Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 5 April 2024 - 11 April 2024

Marvel and DC basically taking the year off, but somehow two superhero-esque things (or at least titles) this week!

• Is Universal releasing Monkey Man this weekend to have it in theaters for Eid? It's Mumbai-set but English-language, with writer/director Dev Patel as an anonymous vigilante looking to clean up the underworld. It's at Fresh Pond, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards (including CWX), Chestnut Hill. Dogman, on the other hand, is the latest from Luc Besson, has Caleb Landry Jones as a homeless man who has formed a bond with a pack of stray dogs. It's at Boston Common, Kendall Square, and the Seaport.
  
  Also opening is The First Omen, with Nell Tiger Free as a young nun at an orphanage in Italy and a seemingly immaculate conception with a conspiracy behind it (although, given that this is a prequel to The Omen, it's almost certainly Antichrist-related). It's at the Somerville (35mm), Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards, and Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema).
  
  The Greatest Hits, starring Lucy Boynton as a woman who discovers that music can literally transport her in time, plays at Causeway Street. BUFF selection Femme, in which a drag queen attempts to seduce the man who gay-bashed him, is at Boston Common.
  
  Fresh Pond has Epic Tails, an English-dubbed release of a French animated film about a brave mouse in Ancient Greece.
  
  Someone Like You, previously just a Fathom special, has a full week of shows at Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row. Boston Common, South Bay have An Officer and a Gentleman to pay tribute to the late Lou Gossett Jr.
  
  Gone with the Wind has 85th anniversary shows at Boston Common, South Bay, Arsenal Yards on Sunday/Monday/Wednesday. There's a preview of The Long Game at Boston Common Sunday, an early access presentation of Civil War at Boston Common (Imax Xenon) on Monday, and an AMC Screen Unseen preview on Monday at Boston Common, Assembly Row. Indie musical comedy Intermedium, in which a teenager deals with an irritating ghost, plays Causeway Street on Tuesday. K-Pop concert film Suga: August D Tour "D-Day" The Movie plays Wednesday & Thursday at Boston Common (including Imax Xenon Wednesday), Causeway Street, Assembly Row (Wednesday only including Imax laser), Arsenal Yards (Wednesday only).
• Sleeper hit possibility for Wicked Little Letters, though, which has Olivia Colman as a woman receiving vulgar notes in the mail, Jessie Buckley as the uncouth Irish gal she thinks is sending them, and Anjana Vasan as the Desi policewoman who takes it on herself to do a proper investigation. It's at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, the Kendall, the Embassy, the Lexington Venue, West Newton, and Boston Common.
  
  Though Easter has passed, the Coolidge is doing zombies for the April midnights, with a digital restoration of Return of the LIving Dead on Friday and a 35mm print of Night of the Comet on Saturday. For kids, there are matinees of FernGully: The Last Rainforest on Saturday & Sunday. The April "What's the Score" series includes CInema Paradiso on Sunday, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus on Monday, Rocky on Wednesday. There's also Open Screen on Tuesday and a "Science on Screen" presentation of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, with science journalist Seth Mnookin discussing trauma. They appear to be closed on Thursday
• Woody Allen's first movie in three years, Coup de Chance, plays at The Capitol in Arlington; it's also likely his last (the man is almost 90), a French-language crime comedy about a young couple whose lives are thrown for a loop by the return of a former lover. They also have "Capitol Crimes" screenings of Fargo on Friday & Monday and "Good for Her!" shows of A League of Their Own on Saturday & Tuesday. Documentary Indigo Girls: It's Only Life After All, plays Wednesday.
  
  In addition to screening The First Omen in 35mm (I think it's the first time they've used the projector in theater #3 since they redid it), The Somerville Theatre has a new 4K restoration of Peeping Tom on the main screen Friday evening and Sunday afternoon. Sunday evening also features a team-up with Pennsylvania's Mahoning Drive-In for a 35mm double feature of Drive-In Massacre & Bay of Blood. Monday's Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid show is a 35mm double feature of Humoresque & The Big Sleep. The Tale of Two Studios on Wednesday is The Thin Man & Ladies of Leisure, also both on film, as is Thursday's Smooth Cinema show of One Crazy Summer..
• The Embassy is the first place in the area to open Farewell Mr. Haffmann, about a Jewish man fleeing Paris ahead of the Nazis who leaves his business and home in the hands of an employee, but must ask that employee to hide him when he is unable to leave.
• With Eid coming up, a lot of movies from India open at Apple Fresh Pond (and elsewhere). Opening Friday, Hindi film Dukaan stars Monika Panwar as a surrogate mother for a difficult couple. Telugu-langage comedy The Family Star (also at Boston Common) follows a family man with big dreams. Telugu thriller Bahumukham looks like an unusually tight production, with HarShiv Karthik starring, writing, directing, editing, producing, and doing a lot of other behind-the-scenes work in a thriller about an up-and-coming actor hiding his past in a detention center. Kalvan is a Tamil-language comedy about a thief trying to get the bribe needed to get an anti-poaching job Manjummel Boys returns in a Telugu dub, plus holdovers Crew, The Goat Life, and Tillu Squared. Hindi-language action movie Mahadev Ka Gorakhpur opens Saturday, while two more in Hindi - Maidaan, starring Ajay Devgn as a legendary soccer coach in the 1950s, and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (which I'm guessing is Hindi for "Good Cop, Bad Cop") stars Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff as two officers transporting a dangerous criminal - open Wednesday, both also playing Boston Common.
  
  Viva La Vida, the latest from director Han Yan (Go Away Mr. Tumor & Animal World), has a woman who needs a kidney transplant meeting a young man with a fatal brain disease (but healthy kidneys); it's at Causeway Street. Mainland Chinese film YOLO continues at Boston Common.
  
  Korean thriller Exhuma continues at Boston Common and Causeway Street. Vietnamese drama Mai continues at South Bay.
  
  Japanese films hanging around are Perfect Days at the Coolidge, Kendall Square, and Luna Lowell (plus one show at the MFA); with The Boy and the Heron still at Fresh Pond and West Newton.
• Wicked Queer 40 sets up shop at The Brattle Theatre, the bright Screening Room at the Paramount, The ICA, and the Coolidge, plus free shows at BU's GSU Auditorium on Tuesday, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design on Wednesday, and Queendom as part of Bright LIghts at the Paramount on Thursday. There will be a number of filmmakers present, and a number of retrospective screenings as well as new discoveries.
• The Alamo Seaport rep calendar has time capsule screenings of Dumb and Dumber (Friday/Saturday), Interview with the Vampire (Friday/Saturday/Tuesday), a movie party for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Sunday, a Graveyard Shift show of The House of the Devil Monday, and a benefit screening of The Greasy Strangler to help with star Michael St. Michaels's hospital bills on Tuesday.
• The Harvard Film Archive welcomes Martín Rejtman for screenings of both his latest film The Practice (Friday) and a presentation of the recently-restored Silvio Prieto They also have two more from Taiwan's Edward Yang - Mahjong on Sunday afternoon and The Terrorizers on Monday evening - and Jean-Pierre Bekolo's Afrofuturist story Naked Reality on Sunday evening.
• The Museum of Fine Arts plays host to the Boston Turkish Film & Music Festival this weekend: Director Zeki Demirkubuz will be on-hand Friday for Life, his epic about a man seeking the woman who fled rather than be pushed into an arranged marriage with him; Saturday's Suddenly, about a woman seeking her lost sense of smell, also has a post-film Q&A with director Melisa Önel; while Sunday's Neandria, about a village filled with strange events, is preceded by the narrative and documentary winners of the short film competition. A selection of other are also available to stream through the 15th.
• The Regent Theatre has a remastered version of Fantastic Fungi playing on Friday for its fifth anniversary; most of us probably saw it at home as it was one of the first things playing "virtual theaters" during the pandemic. Wednesday, they have "Mountains on Stage", a selection of four adventure documentary shorts.
• Belmont World Film is at Fresh Pond Monday with Traces, a Croatian film about an anthropologist whose work with grave markers has a parallel in how she is the last member of her family after her father's death. Translator/author Ellen Elias-Bursać will speak, and there will be Croatian wine and snacks before the film.
• Landmark Kendall Square has documentary Food, Inc. 2 on Tuesday night, and it's seldom good news when a documentary has a sequel 15 years later. Also playing Tuesday night is Taxi Driver, with the New Hollywood entry $5 for loyalty members.
• Dune: Part Two at The Museum of Science is sold out this weekend, and next Friday and Saturday are like the last two shows there.
• The Lexington Venue has One Life (Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday/Thursday), Wicked LIttle Letters (Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday/Thursday), and Problemista (Friday/Saturday/Sunday). They also have special documentary matinees on the weekend: Against All Enemies on Saturday looks at the radicalization of military veterans and plays with short "Dreaming of a Free Press"; The Palmnicken Tragedy on Sunday examines a Nazi war crime, as 3,000 prisoners were shot before the advancing Russian army arrived, and plays with short "Am I Not My Brother's Keeper?"
  
  The West Newton Cinema picks up Wicked Little Letters, continuing One Life, Problemista, Kung Fu Panda 4, Dune: Part Two, American Fiction, Wonka (Saturday/Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday), and The Boy and the Heron (no show Thursday). Closed Monday. Poor one out for The Holdovers, maybe not there continuously since November, but a darn good run nonetheless!
  
  The Luna Theater has Late Night with the Devil on Friday and Saturday, Nobuhiko Obayashi's House on Saturday, The Exorcist on Sunday, a Weirdo Wednesday show, and a free UMass Lowell Philosophy & Film show of Legally Blonde on Thursday.
  
  Cinema Salem has Late Night With the Devil, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Godzilla X Kong, and Monkey Man from Friday to Monday.

Looking at the Monkey and Dog Men, Naked Reality, two doubles at the Somerville, Wicked Little Letters, Viva La Vida, and maybe heading out to the Embassy for Haffmann.