Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 22 September 2023 - 28 September 2023

Hey, wasn't Alamo talking about opening "later this summer"? What's going on with that (and North Station, and even the expanded Coolidge)?

• Expend4bles, the latest entry in the action-all-stars series, appears to only have Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, and Dolph Lundgren from the original (though others have by and large drifted away rather than been killed off), with 50 Cent, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, and Randy Couture as the new recruits. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema/Spanish-subtitled shows), Kendall Square, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  I enjoyed It Lives Inside at Fantasia; it's a solid little horror movie about an Indian-America girl who must confront a demon that other immigrants have brought from the old country, and plays Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Kendall Square, South Bay, and Assembly Row. Dumb Money expands, adding the Coolidge, Kendall Square, South Bay, Assembly Row to Boston Common. Barbie gets a week-long run on Imax screens this week (since Oppenheimer claimed them the week they were released), playing with extra post-credits goodies at Jordan's Furniture, Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row. Also opening in Imax is the new blow-up of Stop Making Sense, the Talking Heads concert film directed by John Demme often called the best of the form, playing at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  The Warner 100 revival for the week is The Matrix, playing at Assembly Row. Assembly Row also has Get Out, because why not, I guess.
  
  Music doc Carlos: The Santana Journey plays Kendall Square, Boston Common, and Assembly Row on Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday. British Drama Surprised by Oxford, starring Rose Reid as an initially-reserved PhD student and Simon Callow as one of her professors, plays Boston Common Wednesday. The Creator has early-access screenings on Wednesday at Boston Common (Imax Xenon), South Bay (Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (Imax Laser). Korean concert film IU Concert: The Golden Hour, featuring Lee Ji-eun, plays Boston Common on Thursday.
• Landmark Kendall Square has a quick theatrical run of Reptile before its Netflix premiere. It stars Benicio Del Toro as a detective investigating a gruesome murder in a town with secrets.
  
  They wind up their September series of $5 "Movies You May Have Missed" with Indian extravaganza RRR and Quentin Dupieux's latest, the Power Rangers-style spoof Smoking Causes Coughing. They also have Gangs of New York on Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday as part of a series leading up to his new film, and Lost Highway wrapping their David Lynch series of "Retro Replays" on Tuesday.
• Much-lauded indie Freemont opens at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, though with limited showtimes on the 14-seat Goldscreen. It stars Anaita Wali Zada as a former local translator in Afghanistan now working in a San Francisco fortune cookie factory, who starts sending messages out. They also get Dumb Money on the main screen.
  
  The Coolidge also host the Ax Wound Film Festival, a feminist/intersectional slate of horror programming, from Friday night to Sunday afternoon, including midnights, with short packages, features, and panels. Regular midnights include 1980s cult classic Angel on Friday and Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain on Saturday. Tuesday's Big Screen Classic is Raising Arizona, with critic Jake Mulligan offering a seminar beforehand, while Thursday has a 35mm print of Black Dynamite as part of their tribute to Coolidge Award recipient Ruth E. Carter, while Thursday features another Big Screen Classic, House of Flying Daggers, on 35mm.
• French thriller The Origin of Evil opens at Boston Common, with Laure Calamy as a woman on the verge of bankruptcy attempts to reconnect with her wealthy father. Also opening there is Armenian drama (and Oscar submission) Amerikatsi, starring/written by/directed by Amernian-American Michael A. Goorjan as an Armenia who fled to America as a child and returns after WWII, only to be imprisoned by the new Soviet regime.
  
  Three new Indian films at Apple Fresh Pond from India this weekend: Hindi-language comedy Sukhee stars Shilpa Shetty Kundra as a woman who rediscovers herself attending a high-school reunion; Hindi-language thriller Shibpur has a reporter tracking down a mysterious mafia queen; and Telugu romantic comedy 7G Brundavan Colony, which looks to be either a reissue or remake of 7/G Rainbow Colony from 2004.
  
  Mark Antony, Jawan (also at Boston Common), Miss Shetty Mr Polishetty (through Monday), and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani all continue.
  
  Wuershan's Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms plays Boston Common on regular screens after last week's Imax previews; it's a mess but enjoyable enough to hope the series gets finished. No More Bets also continues.
  
  The week's Ghibli Fest film is Howl's Moving Castle, playing Boston Common subtitled on Saturday/Tuesday, and dubbed Sunday/Monday/Wednesday.
• The Brattle Theatre spends the week "Walken on Sunshine" - that is, dipping into the work that Christopher Walken did in the 1980s. The program includes A View to a Kill (35mm Friday), The Milagro Beanfield War (35mm Saturday/Sunday), Brainstorm & The Dead Zone (Saturday), Heaven's Gate (Sunday), Communion (Monday/Tuesday), Pennies from Heaven (35mm Tuesday), and At Close Range (35mm Wednesday/Thursday).
  
  They also have a free "Elements of Cinema" screening of The City of Lost Children on Monday evening, with an introduction from Enrique Gonzalez Müller of Berklee College of Music. RPM Fest has a retrospective program of short films from Vincent Grenier on Wednesday, and there's an as-yet-unannounced member event on Thursday (watch your email, fellow members!).
• The Somerville Theatre's main screen plays host to the new 4K restoration of The Fugitive through Sunday. On Saturday, they have a 35mm print of Mamma Mia! with the ticket including admission to a post-film dance party at the Crystal Ballroom upstairs - or you could catch the midnight show, a 35mm print of District 9. On Sunday, Author Lara Gabrielle will sign her new Marion Davies biography, Captain of Her Soul, in conjunction with a 35mm Silents, Please! screening of Davies in Show People, with Jeff Rapsis accompanying on the keyboard. On Monday & Tuesday, they complete their miniature Harrison Ford series with Witness on 35mm.
  
  On Wednesday, The Irish Film Festival hosts a free preview of Flora & Son with live music by Billy Keane; passes are available here, and folks are advised to arrive early.
• The Harvard Film Archive welcomes Ignacio Agüero for two "Chile Year Zero" screenings this weekend, with featurette "One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train" and short film "To Not Forget" on Friday and his new feature Notes for a Film on Saturday. Also playing as part of that program is Cristián Sánchez's The Chinese Shoe on Monday.
  
  Sunday is given to Rita Azevedo Gomes, whose A Woman's Revenge shows in the afternoon, while she programs Manoel de Oliveira's Francisca that evening.
• Museum of Fine Arts has two screenings this week: Close to Vermeer, following Rijksmuseum curator Gregor Wber as he assembles the largest Vermeer exhibition ever, and a 50th anniversary show of surreal French animated feature Fantastic Planet.
• The Taiwan Film Festival of Boston has its annual event at AMC Boston Common this weekend, with Day Off, Coo-Coo 043, and "Can You Hear Me?" Saturday afternoon and The Lucky Woman, City of Lost Things, and Blue Gate Crossing on Sunday.
• The Regent Theatre has music documentary BackBeat from Above: The Legacy of Sib Hashian on Sunday evening, which will also include a special ceremony inducting Hashian into the New England Music Hall of Fame. They also have the first screening of the 2023 Manhattan Short Film Festival, where people across the country vote on the best short films.
• The Museum of Science will have a very special guest on Tuesday afternoon, with Jane Goodall on hand for the 1pm show of "Reasons for Hope"
• Wednesday is opening night film of Cinefest Latino Boston, with actor Isel Rodriguez on-hand for a Q&A after La Pecera at the Coolidge; on Thursday, the venue shifts to the Bright Screening Room at the Paramount with producer Ines Hofmann Kanna on-hand for a Q&A after You Were My First Boyfriend. That film is part of Emerson's Bright Lights series, free and open to the public.
• The Boston Film Festival begins the virtual portion of its schedule on Friday, with four narrative features, six documentary features, and six short programs running through the end of the month. There are also free screenings at the Boston Public Library and MIT Media Lab, and two other films at Emerson's Paramount Theater Bright Screening Room, including a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award for Treat Williams before American Outlaws Saturday evening.
• The Lexington Venue opens Golda and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, holding over Barbie, and is open Friday to Sunday.
  
  The West Newton Cinema keeps A Haunting in Venice, Golda, Elemental, Past Lives, Theater Camp, Barbie, and Oppenheimer, and is back to being closed on Mondays.
  
  The Luna Theater has the Sundance Short Films Friday evening & Saturday afternoon, Talk to Me Saturday evening, The Crafton Sunday, and a Weirdo Wednesday show.
  
  Cinema Salem has A Haunting in Venice, Bottoms, The Nun II, and Golda through Monday. The classic Ghost in the Shell anime is the "Night Light" show on Friday, with Soylent Green on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
  
  If you can make it to Dedham, Irish/Finnish drama My Sailor, My Love is playing at the Community Theatre. Sci-fi comedy Relax, I'm From the Future plays at the LIberty Tree Mall in Danvers
• Joe's Free Films shows two outdoor shows: The Lion King at The LOT in Dorchester on Friday (not sure which version, RSVP requested), and E.T. at the Frog Pond in the Common on Wednesday.

One last Red Sox ticket tonight, and then I have no idea, really, how I fit The Fugitive, The Origin of Evil, Show People, Freemont, and anything that looks interesting at the Taiwan Film Festival in over the weekend, on top of how I've kind of saved Barbie for this Imax re-release. Oh, and all the Christopher Walken stuff looks interesting, too. (And here I am, asking for more theaters to open!)