Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 8 March 2024 - 14 March 2024

Here's a "maybe there's some falloff from the big debut, or maybe stuff doesn't get an Oscar boost, but let's not chance the prospects on something really big on it" slate of releases.

• I'm kind of surprised DreamWorks didn't release Kung Fu Panda 4 a month ago for Lunar New Year, but apparently it's not Chinese enough to play there during the blackout period. This one appears to skip the Furious Five to have Jack Black's Po team up with a fox voiced by Awkwafina to face a Chameleon (Viola Davis) with the techniques of his vanquished opponents. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including RealD 3D), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), Kendall Square, the Seaport (including RealD 3D), South Bay (including RealD 3D), Assembly Row (including RealD 3D), Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill..
  
  If you're taking kids to the movies, remember - Imaginary is not the cute-looking imaginary friends family adventure (that's IF), but the Blumhouse horror flick where imaginary friends are putting kids (and the grownups who abandoned them) in terrible danger! It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Cabrini gets a bigger release than this sort of "inspirational" picture usually does (it's from the director and studio behind Sound of Freedom), with Cristiana Dell'Anna as an immigrant in the 1890s who takes it upon herself to serve New York's hungry, with John Lithgow & David Morse the more notable folks in the supporting cast. It's at the Capitol, the Embassy, Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.
  
  Freud's Last Session returns for matinees at Boston Common. Based on what's scheduled starting Monday, the folks programming that theater seem to be betting pretty heavily on Poor Things and Oppenheimer at the Oscars.
  
  Labyrinth plays Boston Common, South Bay, and Arsenal Yards on Sunday. There's an AMC Screen Unseen preview at Causeway Street, Assembly Row on Monday. Love Lies Bleeding has a non-mystery preview at Boston Common on Wednesday.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre hasn't opened the new wing yet, but their site has changed how they display screens - the Screening Room is now Movie House 3 ("MH3") and the GoldScreen Movie House 4 ("MH4"), so it's a little trickier to pick up when stuff is playing on the smaller screens, like Problemista.., which features director Julio Torres as a Salvadoran immigrant trying to thread the needle between "can't get a visa without a job" and "can't get a job without a visa" in New York, hoping Tilda Swinton's gallery curator can help him out. It also plays the Kendall, Boston Common, and the Seaport.
  
  The Coolidge's video game midnights continue with Sonic the Hedgehog on Friday and the surprisingly fun Street Fighter on Saturday. Dune monopolizing the main screen means rep is limited to Open Screen on Tuesday, a Big Screen Debut presentation of Wanda with Kaj Wilson offering a seminar before the film on Wednesday, plus a Cinema Jukebox show of Monterey Pop and the first leg of their Debra Granik retrospective, feature debut Down to the Bone, on Thursday.
• I think the last Lunar New Year movie to arrive stateside is YOLO, a remake of Japanese film 100 Yen Love with writer/director/star Jia Ling as the woman who leaves the family home after an argument and takes up boxing after being attacked; Jia, you may recall, had the surprise Lunar New Year hit a few years back with Hi Mom!, a time-travel comedy that still hasn't made it stateside. The new one plays Boston Common and Causeway Street. Pegasus 2 also continues at Boston Common, with Article 20 remaining at Causeway Street.
  
  Another six new Indian films at Apple Fresh Pond this weekend: Shaitaan is Hindi-language horror movie with Ajay Devgn, and also opens at Boston Common. Gaami a Malayalam quest into the unknown. Telugu action movie Bhimaa has a city cop sent to investigate a case at a small town temple; Telugu romantic comedy Premalu has Naslen as a young man torn between two women. Hindi-language film Mahayogi: Highway 1 to Oneness sure looks like it and writer/director/star (subject?) Rajan Luthra are trying to sell something. Those open Friday; Kannada-language comedy Ranganayaka plays Saturday and Sunday.Manjummel Boys is held over at Fresh Pond and Article 370 continues at Boston Common.
  
  Three movies from Japan hanging around theaters this weekend, with Oscar-nominated Perfect Days at the Coolidge, Kendall Square, the Embassy, the Lexington Venue, CinemaSalem, and Boston Common; Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba - To the Hashira Training at Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row; and The Boy and the Heron still at Fresh Pond and West Newton.
• Very limited showtimes for They Shot the Piano Player at Landmark Kendall Square - it plays daily at 4:10pm, plus earlier shows on Saturday and Sunday - which is a shame, because the new film from the makers of Chico & Rita looks kind of nifty, another music-focused animated drama for grown-ups, this one featuring Jeff Goldblum doing the voice of a reporter investigating the disappearance of a jazz pianist in 1976 Buenos Aires.
  
  Tuesday's New Hollywood flick is the original version of The Getaway, starring Steve McQueen & Ali McGraw and directed by Sam Pickinpah.
• The Brattle Theatre has a digital restoration of Martha Coolidge's Not a Pretty Picture from Friday to Sunday, and takes the opportunity to showcase a few of the directors' other movies on 35mm. Valley Girl on Friday night and separate shows of Rambling Rose (including post-film chat with Strictly Brohibited) and Real Genius.
  
  For the rest of the week, they have the latest "Columbia 100" series with "Some of Columbia's Best (Picture Nominees)": It Happened One Night on Sunday afternoon, a double feature of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (35mm) & Born Yesterday Monday, a double bill of The Big Chill (35mm) & The Last Picture Show Tuesday, Sense and Sensibility & Little Women '19 (35mm) Wednesday, and a 35mm print of The Social Network on Thursday. There's also the member-even Oscar Party on Sunday night and an RPM Fest presentation of "Another Horizon: Stephanie Barber" at 9pm Thursday.
• The Alamo rep calendar has more 1994 films, with The Little Rascals (Friday), Pulp Fiction (Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday Movie Party). They also have Time Bandits on Saturday, an "On Cinema at the Cinema" special on Sunday, Nimona as part of a "World of Animation" focus on shapeshifters Monday, a Love Lies Bleeding preview with livestreamed Q&A plus an Orlando as part of the Tilda Swinton series on Tuesday, and Pi on Thursday (3.14).
• The Somerville Theatre holds Hundreds of Beavers over for a second week, and I'm weirdly proud of my neighborhood for this.
  
  The folks at The Capitol have Bonnie & Clyde for Capitol Crimes on Friday and Monday, plus "Good For Her" shows of Basic Instinct on Saturday and Tuesday.
• The Embassy plays Inundation District on Thursday; it's a new documentary by David Abel & Ted Blanco about the folly of building a new neighborhood on landfill in the Boston Seaport area as waters rise from climate change. It does not play at the Alamo Drafthouse in said neighborhood.
• ArtsEmerson and presents two documentaries this weekend: Rally on Friday profiles Rose Pak, a tremendously influential 1970s San Francisco reporter and activist, in association with Boston Asian-American Film Festival; Dawnland on Saturday afternoon details the abduction of Native Children and the Maine/Wabanaki Truth & Reconciliation Commission.
• The Regent Theatre has the 9th annual "No Man's Land" program of female-centric outdoor films on Friday night and the first Midweek Music Movies & More show in a while, The Job of Songs, on Wednesday evening.

Joe's Free Films shows a screening of Kafka Goes to the Movies, along with readings from his diary and panel discussions, on Saturday afternoon. RSVP required.

• The Boston Baltic Film Festival continues for another week or so online, with what looks like 12 features, a television series, and 4 shorts to stream.
  
  Boston Jewish Film launches a streaming "2024 Musical Roadtrip" series on Thursday, with four documentaries from around the worldavailable for eight days.
• The Museum of Science looks sold out for its last two weekends of Dune: Part Two, on the Omni screen, but will have Mad Max: Fury Road on the dome on the 22nd & 23rd.
• Probably the last week for Oscar-Nominated Shorts, with the Kendall and West Newton showing Animation and Live Action more or less all week, with West Newton also having the docs Saturday & Sunday. The ICA has Animation and Live Action on Saturday; The Somerville has Animation (Saturday/Sunday); Luna Lowell has Live Action (Saturday), Documentary (Saturday/Sunday), and Animation (Sunday); Cinema Salem has Animation (Friday/Saturday/Monday), Live Action (Friday-Sunday), and Documentary (Friday-Monday).
• The Lexington Venue is open Friday to Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday with The Taste of Things and Perfect Days.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Kung Fu Panda. Still playing are Dune: Part Two, All of Us Strangers (Friday-Sunday), the Oscar Shorts, Driving Madeleine (no show Sunday), American Fiction, Migration (Firday/Saturday), The Boys in the Boat, Wonka (Friday/Saturday), The Boy and the Heron (no show Thursday), and The Holdovers.
  
  The Luna Theater once again has The Zone of Interest evenings Friday to Sunday, with the Oscar Shorts Saturday.& Sunday afternoons, a Weirdo Wednesday show, and a free UMass Lowell Philosophy & Film presentation of The Matrix Resurrections.
  
  Cinema Salem has Kung Fu Panda 4, Dune: Part Two, the Oscar Shorts, and Perfect Days from Friday to Monday. They also have a Night Light show of Belladonna of Sadness on Friday, All the President's Men on Saturday, and Pi on Thursday.

Is The Zone of Interest, American Fiction, and two shorts packages possible before the Oscars on Sunday? Maybe, but if I'm as lazy as I have been… Anyway, Nimona is not, but I've already got a ticket for that Monday, Somehow, They Shot the Piano Player, Shrek 4, and YOLO will be in there too.