray showtimes at Boston Common; it's about an elementary school kid who hears strange noises from his bedroom that his parents say is nothing.
  
  The week's "Disney 100" re-release at Boston Common is Toy Story.
  
  The original Terrifier feature (as there's also an earlier short) plays Boston Common Saturday through Monday nights. The Secret Lives of Pets has matinees at Boston Common on Saturday and Wednesday. Wednesday also has two movies getting early shows before the Thursday early shows: Talk to Me at Boston Common and Assembly Row and Haunted Mansion at Boston Common (Dolby Cinema) and Assembly Row (Dolby Cinema).
• Theatre Camp, a "save the camp from its new owner" deal with theater kids, opens at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square, and Boston Common. Just the screening room at the Coolidge, though, as the big releases get the big screens.
  
  The Coolidge has some Barbie late shows too, along with the more conventional variety - Joe Dante's Piranha on Friday and Drew Godard's The Cabin in the Woods on Saturday.
• Apple Fresh Pond finds room for two Indian films starting on Friday: Ajmer 92 is a Hindi-language crime drama about a wave of rape and subsequent blackmail of young women, while Hidimbha is a Telugu-language action movie which also follows the attack of a number of girls. Padmini, a Malayalam-language comedy about a college instructor/poet who has to live down an embarrassing situation, plays Saturday and Sunday.
  
  Mainland Chinese hit Lost In the Stars still has showtimes at Boston Common. If you can make it out to the Liberty Tree Mall, they're showing The White Storm 3, Herman Yau's latest drug-war action movie, starring Louis Koo, Aaron Kwok, and Lau Ching-Wan, not actually connected to the other two.
• The Brattle Theatre plays Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis from Friday to Sunday, a documentary about a design studio known in large part for their iconic record covers. Those days also feature 50th Anniversary shows of The Friends of Eddie Coyle, a Peter Yates crime thriller starring Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle that is often considered the iconic Boston movie. There's also a special Saturday presentation of short "Game Hawker" on Saturday night, with subject Shawn Hayes there for a Q&A.
  
  Monday's Warner Brothers Centennial double feature is a pair of pre-code Barbara Stanwyck movies, Baby Face & Night Nurse, both on film; Tuesday has a Busby Berkley music, 42nd Street, also on 35mm. Later, there's a special IFFBoston preview screening of Problemista. The Dede Allen' double feature on Wednesday is The Missouri Breaks (35mm) & Bonnie and Clyde, and then Thursday is a Thrill Ride Horror pairing of Cloverfield (35mm) & Slither.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has documentary Close to Vermeer on Friday evening.
• The "Ozu 120: The Complete Ozu Yasujiro" selections at The Harvard Film Archive, all on 35mm film, are Tokyo Twilight (Friday & Sunday), The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family (Saturday), The Lady and the Beard (Sunday), and I Flunked, But… (Monday) with the ten existing minutes of I Graduated, But… playing beforehand. Lady and Flunked are silence, with Robert Humphreville providing accompaniment.
• In addition to Oppenheimer, The Somerville Theatre keeps the 70mm projector going after midnight on Saturday for Flatliners. They and The Capitol are also doing a cross-theater "Barbenheimer" promotion, where if you show your ticket stub from Barbie at the Capitol when seeing Oppenheimer at the Somerville, or vice versa, there's a free popcorn in it for you.
• Landmark Kendall Square has original-recipe Top Gun for Tuesday's Retro Replay show.
• The West Newton Cinema gets Barbie and a 35mm print of Oppenheimer to go with holdovers Mission: Impossible, Past Lives, Indiana Jones, Asteroid City (Friday-Sunday & Wednesday), and Super Mario Brothers (Friday matinee). Open all week!
  
  The Lexington Venue has Mission: Impossible and The Miracle Club all week (except Monday and Tuesday when the theater is closed).
  
  The Luna Theater has Past Lives from Friday to Sunday, as well asa Weirdo Wednesday show.
  
  Cinema Salem has Barbie, Oppenheimer, Mission: Impossible, and Indiana Jones through Monday. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb plays Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening, plus Rocky Horror Saturday night (it also plays Boston Common on Saturday as per usual). Twister plays on Thursday.
• The New England Aquarium is showing Jaws on the Imax screen from Monday to Saturday the 29th.
  
  And, wow, The Museum of Science apparently sold out all three weekends of Oppenheimer on the dome!
• Outdoor screenings listed at Joe's Free Films include Ferris Bueller's Day Off at the Hatch Shell Friday, Minions: The Rise of Gru at the Prudential Saturday, Talladega Nights at Christopher Columbus Park on Sunday, The Secret Lives of Pets & Top Gun: Maverick at Cambridge Crossing Thursday, and Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory at Somerville's Seven Hills Park, also Thursday. There are supposedly two Alamo Cinema events at other bars - Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade at Dorchester Brewing on Friday (rescheduled), and Jaws at the Sam Adams Downtown Tap Room on Wednesday, but we'll see.

I am in lovely Montreal for Fantasia (look for the blog to become unusually busy!), so the only one of those movies that I will be checking out right away is The White Storm 3, which actually played the festival last night but which I passed over because it would be at the Forum while I had some free time. Still, I need all of you to go see Oppenheimer in 70mm over the next few weeks, maybe two or three times, so that it's still on the main screen of the Somerville when I get back. Deal?