Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 13 October 2023 - 19 October 2023

Of all the local theaters that closed during/after the pandemic, I would not guess that The Embassy in Waltham would be the first to re-open under new management, but to be fair, it's been in use as a gymnastics school and performing arts center for the past few months, and also had some screenings, so this weekend only marks its official return as a cinema. Because of those other uses, it's now a 2-plex rather than a 6-plex, but it's cool to have something in that neighborhood again!

• It re-opens with Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, a concert film of one of the year's two hottest tickets (with Beyoncé's Renaissance getting similar treatment in a couple months). To keep it an event with the sort of crowds you'd see at an actual concert, it's only running three or four weeks, and only playing Thursdays through Sundays. It's almost everywhere, playing at The Capitol, Fresh Pond, the Coolidge, Kendall Square, the Embassy, Lexington, West Newton, Boston Common (including Imax Xenon/Dolby Cinema), South Bay (including Imax Xenon/Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser/Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  The Hunger Games gets screenings at Assembly Row on Sunday to attempt to juice excitement for the upcoming prequel. Documentary What Is Love? plays South Bay and Assembly Row Monday. Boston Common has A24 horror flicks X (Monday) and Under the Skin (Wednesday). There are 10th anniversary screenings of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods at South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards on Tuesday & Wednesday, and 35th Anniversary shows of Beetlejuice on Wednesday on the Dolby Cinema screens at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row. Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls, more fun than expected at Fantasia, plays Assembly Row on Thursday. Boston Common also has an early access show of Dicks: The Musical on Wednesday before the regular early show the next night.
• Landmark Kendall Square has Foe, which stars Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal as a couple on an isolated farm when a possibly-inhuman stranger shows up with an unusual offer. They also open Joan Baez: I Am a Noise, which both follows the artist on a farewell tour and digs into her copious archives.
  
  The last leg of the Scorsese + DiCaprio series (before next week's new entry) is The Wolf of Wall Street, which plays for $5 on Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday. There's also a special presentation of Finding Her Beat, with documentary subject Megan Chao Smith there for a post-film Q&A, on Monday; the film itself is about folks in Minneapolis forming an all-female taiko troupe, though the art form had long been man-only in Japan. The $5 Retro Replay 80s slasher for the week is Child's Play on Tuesday.
• Apple Fresh Pond has two new Indian films opening on Friday: MAD is a Telugu-language comedy about three dorm-mates at an engineering school, and Shot Boot Three is a family-friendly Tamil film about a kid and his new dog. Marathi-language family comedy Aatmapamphlet plays Saturday & Sunday.
  
  Thank You For Coming and Jawan continue at Fresh Pond through Tuesday. On Wednesday, a Tamil action-adventure about a chocolatier pushed too far, Leo: Bloody Sweet, opens at Fresh Pond (with Telugu screenings) and Boston Common (Imax Xenon on Wednesday), with Telugu actioner Bhagavanth Kesari also opening at Fresh Pond and Arsenal Yards Wednesday and South Bay Thursday.
  
  Chinese films Moscow Mission and Chang An continue at Boston Common for a third week. The Ex Files 4 hangs around a bit out at the Liberty Tree Mall.
• An October Friday the 13th obviously calls for a double feature, and The Coolidge Corner Theatre has Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood & Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan outdoors at the Rocky Woods Reservation in Medfield on Friday night. Back in Brookline, the midnights are The Mist in black & white on Friday and a new restoration of The House by the Cemetery on Saturday.
  
  On Sunday, they present the Coolidge Award to costume designer Ruth E. Carter, with her participating in a post-film Q&A after Black Panther in the afternoon and a more broad-ranging discussion and presentation in the evening.
  
  During the week, they are well-equipped to handle the Swift-shaped hole in their schedule with Jeff Rapsis on the organ to accompany The Phantom of the Opera on Monday, a Big Screen Classic presentation of Coraline on Tuesday, a book reading of Lore of the Jack O'Lantern on Wednesday and a 35mm "Rewind!" show of Twilight on Thursday, because apparently 15 years is old enough to be considered retro.
• The Brattle Theatre has documentary Godard Cinema from Friday to Sunday, covering, as one might expect, the life and work of Jean-Luc Godard, The presentation also includes Godard's last work, "Trailer of the FIlm That Will Never Exist: 'Phony Wars'", and plays as a double feature with a 35mm print of Godard's Vivre Sa Vie on Saturday & Sunday.
  
  From Friday through Monday (mostly late shows), they have the new restoration of Park Chan-Wook's Oldboy. Tuesday has an RPM Fest presentation, "Waiting for Snow", which features three short films by the late Michael Snow on 16mm film, and on Wednesday they team with the Museum of Home Video for "Ring, Ring: A Doorbell Cam Fantasia". Thursday is the first night if the Independent Film Festival Boston Fall Focus series, kicking things off with Thomasin McKenzie, Anne Hathaway, and Shea Wigham in Eileen.
• The Somerville Theatre ramps up their spooky season shows with The Others in 4K from Friday to Sunday and locally-produced folk horror film The Sudbury Devil showing Friday evening, midnight Saturday, and Sunday afternoon. An Attack of the B-Movies double feature of A Bucket of Blood & The Bat plays Saturday afternoon and Tuesday evening. Early warning: If you want to see Killers of the Flower Moon on the Somerville's main screen opening weekend, hit the Thursday previews, because they'll have Johnathan Richman on stage from the 20th to 22nd.
• The Harvard Film Archive finishes their Rita Azevedo Gomes with the filmmaker there in person for two screenings - The Sound of the Shaking Earth on Friday and The Kegelstatt Trio on Sunday. On Sunday, they have the first of three screenings of I Heard It Through the Grapevine, this one on 16mm film; it has director Dick Fontaine following James Baldwin through the South, visiting important places in the fight for civil rights.
• Wednesday's "Midweek Music Movies and More" show at The Regent Theatre is One Hand Don't Clap, a documentary on the history of calypso and soca with a steel drum performance by Ron Reid before the show and a discussion with director Kavery Kaul afterward.
• The Boston Asian-American Film Festival actually kicked off last night, but runs through Sunday at ArtsEmerson's Paramount Theatre (Bright Screening Room), with features and shorts programs through Sunday and six shorts programs available to screen through next Sunday.
  
  This week's Thursday Bright Lights show in the Bright Screening Room is also presented by the BAAFF; it's the terrific Past Lives, with post-film discussion to follow. Free and open to the public.
• The Boston Palestine Film Festival has opted to postpone the in-person screenings that were scheduled to take place at the Museum of Fine Arts, but does have a five features and six shorts available on their site from Friday through next Sunday.
• The Lexington Venue has The Eras Tour, A Haunting in Venice and Flora and Son from Friday to Sunday, with Eras also playing Thursday. They also have documentary Brief Tender LIght with filmmaker Q&A after the show on Monday; it's listed as the "2023 AIFF Kick-off", although it is oddly not listed on the Arlington International Film Festival site.
  
  The West Newton Cinema gets Eras and keeps Flora and Son (Saturday/Sunday matinees), Paw Patrol, Bottoms (Saturday to Wednesday), Golda, Past Lives, Barbie, and Oppenheimer. Open all week.
  
  The Luna Theater has Friday the 13th on Friday evening, because obviously, Stop Making Sense on Saturday, Beetlejuice on Sunday afternoon, a Weirdo Wednesday show, and opens It Lives Inside on Thursday.
  
  Cinema Salem has Friday the 13th all weekend, along with fan film anthology Never Walk Alone. Hocus Pocus and The Exorcist: Believer are the regular shows through Monday. Donnie Darko plays as Friday's "Night Light" show; there are Universal Monsters shows of Dracula, Frankenstein, & The Creature from the Black Lagoon Saturday, The Invisible Man & The Mummy on Sunday, Mummy, The Wolf Man, Bride of Frankenstein, and Creature on Monday; Carpenter's Halloween plays Saturday and Monday; there's also a premiere part for Brix'n Mortar's music video "Hail the Wolf" on Saturday; two Teseract show of Rocky Horror Saturday night (Full Body at Boston Common); and Night of the Living Dead on Sunday.

Must say, for all that I've been reading articles about studios being upset at Taylor Swift and AMC doing an end-run around them, I'm not exactly seeing a whole lot of counter-programming for those of us who are basically hoping our nieces have fun but not getting in a room with 100 screaming teenagers, or offering special shows for Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday. I'll likely hit Foe, The Others and The Sudbury Horror, and maybe catch up on stuff like Bottoms, Expendables 4, and The Royal Hotel .