Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 15 September 2023 - 21 September 2023

Lots of stuff with kind of limited showtimes this weekend to make you wish you could be at various spots on the Red Line at once.

• Would I have bet on Kenneth Branagh doing a third Hercule Poirot movie when Orient Express came out, especially after the pandemic so delayed the second? No, but here's A Haunting in Venice, an adaptation of Hallowe'en Party that goes for haunted-house thrills rather than a mobile crime scene with a sprawling cast, though it's still got Tina Fey, Kelly Reilly, Jamie Dornan, and Michelle Yeoh on hand. It's at The Capitol, Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture (Imax), West Newton, Cinema Salem, Boston Common (including Imax Xenon/Dolby Digital), Kendall Square, South Bay (including Imax Xenon/Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser/Dolby Digital), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  The latest "Nicolas Cage chewing some scenery in an otherwise D2V-looking action flick" production is The Retirement Plan, which has him as a beach bum who is actually a retired assassin, which is not great news for the criminals chasing his daughter and granddaughter. That's at Fresh Pond and Boston Common.
  
  The Inventor plays matinees at Boston Common, with former Pixar animator offering up a stop-motion look at the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci, with Stephen Fry voicing the title character and Daisy Ridley & Marion Cotillard in the voice cast. Very excited for this one, as I contributed to the Kickstarter for its animatic years ago.
  
  Michael Jai White stars and directs in Outlaw Johnny Black, an action-comedy that appears to be in the Black Dynamite mold, except a western, with Anika Noni Rose, Erica Ash, Chris Browning, Randy Couture, Barry Bostwick, and more along for the ride as a gunslinger disguises himself as a preacher to seek revenge in a boomtown. It's at South Bay for a couple shows a day.
  
  Dumb Money gets an early opening at Boston Common on three screens before it goes wide at the end of the month. It stars Paul Dano as Keith Gill, whose vlog created a run on GameStop's stock, threatening to break the multi-billion dollar funds planning on shorting it. Terrific cast around him for something that appears to be in the vein of director Craig Gillespie's I, Tonya.
  
  The Warner 100 film this week is Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, playing at South Bay, Assembly Row, with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises joining it on Saturday (the trilogy also plays Boston Common and South Bay that day), with The Lego Movie also playing matinees starting Saturday at Assembly Row. The Disney 100 film at Boston Common is Coco, just reaching way into the vault to celebrate their history there.
  
  Rain Man has anniversary screenings at Assembly Row on Sunday and Wednesday. Documentary Canary, which follows archaeology Lonnie Thompson as he investigates areas about to be erased by climate change, plays Boston Common Wednesday. Horror spoof Shaky Shivers plays Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row on Thursday.
• Cassandro opens at The Coolidge Corner Theatre and Kendall Square, featuring Gael García Bernal as a luchador whose new persona, a subversion of the flamboyant "exotico", turns the wrestling establishment on its head.
  
  The Coolidge also uses both big screens for midnights this weekend, with Paul Schrader's Hardcore and Russ Meyer/Roger Ebert collaboration Beyond the Valley of the Dolls on Friday while Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 and a screening of The Room with live commentary from co-star Greg Sestero. Sunday features both a Geothe-Institut German film show of Ingeborg Bachmann - Journey into the Desert and a Brookline for the Culture presentation of The Wood on 35mm film, while Monday offers "Sights Unseen", a collection of short films from under-represented local voices. Tuesday's Big Screen Classic is a 35mm print of All That Heaven Allows with a pre-film seminar from UMass Boston professor Sarah Keller, while Thursday's is The Marriage of Maria Braun, also on 35mm.
• The Brattle Theatre has a week-long run of Sundance award-winner Scrapper with Lola Campbell as a 12-year-old girl living on the streets of London whose life is upended by the sudden reappearance of her father (Harris Dickinson). It shares the screen with music doc The Elephant 6 Recording Co. through Monday.
  
  They also have a second show of documentary Ariel Phenomenon on Saturday afternoon, an "album watch" for Bonny Prince Billy's "Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You" on Sunday evening, and a Maggie Cheung's Birthday Double feature of Irma Vep & Days of Being Wild on Wednesday & Thursday.
• The two $5 "Movies You May Have Missed" at Landmark Kendall Square this week are The Last Rider, a documentary on Greg LeMond, and How to Blow Up a Pipeline, a terrific contemporary thriller about a group of Gen Z-ers attempting to strike back at unaccountable fossil fuel companies. Also $5 is Tuesday's David Lynch Retro Replay, Wild at Heart.
• Two new films at Apple Fresh Pond from India this weekend: Mark Antony is a Tamil (?) action-comedy about two gangsters who get hold of a time-traveling cell phone, and Buhe Bariyan is a Punjabi-language picture about a group of women, including a young police officer, pushing against the patriarchy. Jawan (also at Boston Common), Miss Shetty Mr Polishetty, and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani all continue.
  
  Chinese legal drama Heart's Motive opens at Boston Common, maybe, as showtimes are listed but not available for sale. They also have director Wuershan's Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms (starring Bo Huang) on Imax Wednesday and for a Thursday matinee. No More Bets also continues.
• The Somerville Theatre has another team-up with IFFBoston this weekend for "Streaming Soderbergh", with the three films Steven Soderbergh recently made for various streaming services on their big screen: Kimi on Friday, No Sudden Move on Saturday, and Let Them All Talk on Sunday; if that's not enough, the Saturday Midnight Special is a 35mm print of Out of Sight. Tuesday's "Attack of the B Movies" $5 double feature is Quatermass II & Quatermass and the Pit, and Wednesday kicks off a week of some of Harrison Ford's greatest hits with a 35mm print of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• The Harvard Film Archive has more entries in their quick Shochiku Centennial Collection series, with a new restoration of Demon Pond on Friday plus 35mm prints of The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice and The Sun's Burial on Saturday. Rita Azevedo Gomes has programmed a 35mm print of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir on Sunday afternoon, with Chile Year Zero presentation Latent Image on Sunday evening. Director Jessica Sarah Rinland visits on Monday to present her documentary Those That, at a Distance, Resemble Another.
• Museum of Fine Arts has Loving Vincent, the fully-painted animated film dramatizing the last years of Vincent Van Gogh's life, on Friday evening (that's this week, not last; oops).
• The Regent Theatre has one last show of documentary Mr. Jimmy on Friday evening.
• Bright Lights returns the the Bright Screening Room at Emerson's Paramount Theatre on Thursday with How to Blow up a Pipeline, followed by a panel discussion on the future of environmental activism.
• The Boston Film Festival has its opening night on Thursday with Breakwater star Dermot Mulroney on-hand to receive an award, though I don't know if you get to call yourself a Boston film festival if your most notable presentation is 77 minutes away on the commuter rail in Rockport.
• The Lexington Venue adds Theater Camp to the mix of Oppenheimer and Barbie, and is open Friday to Sunday.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens A Haunting in Venice and keeps My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, Bottoms, Golda, Elemental (Saturday/Sunday matinees), Past Lives, Theater Camp (Saturday/Sunday matinees), Barbie, and Oppenheimer.
  
  The Luna Theater once again has Talk to Me Friday & Saturday evenings, Sundance Short Films Saturday afternoon, Scream (the original) on Sunday, and a Weirdo Wednesday show.
  
  Cinema Salem has A Haunting in Venice, Bottoms, The Nun II, and Barbie through Monday. Forbidden Planet plays Saturday and Sunday afternoons, Rocky Horror with Teseracte on Saturday night (Full Body is, as usual, at Boston Common), and Soylent Green on Thursday.
  
  If you can make it to Danvers, Camp Hideout plays at the Liberty Tree Mall, with a street-smart city kid dodging crooks by ducking into a summer church camp, with Christopher Lloyd as the strict leader.
• Joe's Free Films shows two outdoor shows Friday: Three Nights a Week on the Tufts Quad (part of a French film series), The Little Mermaid '89 at Boynton Yards.

I caught A Haunting in Venice last night (it's fun, even if I am a mark for both Kenneth Branagh and Agatha Christie) so that I could theoretically fit in the Soderberghs, The Retirement Plan, The Inventor, and Outlaw Johnny Black this weekend - though the times on that last one kind of stink, especially since you're talking about taking the Red Line far south enough that it's tough to plan for these days. The Quatermass double feature is tempting - none of the films in that series are streaming anywhere! - but the last one of those I attended kind of looked awful, so I'm cautious. I may choose Creation of the Gods over Raiders on Wednesday, even though it will probably play regular shows next week