Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 19 January 2024 - 25 January 2024

Oscar nominations this week, so I wouldn't be surprised if we get things returning or gaining screens/shows come Wednesday. For now, it's another week of small/odd openings. Or not-openings; I'm seeing some ads online for Which Brings Me to You, and saw a trailer a week or so ago, but nope!

• Sci-fi thriller I.S.S. offers up Ariana DeBose and Chris Messina as two American astronauts aboard the International Space Station when nuclear war erupts on Earth, with both American and Russian crew members ordered to seize the station. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, and South Bay.
  
  Queen Rock Montreal, which upgrades a 1981 concert to Imax specs, plays Imax screens Friday to Sunday at Jordan's Furniture, Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row. Sharing space on those screens are Oppenheimer (Boston Common & Assembly Row), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (South Bay & Jordan's), André 3000: New Blue Sun (Tuesday at Boston Common), and a reissue of Dune: Part One (Wednesday at Boston Common).
  
  The End We Start From, with Jodie Comer as a mother trying to navigate a flooded London with her newborn, opens at Boston Common. Slasher movie Founders Day plays Fresh Pond.
  
  Beautiful Wedding, a romantic comedy starring Dylan Sprouse and Virginia Gardner, plays Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards on Wednesday and Thursday.
• Two imports from Europe arrive at Landmark Kendall Square. Driving Madeleine features Dany Boon as a taxi driver who finds his day upended when a 92-year-old woman (Line Renaud) has him take her across town to visit old haunts before she takes up residence in an assisted-living home; it also plays at The Embassy in Waltham. From Germany comes The Teachers' Lounge, featuring Leonie Benesch as a middle-school teacher trying to navigate a rash of thefts sets everyone at each other's throats.
  
  Tuesday's 50th Anniversary screening at the Kendall is Terrence Malick's Badlands, $5 for loyalty members.
• Four new Indian films open at Apple Fresh Pond on Friday: Mission: Chapter 1, is a Tamil-language thriller about a man imprisoned while his daughter is getting medical care in London; Main Atal Hoon, a Hindi-language biography of poet and statesman Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Pankaj Tripathi)' Qalb, a Malayalam-language romance; and Abraham Ozler, a Malayalam-language serial killer movie. Kabuliwala, a Bengali historical drama, plays Saturday and Sunday.
  
  Continuing are Hanu Man (Hindi & Telugu); also at Boston Common in Telugu, Guntur Kaaram (Telugu), Ayalaan (Tamil), Captain Miller (Tamil), and Merry Christmas (Hindi).
  
  Two new Chinese movies this week: Hong Kong drama Time Still Turns the Pages is the feature directorial debut of SPL: Paradox writer Nick Cheuk, starring Lo Chun-yip as a teacher who must confront the memories of his own traumatic childhood to help one of his students; it plays Boston Common and Causeway Street. Mainland comedy Johnny Keep Walking! stars Da Peng as a small-town employee of a large company given a promotion in the midst of layoffs; it's at Causeway Street. Hong Kong crime flick I Did It My Way also sticks around at Causeway Street.
  
  Boston Common has Cowboy Bebop: The Movie for special AXCN shows on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. What is apparently a different Gurren Lagann movie from last week - Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky Are Stars, plays Boston Common, South Bay and Assembly Row on Tuesday (subtitled) and Wednesday (dubbed). Also from Japan, Godzilla Minus One continues at Assembly Row, with a "Minus Color" version opening Thursday (and returning to Boston Common and Causeway Street). The Boy and the Heron is still at the Coolidge, West Newton, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, and Causeway Street.
  
  Vietnamese horror movie The Soul Reaper plays South Bay.
• The Brattle Theatre presents "(Some of) The Best of 2023" all week, with The Unknown Country (Friday), Talk to Me (Friday), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Saturday & Sunday matinees), Barbie & Bottoms (Saturday), Showing Up & Afire (Sunday), Beau Is Afraid (Monday), May December (Tuesday), Earth Mama & A Thousand and One (Wednesday), and The Royal Hotel (Thursday).
• The Zone of Interest expands to The Coolidge Corner Theatre after opening at Kendall Square, Boston Common, and the Seaport last week, with more expansion on tap for next.
  
  The midnights at the Coolidge the weekend feature Poltergeist on 35mm film Friday with Ringu and giallo Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key on Saturday. .Saturday morning features a kids' show of Albert Lamorisse's "The Red Balloon" & Stowaway in the Sky. Sunday morning's Geothe-Institut German film is Black Box, a thriller about an apartment building on lockdown after an unknown event. Sunday afternoon, they have the month's marathon screenings, with all three chapters of the original Matrix trilogy on 35mm. The "Projections" science fiction series also features Forbidden Planet with a post-screening discussion of how it was inspired by The Tempest on Monday, and Alien on Wednesday; they also begin a Tuesday-morning lecture series on science fiction films of the 1950s. This Is Spinal Tap plays Tuesday.
• The Alamo Seaport rep calendar has them finishing up their weekly Tolkein stuff with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Expanded Edition) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday The 1999 Time Capsules series continues with The Limey (Saturday), Galaxy Quest (Monday/Tuesday), Audition (Monday). There's a "Movie Party" screening of The Goonies on Sunday, plus Weird Science on Wednesday.
• The Capitol has Mark of the Werebeard, a crowdfunded horror-comedy B movie, Saturday evening.
  
  The Somerville Theatre has a "Monster Gallery" burlesque show on Saturday night, followed by a screening of Death Becomes Her (they don't seem to be selling tickets separately for this one). Also, though they aren't listed on the website, there are exclusive shows for Somerville/Capitol members on Sunday and Thursday; check your email if you've got a card.
• The Harvard Film Archive re-opens for the new semester with "Ousmane Sembène, Cinematic Revolutionary", a survey of the Senegalese auteur's work including several new restorations. Xala (with short "Borom Sarret" plays Friday and Sunday, Camp de Thiaroye on 35mm Saturday, Mandabi with short "Tauw" (the short on 16mm) on Sunday, and Black Girl with short Niaye (the short on 35mm) on Monday. They also continue to stream "Cinema Before 1300" through mid-March.
• Boston Palestine Film Festival presents three films they were planning to play back in October at The Museum of Fine Arts this weekend, with The Flag on Friday and A House in Jerusalem and Mediterranean Fever on Saturday.
• Belmont World Film's Family Film Festival has a second weekend this year with four short film programs and four feature films streaming via Eventive on Saturday and Sunday, plus a full day of films at the Regent in Arlington on Sunday.
• Aside from the Family Film Festival, The Regent Theatre has documentary A Father's Promise, which relates the work of musician Mark Barden to create a foundation that seeks to educate people of the warning signs of violence like the school shoting that took his son's life at Sandy Hook. It plays Wednesday.
• Bright Lights kicks off their spring season with Saltburn upstairs at Emerson's Paramount Theater on Thursday, with Emerson professor Ken Feil leading discussion afterward. Free and open to the public!
• The Lexington Venue is open Friday to Sunday with The Boys in the Boat and American Fiction.
  
  The West Newton Cinema cuts down to American Fiction, The Boy and the Heron (subtitled all week, dubbed matinees Saturday/Sunday), Migration, Poor Things, and The Holdovers (no show Wednesday).
  
  The Luna Theater has Monty Python and the Holy Grail Friday and Saturday, The Thing on Sunday, and a Weirdo Wednesday show.
  
  Cinema Salem is open through Monday with All of Us Strangers, Mean Girls, The Boys in the Boat, and Poor Things.
  
  If you can make it out to the Showcase in Dedham, they have Dominican comedy Colao 2.

That Monday night choice between Beau Is Afraid, Audition, and Forbidden Planet is just mean and could be determined by how much I want to mess with the T. Otherwise, the Chinese movies, I.S.S., The Unknown Country, Bottoms, and some lingering end-of-year things.