Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 12 January 2024 - 18 January 2024

A bit deeper into the new year, and things are getting a bit more chaotic as theaters try to guess what's going to be on various top-ten lists, Oscar nominations, and the like, and try to keep some around (and available for Academy voters who live in the Boston area, but also open some new stuff (which may or may not be any good) to clear out some of what folks aren't watching.

• The Beekeeper looks like some direct-to video revenge nonsense, but it's got a lot of interesting pieces beyond Jason Statham - a script by Kurt WImmer, David Ayer directing, Jeremy Irons and Minnie Driver in the cast - none of whom are guarantees of anything, but might add up to something. It's at Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture (Imax), Boston Common (including Imax Xenon), Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay (including imax Xenon), Assembly Row (including Imax laser), and Arsenal Yards.
  
  Also featuring some interesting parts is The Book of Clarence, with The Harder They Fall writer/director Jeymes Samuel casting LaKeith Stanfield as a neighbor of Jesus who seeks to imitate the Messiah also get into capers, with Anna Diop, Omar Sy, Alfre Woodard, James McAvoy, David Oyelowo, and Benedict Cumberbatch in the cast. It's at Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  A musical remake of Mean Girls - or technically, an adaptation of the Broadway musical that was adapted from the previous movie which itself was adapted from a nonfiction book - also opens, with Angourie Rice in the LIndsay Lohan role and Reneé Rapp in the Rachel McAdams role, and we'll see if it serves as a launching pad for them. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Kendall Square, Assembly Row (including Dolby Digital), Arsenal Yards (CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  The three Pixar films that went straight to Disney+ during the pandemics are getting theatrical releases, starting with Soul, which plays The Capitol, Boston Common, and South Bay. Boston Common also has Oppenheimer back for matinees on the Imax screen.
  
  Surprisingly few screenings at Boston Common for Freud's Last Patient, which stars Anthony Hopkins as the doctor and Matthew Goode as C.S. Lewis, whose atheism and religious conviction clash.
• The Zone of Interest opens at Landmark Kendall Square, Boston Common, the Seaport, with Jonathan Glazer apparently taking the original novel and reframing it to focus on the commandant of Auschwitz and his family, and how the evil being done there consumes their souls.
  
  Kendall Square also reopens Netflix award contenders Maestro and May December. The Retro Replay movies for the month ($5 for Landmark Loyalty members) are films that premiered in 1974, to celebrate Landmark's 50th anniversary, with Tuesday's selection being Chinatown.
• Apple Fresh Pond opens a whole mess of movies from India this week for Pongal. The biggest may be Telugu fantasy adventure Hanu Man; also opening at Boston Common. Also in Teleugu are crime dramas Saindhav and Guntur Kaaram; Hindi language thriller Merry Christmas (opening day-and date, not a couple weeks after India), stars Karina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi as strangers who meet Christmas Eve only have the apparent romcom go sideways. Tamil sci-fi adventure Ayalaan has a lost alien needing help to return home but "everything gets harder after" (though I'm not sure whether for the alien or the guy who helped it); Captain Miller, also in Tamil, chronicles an outlaw in WWII-era India. Those are Friday; opening Saturday are Naa Saami Ranga in Telugu and Malayalam-language thriller Aattam.
  
  Hong Kong crime flick I Did It My Way, starring Andy Lau, Lam Ka-Tung, Simon Yam, and Eddie Peng, opens on Causeway Street (and, yes, it appears Lau did have two of these hit Chinese theaters at the same time a couple weeks ago). The Mainland offers If You Are the One III, which brings back Ge You, Qi Shu, and writer/director Feng Xiaogang, only it's 2031 and apparently Xiaoxiao is busy at work, so QIn's friend (builds him an android duplicate. That is also at Causeway street.
  
  Anime Gurren Lagann: The Movie - Childhood's End, apparently a new adaptation rather than the one from 15 years ago, plays Boston Common, South Bay and Assembly Row on Tuesday (subtitled) and Wednesday (dubbed). Also from Japan, Godzilla Minus One continues at Assembly Row while The Boy and the Heron is still at the Coolidge, West Newton, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, and Causeway Street.
  
  Korean thriller 12.12: The Day, amazingly, is still around at Causeway Street.
• The Brattle Theatre has a one-off show of Ethan Coen's Jerry Lee Lewis documentary Trouble in Mind, on Friday night. Around that, they continue "Refreshed, Renewed, Restored" with Black God, White Devil (Friday/Saturday), Cemetery Man (Friday/Saturday), Young Soul Rebels (Sunday/Monday), and John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 & The Raid (the latter on 35mm) Tuesday. On Thursday, they kick off "(Some of) The Best of 2023" with <Past Lives.
• The Museum of Science adds "Deep Sky" ot the Imax rotation at the dome starting Tuesday; it looks at the construction of the James Webb Satellite Telescope and some of its incredible imagery; if it's half as good as the Hubble one, it should be amazing.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre mostly keeps the lineup steady, give or take moving some screens around. Midnights this weekend include Gus Van Sant's To Die For on 35mm Friday night, a 35mm print of Michael Haneke's Benny's Video on Saturday, plus (for those less interested in art-house directors focused on people playing to the camera), a "January Giallo" show of Lucio Fulci's Sette Note in Nero (The Psychic), also on Saturday. There's a special "Brookline for the Culture" show of Dreamgirls on Sunday, a free (reservations required) "Brookline Celebrates MLK Day" program on Monday, "Projections" presentations of The Stepford Wives '75 on Tuesday (35mm) and M3GAN on Wednesday (with a seminar by Emerson College instructor Alex Svensson), plus a Big Screen debut screening of Pather Panchali on Thursday, that one with a seminar by Brandeis professor Ulka Anjaria.
• The Alamo Seaport rep calendar has "movie party" screenings of Mean Girls on Friday, plus All About My Mother on Saturday, the Extended The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on Sunday/Tuesday/Wednesday., Election (Alexander Payne, not Johnnie To) on Monday & Tuesday, Deep Blue Sea Monday, and Blood Tea and Red String on Wednesday. Also, they appear to have staffed up some, as several of the showtimes I checked have every seat in the house open, even the front couple rows.
• All of Us Strangers expands to The Somerville Theatre, who also host a special screening of In the Whale, a documentary about a Cape Cod lobsterman who was swallowed by a humpback whale and lived to tell the tale, with director David Abel on-hand for a Q&A.
• The Embassy in Waltham picks up Anselm as it drops to one show a day in Kendall Square; I'm not sure I remember them having 3D capacity back in the Landmark days. They've also got The Boys in the Boat, and matinees of The Holdovers Monday to Wednesday.
• Belmont World Film has their annual Family Film Festival this weekend, with Weston Woods Films, Yuku and the Himalayan Flower, Adventures in the Land of Asha, and Sea Sparkle at Fresh Pond on Saturday; Tabby McTat, Tony, Shelly, and the Magic LIght, Coco Farm, and OKThanksBye at West Newton on Sunday; and MLK Shorts, Titina, Dancing Queen, and Kung Fu Lion at the Brattle on Monday.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has their second weekend of "In Sargent's Time" Edwardian Dramas, with Picnic at Hanging Rock Friday evening, an encore of A Room with a View Saturday afternoon, and Howards End on Sunday afternoon.
• The Regent Theatre's "Midweek Music, Movies, and More" selection this Wednesday is Deep Rising, a documentary produced by and narrated by Jason Momoa that examines humanity's exploration and exploitation of the ocean floor.
• The Lexington Venue is open Friday to Sunday with The Boys in the Boat and American Fiction.
  
  The West Newton Cinema adds American Fiction to The Boy and the Heron (subtitled all week, dubbed matinees Saturday to Monday), Migration, Poor Things, Wonka, Maestro (Tuesday to Thursday), and The Holdovers.
  
  The Luna Theater has Dream Scenario Friday, Fargo on Saturday, The Shining on Sunday, a Weirdo Wednesday show, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail on Thursday.
  
  Cinema Salem is open through Monday with Mean Girls, Night Swim, The Boys in the Boat,, and Poor Things. There's a Friday "Night Light" screening of Surf Nazis Must Die, plus a secret screening for Cinema Salem Society members.

I already have my ticket for Blood Tea and Red String, and also plan on checking out the two Chinese films, The Beekeeper, The Book of Clarence, and maybe Freud's Last Patient. There's some catch-up to do as well, although I'm not sure whether I have Monday off or not to use on that.