Friday, May 31, 2024

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 24 May 2024 - 6 June 2024

A sort of in-between week, since people thought Furiosa would blow up much bigger, but nothing really scrambling to capitalize.
  • Ezra, which features Bobby Cannavale as a stand-up comic with an autistic son whom he brings on a cross-country road trip to Los Angeles, plays the Lexington Venue, West Newton, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, and Assembly Row.

    BUFF selection In a Violent Nature, which is kind of a Friday the 13th movie from Jason Vorhees's perspective (a clever-ish idea but hard to make scary or thrilling) opens at CinemaSalem, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, and South Bay.

    Summer Camp has Diane Keaton, Kathy Bates, and Alfre Woodard as three old friends who met at camp as kids but fell out of touch getting reacquainted at a reunion, with Eugene Levy as a love interest. It plays Fresh Pond, Boston Common, and South Bay and, not going to lie, I'm a bit surprised that there's only a six-year range for the stars of the movie, as I'd pegged Woodard as much younger than Keaton.

    Young Woman and the Sea is an old-school PG-rated Disney family film, with Daisy Ridley as Olympic swimmer Trudy Ederle, attempting to be the first woman to swim the English Channel. It's at West Newton, Boston Common, and Kendall Square.

    Babes expands to the Somerville Theatre and the Seaport, already at Coolidge, Kendall Square, Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, Assembly Row, and CinemaSalem.

    Arsenal Yards brings back Top Gun: Maverick for matinees Friday to Sunday. The Muppet Movie has 45th anniversary shows at South Bay and Arsenal Yards on Sunday & Monday. Spider-Mondays wrap up with Spider-Man: No Way Home at the Coolidge, Boston Common (through Thursday), the Seaport, and Assembly Row (through Thursday). There's an extra-early screening of Bad Boys: Ride or Die at Assembly Row (Dolby Cinema) on Wednesday before the regular-early ones on Thursday
  • Maybe the week's biggest opening is Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle, a theatrical tie-in to the popular anime & manga about a high-school volleyball team, this one involving an all-or-nothing contest; it's at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row; check showtimes for languages.

    A lot of Indian films open at Apple Fresh Pond to fill some screentimes. Mr. & Mrs. Mahi (also at Boston Common) is a Hindi-language sports drama about a couple in an arranged marriage who bond over their love of cricket, with the husband coaching his more talented wife. Savi, also in Hindi, stars Divya Khosla Kumar as a housewife with a plan to break her husband out of a British maximum-security prison. In the Tamil language, there's action movies Hit List and Garudan. The Telugu-language releases are chase movie Bhaje Vaayu Vegam, action-comedy Gam Gam Ganesha, and period crime story Gangs of Godavari.
  • I think we're getting more westerns that superhero movies this summer, even if The Dead Don't Hurt - opening at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, the Kendall, Boston Common, and South Bay - doesn't necessarily read as traditional, with Vicky Krieps and director Viggo Mortensen as an immigrant couple whose lives go in different directions as Mortensen's Olsen chooses to fight in the Civil War.

    This weekend's midnights at the Coolidge are Cynthia Rothrock in Martial Law on Friday and a 35mm print of Sam Raimi's Darkman on Saturday. There's a special Panorama showing of Butterfly in the Sky, with the panel discussing the documentary about LeVar Burton and Reading Rainbow featuring folks from public television, libraries, and bookstores. Monday's Big Screen Classic is a 35mm print of 12 Angry Men with a pre-show seminar featuring Emerson College's Peter Horgan; Spider-Man: No Way Home plays later.

    On Wednesday, they head out to the Charles River Speedway in Brighton to screen Wayne's World.
  • Landmark Kendall Square opens Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara, an Italian film about a mid-1800 cause celebre, in which the Catholic Church seized a Jewish boy whom his nurse had secretly baptized to send him to their schools.

    Retro Replay screenings return to the Kendall on Tuesday for a month of Pride-themed selections, starting with Brokeback Mountain.
  • The Brattle Theatre opens "Man Ray: Return to Reason", a collection of four avant-garde silence newly restored and scored by Jim Jarmusch & Carter Logan's band Sqürl from Friday to Monday. It splits showtimes on those dates with Omen, a BUFF selection in which a Congolese man who grew up in Belgium returns to introduce his pregnant wife to his family and finds his homeland very strange indeed.

    On Tuesdays and Wednesdays in June, they get a jump start on the summer vertical schedule with "Peele Apart", pairing a Jordan Peele film with his inspirations. This week, it's Get Out, playing with the original Candyman on Tuesday and Rosemary's Baby on Wednesday (Get Out is DCP; the others are 35mm). On Thursday, they celebrate Prince's birthday with a double feature of Purple Rain & Sing O' the Times, the latter on 35mm.
  • Depending on how you look at it The Alamo Seaport is either playing Don Hertzfeldt's new short film "ME" and attaching the feature edit of It's Such a Beautiful Day or bringing back the latter with the new short as a bonus; either way, it's 90 minutes of Hertzfeldt's distinctively (and sometimes deceptively) lo-fi but strangely affecting work.

    Backspot, with Devery Jacobs as an ambitious college cheerleader, gets a somewhere-between-run-and-rep booking with shows Saturday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. rep calendar also has Spider-Man: No Way Home on Monday, Tetsuo: The Iron Man late shows Monday and Wednesday, a movie party for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Down Part 2 on Tuesday, and Back to the Future: Part II on Wednesday.
  • Aside from The Somerville Theatre picking up Babes, they also have a Midnight Special of Black Tight Killers on Saturday. They restart "Tale of Two Studios" shows on Monday (note that they had been Wednesday), with Meet Me In St. Louis & On the Waterfront, the former on 35mm film.

    Evil Does Not Exist moves up the 77 to the Capitol.
  • The Museum of Science has two screenings of documentary To Be Takei in the Mugar Omni theater on Friday and Saturday, neatly spanning Asian American & Pacific Islander and Pride months. They have also put showtimes for Inside Out 2 on sale.
  • The Embassy has The Bridge on the River Kwai on Sunday and Monday. The listing says 4K; I hadn't realized they had upgraded their projectors, but it makes sense Landmark would have taken the old ones.
  • The Museum of Fine Arts has one Korean film to support their exhibition this week - Snowpiercer on Friday - but the other three are about the Korean diaspora: Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV on Saturday afternoon (part of the Art Docs series), Minari on Sunday, and Past Lives on Thursday.
  • The main Belmont World Film series is completed, but they have two more weeks at the West Newton Cinema for World Refugee Awareness Month, with Swedish Oscar submission Opponent, which features Payman Maadi as a wrestler who arrived in Sweden as a refugee from Iran. There will be Swedish pastries and a talk with Persian-American filmmaker/educator Homa Sarabi beforehand.
  • The Harvard Film Archive is closed for the summer, but they have recently uploaded a whole mess of filmmaker introductions and discussions going back to 2008 to their Conversations page, and there are probably worse ideas than browsing that, finding the referenced films, and streaming both.
  • The Lexington Venue opens Ezra and Nowhere Special, holding over Sight. They're open Friday to Sunday and Thursday.

    The West Newton Cinema opens Ezra and Young Woman and the Sea, holding over Furiosa, Challengers, If, Farewell Mr. Haffmann (no shows Monday & Tuesday), The Fall Guy, and Wicked Little Letters (not scheduled Thursday).

    The Luna Theater has Civil War Friday, Saturday, and Thursday. On Sunday, they welcome the band Negativeland for a double feature including documentary Stand By for Failure with a live performance of "We Can Really Feel LIke We're Here" augmented by visual artist SUE-C. No Weirdo Wednesday show on the calendar yet.

    Cinema Salem adds In a Violent Nature and I Saw the TV Glow to Furiosa, Babes, and IF through Monday.
It's kind of all catch-up - even the Hertzfeldt shorts are me coming in late because I used to see them at festivals and now he's kind of bypassing that - and maybe Young Woman and the Sea and The Dead Don't Hurt.

Friday, May 24, 2024

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 24 May 2024 -30 May 2024

Gonna miss seeing the Furiosa trailer before movies - it just hits differently than the rest of the movies coming out (I mean, two more weeks of Bad Boys 4 seems endless!).
  • George Miller returns to the wasteland with Furiosa, which fills out the backstory of Furiosa before we meet her in Mad Max: Fury Road, which doesn't seem necessary, but we trust George Miller by now, right? Anya Taylor-Joy plays the young Furiosa, Chris Hemsworth the first warlord to take her in before Immortan Joe. It's at the Somerville (mostly 4K), the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, The Embassy, Jordan's Furniture (Imax), West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Imax Xenon/Dolby Cinema/Spanish subtitles), Causeway Street, Landmark Kendall Square, the Seaport (including Dolby Atmos), South Bay (including Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (Including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.

    Chris Prett racks up another voice-acting credit with the title role of The Garfield Movie, with the fat cat reluctantly pulled into an adventure by his long-lost father, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, the Embassy, Boston Common (including RealD 3D), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), the Seaport, South Bay (including RealD 3D), Assembly Row (including RealD 3D), Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.

    Sight is the latest thing from Angel Studios, with Terry Chen as an eye surgeon who grew up during the Cultural Revolution in China. It's at the Lexington Venue, Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row.

    Babes expands to Causeway Street, South Bay, Assembly Row, and CinemaSalem after opening at the Coolidge, Kendall Square, and Boston Common last week, and is slated for the Seaport next weekend. The Blue Angels picks up non-Imax showtimes at Boston Common.

    Spider-Mondays are up to Spider-Man: Far From Home at the Coolidge, Boston Common (through Thursday), the Seaport, and Assembly Row (through Thursday). Young Woman and the Sea has a matinee screening at Boston Common on Monday, raising money for US Swimming; In a Violent Nature has early access shows at Boston Common and the Seaport on Wednesday. Holocaust documentary The Commandant's Shadow plays South Bay, and Assembly Row (Wednesday and Thursday)
  • Hit Man opens at The Coolidge Corner Theatre and the Seaport before arriving on Netflix next week; the new one from Richard Linklater stars Glen Powell as a man who pretends the be a contract killer to flush would-be murderers out.

    Ethan Hawke is in town to introduce/do Q&A for Wildcat at the Coolidge on Friday, though both screenings that night are sold out; it continues on a smaller screen through Wednesday (though just matinees starting Monday). It's also at the Lexington Venue and Dedham Community Theatre, if you can get out there.

    Midnights at the Coolidge this weekend are Big Trouble in Little China on Friday and a 35mm print of Black Rain on Saturday. Monday's Big Screen Classic is Heathers (with Spider-Man: Far from Home later). Ghibliotheque continues Tuesday with a subbed 35mm print of Whisper of the Heart and finishes Wednesday with one for The Wind Rises on Wednesday. Thursday's Rewind! feature is the Lohan/Curtis Freaky Friday.
  • Apple Fresh Pond shuffles their Indian films over the course of a few days. Malayalam-language action-comedy Turbo opened on Thursday, with Mammootty as a jeep driver from Idukki who has relocated to Chennai. Love Me If You Dare opens Friday, a Telugu-language film about a young man falling in love with a ghost. Playing Saturday and Sunday are Thalavan, is a Malayalam-language thriller set inside a police station; and Marathi-language comedy Naach Ga Ghuma, which plays on the contentious relation between a woman and the hired help.

    Mandarin-language drama I Love You, to the Moon, and Back opens at Causeway Street, following a pair of newlyweds who encounter other couples on a train trip. Chinese action-comedy Three Old Boys is down the Green Line at Boston Common, though it's only playing matinees other than one late show Tuesday night.

    Korean action film The Roundup: Punishment continues at Causeway Street.

    Anime Spy X Family - Code: White continues at Boston Common with subtitles; probably on its very last legs, with the Haikyui!! feature starting Thursday.
  • The Brattle Theatre continues Reunion Weekend programming with a 35mm double feature of Stray Dog '49 & Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai '99 (Friday), .Young Frankenstein '74 (Saturday), Kind Hearts & Coronets '49 (Saturday/Monday) & Jour de Fête '49 (Saturday), Thomasine & Bushrod '74 (35mm Saturday), On the Town '49 (35mm) & The Taking of Pelham One Two Three '74 (Sunday), Audition '99 (Sunday), All About My Mother '99 (35mm) & Female Trouble '74 (Monday), Late Spring '49 (Free Elements of Cinema show Tuesday), Beau Travail '99 (Tuesday), A Woman Under the Influence '74 (Wednesday), and But I'm a Cheerleader '99 (Thursday). There's also the monthly show of Stop Making Sense Saturday night.
  • The Alamo Seaport's rep calendar has Back to the Future (Friday/Sunday), Sidewalk Stories (Saturday), Bride of Re-Animator (Monday), Spider-Man: Far From Home (Monday), I Saw the Devil (Tuesday), and Road House (Wednesday).
  • The Somerville Theatre, aside from Furiosa, has a Saturday Midnight Special of Ringu (4K) and the finale of the Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid noir series on Monday with 35mm prints of Sorry, Wrong Number & In a Lonely Place.
  • The Museum of Fine Arts has screenings of John Singer Sargent: Fashion and Swagger, an "Exhibition on Screen" documentary built around their recent Sargent exhibition, on Friday evening and Sunday afternoon, with the latter including a remote conversation between the director and curators. Korean films supporting the current exhibition are Poetry Saturday afternoon and Train to Busan (Extended Cut) Thursday evening.
  • The MIT Lecture Series Committee is showing The Graduate on Friday evening with free admission.
  • Belmont World Film has finished the in-person screenings of their International Film Series, but Bonjour Switzerland is streaming through Sunday.
  • The Lexington Venue has Wildcat, Sight, and The Old Oak. They're open Friday to Sunday and Thursday.

    The West Newton Cinema gets Furiosa and Challengers, also keeping Back to Black, If, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Farewell Mr. Haffmann, The Fall Guy, and Wicked Little Letters (not scheduled Thursday).

    The Luna Theater has Civil War Friday and Saturday, Hairspray '88 on Sunday, and a Weirdo Wednesday show.

    Cinema Salem adds Furiosa and Babes to IF and The Fall Guy through Monday. There's a Night Light show of The Quick and the Dead on Friday and a "Whodunnit?" watch party on Sunday
It's a long weekend for Furiosa, Wildcat, Hit Man, Three Old Boys, and some stuff I'm still catching up on. Also a Red Sox game and maybe some afternoons/evenings on the river.

Friday, May 17, 2024

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 17 May 2024 -23 May 2024

A lot of movies coming out this week for me to be this indifferent. Unusual!
  • Family fantasy IF comes from writer/director John Krasinski, though he mostly does voice work, with Ryan Reynolds starring as a man who can see outgrown imaginary friends ("IFs") and tries to get new kids to bond with them. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema & Spanish subs), Causeway Street, Landmark Kendall Square (including a Saturday "popcorn & pickles" matinee that maybe makes sense if you've seen the movie?), the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.

    I gather Back to Black is about both Amy Winehouse's early life and the creation of that particular album, with Marissa Abela as Amy, Jack O'Connell as the love of her life, and Eddie Marsan & Lesley Manville as her parents. It's at the Coolidge, the Capitol, Fresh Pond, West Newton, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.

    Comedy Babes stars Ilana Glazer and Michelle Muteau as two young women and best friends who don't seem particularly ready for pregnancy and all the bizarre effects on their life and bodies that John Hughes probably wouldn't have thought to put into She's Having a Baby. That plays the Coolidge, Kendall Square, Boston Common. It looks like it expands to Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row next weekend, and the Seaport the weekend after that.

    The marketing of The Strangers: Chapter 1 makes it look like a prequel, but apparently it's the first of a remake trilogy that director Renny Harlin shot simultaneously, which is confidence, I guess. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.

    The Blue Angels is an old-style Imax documentary (though feature length) about the Navy's precision-flying group; it plays the giant screens at Jordan's Furniture and Assembly Row.

    Evil Does Not Exist, already playing at the Coolidge, the Kendall, and Boston Common, expands to the Seaport and The Embassy.

    There are early screenings of The Garfield Movie at Boston Common (RealD 3D) and Assembly Row Sunday. There's an AMC Screen Unseen show at Boston Common, Causeway Street, and Assembly Row on Monday. Spider-Mondays are up to the Marvel Studios era, with Spider-Man: Homecoming at the Coolidge, Boston Common (through Thursday), the Seaport (through Tuesday), and Assembly Row (through Thursday). The monthly A24 Imax presentation is Uncut Gems at Jordan's, Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Wednesday.
  • This week's Indian movies at Apple Fresh Pond include two Malayalam-language comedies: Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil, about a man who winds up marrying a woman who hates him (is it me, or have there been a lot more movies about arranged marriages lately?), and Sureshinteyum Sumalathayudeyum Hridayahariyaya Pranayakatha, with three takes on a man staging a play to woo his crush in different time periods. Hindi-language bio Srikanth continues as well. From Nepal comes Mansarra, which apparently uses the idea of a sort of rice usually planted with other varieties as a comedic metaphor for a woman looking to live independently.

    Chinese drama The Last Frenzy plays Causeway Street; it stars Jia Bing as a man who has been dutifully saving his money who decides to go on a spree once a stroke leaves him with days to live.

    Korean action film The Roundup: Punishment continues at Causeway Street.

    There are two (non-Coolidge) Ghiblibest films playing Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row this week: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Sunday (dubbed) and Tuesday (subtitled), and Castle in the Sky Monday (dubbed) and Wednesday (subtitled). Anime hit Spy X Family - Code: White continues at Boston Common with subtitles.
  • The Brattle Theatre teams with the ART (opening Gatsby next week) for a program celebrating "Fitzgerald & the Jazz Age": Chaplin's The Kid (35mm Friday/Sunday), The Three Musketeers '21 (Saturday), F. Scott Fitzgerald's only credited screenplay Three Comrades (35mm Saturday),a double feature of The Last Tycoon & Babylon (Saturday), The Roaring Twenties (Sunday/Monday), The Immigrant (Sunday), Metropolis (Monday), and The Big Parade (Tuesday).

    After that, they start their Reunion Weekend shows with Young Frankenstein '74 on Wednesday and a double feature of The Third Man '49 & The Parallax View '74.
  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre opens Babes and Back to Black.and also has more presentations from the National Center for Jewish Film, with Blind at Heart Friday afternoon, Stella: A Life on Sunday morning (co-presented by Goethe-Institut), Revenge: Our Dad the Nazi Killer Sunday afternoon, and Seven Blessings Tuesday evening.

    They've got more midnights than usual this weekend, with Harmony Korine night-vision oddity Aggro Dr1ft playing in one of the new rooms Friday & Saturday, Action jackson in 35mm on the main screen Friday (and The Room upstairs, if that's your thing), plus Over the Top in 35mm Saturday. Ghibli stuff this week includes a dubbed 35mm prints of Porco Rosso (Saturday afternoon) and My Neighbor Totoro (Sunday afternoon), and a subtitled print of Princess Mononoke on Wednesday. There's a Stage & Screen show of A League of Their Own Monday evening with Spider-Man: Homecoming later, a "Sound of Silents" presentation of Chaplin's The Gold Rush with Jeff Rapsis on the organ Tuesday. Writer/directorEthan Hawke is on-hand for a Q&A after his new movie Wildcat on Thursday (and next Friday), but those look sold out.
  • The Alamo Seaport picks up Evil Does Not Exist, has a preview screening of Hit Man with a live-streamed Q&A (featuring Richard Linklater, Glen Powell, and Adria Arjona) on Friday, late shows of Aggro Dr1ft Friday & Saturday nights, and a "preview" matinee of Babes on Tuesday. Their rep calendar has a fair amount of 1989 Time Capsule stuff: Batman (Friday/Saturday/Tuesday/Wednesday), The 'Burbs (Friday/Monday/Wednesday), Uncle Buck (Movie Party Sunday), and Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Sunday/Wednesday). There's also a (late!) World of Animation screening of The Wolf House on Monday and the original The Heartbreak Kid on Wednesday.
  • ArtsEmerson and Boston Asian-American Film Festival present Liquor Store Dreams on Friday evening, a documentary about two second-generation Korean-Americans who have very different ambitions than their immigrant parents.
  • BAAF also co-presents Starring Jerry as Himself in The Museum of Science's Omni theater on Saturday; that one's a documentary about a retired immigrant who was recruited by the Chinese police to be an undercover agent.

    The MOS also screens documentary Beautiful Was the Fight, a doc about local lady rock 'n rollers, on Wednesday with performances before and after the film.
  • The Somerville Theatre picks up Evil Does Not Exist and I Saw the TV Glow, and also has a busy repertory schedule after Friday night's concert. On Saturday, they have a Fan Appreciation Screening of Hundreds of Beavers, with costumes encouraged, with their first Midnight Special of the summer season, the new 4K restoration of Cemetery Man, later that night. Sunday's B-movie double feature is Assignment Outer Space & The Phantom Planet; they're back to noir double features on Monday with Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion & I Walk Alone on Monday, the first on 35mm film; Bull Durham plays in 35mm on Tuesday with Noah Gittell signing his new book Baseball: The Movie; and "A Tale of Two Studios" returns with The Philadelphia Story & Here Comes Mr. Jordan, both in 35mm, on Wednesday.

    Their sister cinema in Arlington, The Capitol is the host for the in-person portion of the Global Cinema Film Festival of Boston, hosting two feature documentaries on Friday and three more on Saturday, with three features, two shorts, and a miniseries available to stream through Tuesday.
  • The Museum of Fine Arts has two entries in "Hallyu Hits: Korean Films that Moved the World" this weekend, with Burning on Saturday afternoon and Parasite on Sunday.
  • Belmont World Film wraps their International Film Series with Bonjour Switzerland, a satire where a referendum declares French to be the country's only national language, which is not great for the nation's German and Italian-speaking populations! It's at West Newton on Monday, and available to stream starting Tuesday evening.
  • The Regent Theatre has been hosting a play for the past few weeks, but has the A-Town Teen Video Awards on Monday and Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus on Wednesday evening.
  • The Lexington Venue gets Wildcat, Ethan Hawke's film about writer Flannery O'Connor starring his daughter Maya, and holds over The Old Oak. They're open Friday to Sunday and Thursday.

    The West Newton Cinema opens Back to Black and If and holds over Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Farewell Mr. Haffmann, The Fall Guy, Wicked Little Letters (no show Monday), Kung Fu Panda 4 (Saturday/Sunday), and American Fiction (Saturday/Sunday).

    The Luna Theater has Immaculate on Friday, Saturday, and Thursday, Love Lies Bleeding on Saturday; Pee-Wee's Big Adventure on Sunday; and a Weirdo Wednesday show.

    Cinema Salem adds IF, Wicked Little Letters, and Cabrini to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and The Fall Guy through Monday.
None of the week's new releases look particularly enticing, so I guess it's a good time to catch up with Civil War, Challengers, Evil Does Not Exist, and I Saw the TV Glow, plus maybe some silence, the classic double features at the Somerville, and The Parallax View.

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

The Roundup: Punishment

I originally had a reservation for last Thursday, figuring this would be a one-week booking and that was the only day I had free after IFFBoston, but canceled it for the Somerville's member screening of The Hunt for Red October when I saw it would run another week, and with a pretty full schedule at that. Not totally full; there was a gap where the show i would have really liked to go to would be on Monday, but it's going to be running through at least Wednesday the 22nd, and that seems to be a pretty good run, even if it doesn't taper off for a white after that. I guess people enjoy watching Ma Dong-seok round people up!

Of course, part of it may just be that Korean movies have seemed to do better since Causeway re-opened and they started playing there. I don't know if it's just more convenient to the area's Korean-American population, if they're catching some late-ish Korean pop culture wave, or if there's always been an audience but AMC just needed a few more screens in the area to let the bookings breathe. It certainly seems like there's less of a mad scramble to see these movies nowadays, and much less "guess I'm going to have to kill a day going to Revere". Not that you can go to Revere to see movies any more, that place is an Amazon distribution center, but it's nice to have these things downtown.

Aside - this movie has to be based on the same specific incident as last year's Chinese film No More Bets, right? I mean, I hope this isn't so common that I'd have to worry about any programming job I take should I get laid off leading to coding in a cage with live-streamed blackjack dealers in the next room!


Beomjoedosi4 (The Roundup: Punishment)

* * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 13 May 2024 in AMC Causeway Street #6 (first-run, DCP)

After a five-year gap between The Outlaws and The Roundup, they seem to be putting out a new one of these every year, which isn't necessarily a recipe for great cinema, but there's something to be said for reliability: You pay your money, you get Ma Dong-seok (aka Don Lee) punching people who need punching, and you can't exactly say that the film hasn't delivered what it promised. It's not exactly ambitious cops & robbers or grand adventure, but it's maybe a bit better than the basic action that normally goes direct to video. It gets the job done if you think this sort of thing is worth the price of a movie ticket.

It's 2018, and as the film opens, a Korean man is fleeing pursuers in the Philippines carrying a thumb drive, but his pursuers led by tattooed gangster Baek Chang-gi (Kim Mu-yeol) finally catch up. In Seoul, Detective Ma Seok-do (Lee) and his team are busting up a group of drug dealers who have built an app to allow their customers to order delivery, and soon learn that the source code was attributed to that poor guy in Manilla. This sort of thing is not Ma's forte, so they pull in Han Ji-su (Lee Joo-bin) from cyber division to form a task force, as Chang-gi arrives in South Korea, looking to confront Chang Dong-cheol (Lee Dong-hwi), the IT magnate funding his online casino who has dragged his heels cutting the gangster in for more, preferring to focus on his upcoming crypto offering.

As mentioned, this is the third Roundup cranked out in as many years, and while the filmmakers do try and shake things up - Seok-do and his squad have gone from organized crime to kidnapping to homicide to cyber-crime - but the screenwriters seem to have a checklist: Friendly but insubordinate to superiors, particularly the captain? Check. The "Room of Truth"? Check. Getting the case taken away because it's too complicated for a big lug who punches people? Check. Memorable caricature from the last movie brought back in to help? Check. Even the "I've gotta solve this case, I made a promise to the victim's mother" seems like a placeholder until they've got better material for Seok-d and his team. Maybe it works a bit better in the original Korean, but it highlights that the fun characters, such as they are, are the bad guys fighting among themselves.

As a result, the movie offers a small fraction of what Lee is capable of, only occasionally making much use of how charming and funny he is; there's a mean streak to the jokes that these films try to sell as goofball, and even playing off his partners is kind of playing the hits (there's also a bunch of jokes implying Seok-do is not just kind of bad at tech but dumb, which isn't exactly the vibe from the other Roundups). Lee is still fun to watch, because even when the one-liners are bad his timing is great, and Lee Joo-bin feels like she could be a fun addition to the team as the tech expert eager to do some actual cop stuff. The goofy collegiality of the cops is cannily countered by Kim Mu-yeol and Lee Dong-hwi as a gangland vet who scans blue-collar and the arrogant techbro who legitimately detest each other.

At least the fighting is good, with nasty knife-wielding baddies and small spaces that keep Lee from winding up to release a haymaker until it's really satisfying. As in previous installments, the filmmakers know that the pleasure comes from seeing Seok-do solve problems with his fists, and are careful to not get into territory where, say, a gun or a car chase would make more sense while still creating challenges. The first is potentially the most clever, but most are solid, whether lining folks up to show Seok-do's boxing technique to a finale that sells an (initially) unarmed Chang-gi having a chance.

It's basic hero-cop movie material, but I ask you - who doesn't kind of want to see internet gambling get punched repeatedly in the face, especially if they've watched any televised sports over the past couple of years? At some point I'm going to take that Korean disc of The Outlaws off the shelf and watch it, because I gather that's a different sort of movie. The Roundup sequels feel like the things Lee does to keep his hand in and profile up between more interesting projects - there's something to be written about him having the charisma and profile of a movie star but working best as part of an ensemble - but they do the job.

Nothing Can't Be Undone by a Hot Pot

What an absolutely fantastic title, even for those of us who have never heard what is certainly played like a trite, much-used expression (maybe childish?). Twenty years ago, Miramax would have purchased this, renamed it something like "The Hidden Room", and maybe that would have gotten it into a couple more suburban theaters, 14 months from now, after everyone in Chinatown has obtained legit/bootleg copies.

Staying on the name - every listing I've seen insists on using "HotPot" as one camel-case word, and it's the first time I've seen that. Is it common?


Mei you yi dun huo guo jie jue bu liao de shi (Nothing Can't be Undone by a Hot Pot)

* * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 11 May 2024 in AMC Boston Common #19 (first-run, DCP)

I occasionally joke about really needing to learn mahjongg so that I can understand Chinese movies, but I'm a bit more serious than usual here. Nothing Can't Be Undone… starts with a mahjongg game and certainly uses the tiles as symbols early; just how much does the game's particular mix of strategy and chance reflect what's going on in the movie? Maybe not that much, but it feels like knowing a bit might help.

The plan begins to come together at Nine Cakes, a combination Chinese Opera house and mahjongg parlor which is a longstanding family business in a small city. The owner (Yu Qian) posted a note on Weibo the previous day and deleted it as soon as he got three responses for a friendly game. Nobody gives their names, which is probably wise, because the host is looking to put together a small crew for a bit of crime: While visiting Fu Yu (Tian Yu), a local official in charge of choosing what will be bulldozed in the upcoming redevelopment of the area, to offer the sort of bribe that is expected to save his building, he has noted that there's clearly a fake wall in his bathroom, and where's the harm in stealing bribe money? It seems to go pretty smoothly, at least until they get back and "Nine Cakes", mousy fortune teller "Chicken" (Yang Mi), food deliveryman "Seven Grand" (Li Jiuxiao), and tough guy "Fortune" (Yu Ailei) realize that they brought back a lot more than they planned - and are stuck backstage until the show ends.

The script by director Ding Sheng and a couple of others is a weird one, in that it messes around with the rhythms of this sort of crime flick, but not always in a way that really works: The actual break-in has moments of enjoyable problem-solving, but is over too quickly, in part because they want to reveal things later, and the bit that's supposed to be a pressure cooker never seems like there's no escape - what's really stopping someone from just walking out? That segment also reveals so many previously unseen connections between characters and their stories, despite what seems like a pretty good randomizer at the start, that it seems to be trying to overwhelm skepticism, like all these ties must amount to some sort of supportive structure even if you can't quite see how it works, so you may as well just enjoy the fun of people with no reason to trust their new comrades turning on each other.

That is kind of enjoyable, once the movie gets going; there's some bloat in the middle as the first revelation seems to get a lot of time, but when the second or third hits and one character gets to drop a mask, things pick up nicely. The movie gets a sort of spark whose absence wasn't quite obvious until the role was filled. It's a nifty little group regardless - Yu Qian brings one-last-job weariness to someone presumably doing this for the first time, Yang Mi has oddball charm without trying too hard, and Tian Yu feels like just the right sort of opportunistically corrupt - and a big part of what works is that, even as we learn more backstory, they never feel like they've presented a truly false face: Information may have been hidden, but not necessarily their essential natures.

And even if the mahjongg isn't as key as all that in terms of giving the audience (especially the local one) something to hang the mood on, the other elements of the setting set a beat that probably carries the movie more than anything else: The Chinese opera in the next room is all over the soundtrack with its percussive traditional instruments, and the hot pot itself is a great thing to cut away to every few minutes, boiling even while folks aren't paying out much attention, divided into little boxes so that everyone can keep something to themselves, and giving everyone a chance to occasionally just stuff their face (really just packing it in with their chopsticks) in case you'd forgotten what sort of greed was making the movie go. The background details are a nice framework.

Dial either of these seemingly minor bits of atmospherics back a bit, and it's probably a duller movie, maybe even a frustrating one, but with them out works more often than not.

Friday, May 10, 2024

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 10 May 2024 -16 May 2024

Festival's over and, oh, boy, the catch-up…
  • The big release this week is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, with Wes Ball of the Maze Runner series taking over and fast-forwarding decades or centuries to a period closer to the original Charlton Heston film (if it's still on that path), with a young ape curious about the world's secret history discovering a human with the ability to speak. It's at The Capitol, Fresh Pond, The Embassy, Jordan's Furniture (Imax), West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Imax Xenon/Dolby Cinema/Spanish subtitles), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.

    Not Another Church Movie takes on Tyler Perry and his oeuvre, with Kevin Daniels as "Taylor Pharry", Jamie Foxx as God, and Mickey Rourke as the Devil. It's at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row.

    Causeway Street has East Bay with writer/director Daniel Yoon as a man in existential crisis and Constance Wu as the blind date who may be able to relate to him. It's been kicking around a while and looks quite unusual from the trailer.

    The new film from Jane Schoenbrun, IFFBoston alum I Saw the TV Glow, taps into some of the same metafictional ideas as debut feature We're All Going to the World's Fair, this time following a group of teenagers obsessed with a cult TV show and discovering hints that they may have a deeper connection to it than mere fandom. It's at the Coolidge (where they will conduct a Q&A an accept a Breakthrough Award during a sold-out show Saturday), Boston Common, the Kendall, and the Seaport (live Q&A Sunday afternoon).

    Babes has an early-access show at Kendall Square and Assembly Row on Sunday with a streamed post-film Q&A; Back to Black had Dolby Cinema previews Wednesday at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row; there's also an AMC Screen Unseen mystery preview at Boston Common, Causeway Street, and Assembly Row on Monday. Spider-Mondays are up to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 at the Coolidge (35mm w/ seminar), Boston Common (through Thursday), the Seaport (through Tuesday), Assembly Row (through Thursday). There's a 40th Anniversary show of The Transformers: The Movie at Assembly Row on Wednesday and a Dolby Cinema listening event for Billie Eilish: Hit Me hard and Soft on Thursday afternoon at Boston Common and Assembly Row.
  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre has a lot of Japanese stuff going on between the Ghibli movies, Perfect Days still hanging around, and Evil Does Not Exist, the new one from Drive My Car director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, in which the residents of a small town grapple with plans to build a luxury camping area (it is amusing to hear "glamping" in the middle of a string of Japanese in the trailer) uphill and upstream, worrying about the potential runoff. It's also at the Kendall and Boston Common.

    Midnights this week at the Coolidge include grindhouse rarity Hollywood 90028 in one of the new rooms on both Friday and Saturday, with 35mm prints in the main room of Last Action Hero (Friday) and Desperado (Saturday). The National Center for Jewish Film begins a two week series with a new restoration of Mothers of Today on 35mm (including Q&A) on Sunday, Kidnapped also on Sunday, a restoration with post-film Q&A of The Plot Against Harry on Wednesday and the local premiere of Shoshana on Thursday. Monday's Big Screen Classic is the twenty-first century Ocean's 11 on 35mm, with that night's Spider-movie, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, also playing a seminar and featuring a seminar by Jake Milligan. There's Open Screen and a 35mm print of Howl's Moving Castle on Tuesday, and a 35mm print of Velvet Goldmine as part of Cinema Jukebox on Thursday.

    It's not on their site, but the Boston Jewish Film will be presenting Bucky F*cking Dent, a comedy co-starring/directed by David Duchovny based upon his novel, on Tuesday night; tickets available on BJF's website.
  • Poolman has writer/director/star Chris Pine entering his Lebowski phase, playing a man whose job is to maintain an apartment complex's pool but whose passion is introducing ideas at city council meeting, recruit to get the goods on a land developer but finding more trouble. It's at Landmark Kendall Square and Boston Common.

    The Kendall has documentary Little Empty Boxes on Tuesday evening, with director/author/subject Max Lugavere on-hand to discuss his film about confronting his mother's dementia. Another documentary, Who Is Stan Smith?, plays Wednesday evening.
  • It's another full-turnover week for Indian movies at Apple Fresh Pond. Of some local interest, perhaps, is Srikanth, the Hindi-language biography of a visually impaired man from rural India who is accepted to MIT and becomes an entrepreneur. Three are in the Telugu language, with drama Krishnamma focusing on three rural orphans who become lifelong friends; drama Aarahmbham appearing to focus on a wrongly-imprisoned genius; and Pratindhi 2 bringing Nara Rohith back in a sequel to a 2014 thriller. Bengali-language romantic comedy Poppay Ki Wedding features Khushhal Khan as aman who returns home for his sister's wedding only to find himself betrothed to a woman he's not even allowed to see; Tamil-language drama Star features Kavin as an actor with big dreams; They seem to be more conscientious about English subtitles these days if any of these sound interesting.

    Chinese crime comedy Nothing Can't Be Undone by a Hot Pot plays Boston Common; it has a group strangers finding a corpse backstage at a theater and comes from Ding Sheng, whose record is all over the map - a couple Jackie Chan movies, the pretty good Saving Mr. Wu, the pretty bad A Better Tomorrow remake.

    Korean action film The Roundup: Punishment continues at Causeway Street.

    Anime Spy X Family - Code: White continues at Boston Common with subtitles.
  • The Alamo Seaport has the new film from Harmony Korine, Aggro Drift, through at least Wednesday, with the Friday night film including a live Q&A with musician AraabMuzik; it's a "post-cinema" hitman thriller shot entirely using thermal imaging. They also open The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, with writer/director/star Joanna Arnow stumbling through a lousy job, a noisy family, and a casual BDSM relationship, through at least Thursday.

    The rep calendar has special brunch shows for Serial Mom on Saturday and Mamma Mia! on Sunday, Troop Beverly Hills on Saturday, and Psycho on Wednesday.
  • The Brattle Theatre screens local filmmaker Peter Flynn's documentary Film Is Dead, Long Live FIlm!, which looks at the film collectors who maintain private archives which can sometimes be the reason certain films continue to exist, on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, along with a slate of other films that have been rescued and preserved due to collectors: Zombie (English-dubbed 35mm Friday), 35mm Saturday Moning Cartoons, a 35mm Rock 'n Roll Rarities Program (Saturday), Bad Girls Go to Hell (Saturday), the annual Mother's Day show of Psycho (35mm Sunday), Robot Monster (anaglyph 3D Sunday), a 35mm program of Boris Karloff rarities with daughter Sara Karloff in person (Sunday), a surprise 35mm Hong Kong movie (Sunday), Chinatown (IB Technicolor 35mm Monday), and Pulp Fiction (35mm Tuesday).

    On Wednesday and Thursday, they run the pretty-great Mars Express in its original French (last week's screenings at Boston Common were dubbed in English).
  • The Museum of Science has added "Superhuman Body: World of Medical Marvels" to its rotation. Omnimax film "Jane Goodall - Reasons for Hope" is one of four events that will be presented with live ASL interpretation on Sunday.
  • The Somerville Theatre opens Nowhere Special, although the big news is that it's Boris Karloff weekend, with Son of Frankenstein & The Body Snatcher in 35mm on Friday & Saturday, leading up to Saturday night's presentation of The King of the Kongo, a 12-part serial that was the first produced in with sound with Eric Grayson - who spearheaded the restoration - and Karloff's daughter Sara on hand for introductions, Q&A, and autographs.

    From Sunday to Tuesday, they spotlight forward-looking DIY film, with the latest homemade shorts from the Boston edition of The 48 Hour Film Project. On Wednesday, they screen Captain January, a family adventure from 1924 starring silent-era child star Baby Peggy, with live music from Leslie & Barbara McMichael
  • First outdoor screen listed at Joe's Free Films for the summer! This year, the Coolidge's outdoor screenings appear to be digital and at the Speedway in Brighton, kicking off this Wednesday with Bring It On.

    The page also shows dueling RSVP-required shows on Tuesday, with director Agnieszka Holland on hand for Green Border at Harvard and director David Abel at Bunker Hill Community College for the latest screening of Inundation District. Strangely, he has not shown this at the Alamo yet!
  • The MIT Lecture Series Committee has RRR in room 26-100 on Friday night for $5 a pop, and a free preview of Sing Sing on Tuesday evening.
  • The Museum of Fine Arts has two film presentations this week. Petite Maman plays as part of "New European Cinema" on Sunday, while last year's restoration of Oldboy kicks off a series of "Hallyu Hits: Korean Films that Moved the World" on Thursday night, supporting their "Hallyu! The Korean Wave" exhibition.
  • Belmont World Film is at West Newton Cinema on Monday with City of Wind, a Mongolian film about a 17-year-old boy who is both his community's shaman and a high-school student. Anthropologist Manduhai Buyandelger will be on-hand to discuss Mongolia and shamanism.
  • The Lexington Venue has Challengers (Friday/Saturday), The Old Oak (Friday/Saturday/Thursday), and Le Samourai (Saturday/Thursday). No shows Sunday to Wednesday.

    The West Newton Cinema opens Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes like everyone else, as well as Farewell Mr. Haffmann (did they not have it before?), keeping The Fall Guy, Growing Through Covid-19 (no show Monday), Wicked Little Letters, Kung Fu Panda 4 (Saturday/Sunday), American Fiction, and The Boy and the Heron (Sunday through Thursday). They also have a one-time showing of Food Inc. 2 at noon on Saturday.

    The Luna Theater has Love Lies Bleeding Friday, Saturday, and Thursday; Immaculate on Saturday; Serial Mom on Sunday; and a Weirdo Wednesday show.

    Cinema Salem has Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, La Chimera, Challengers, The Phantom Menace, and The Fall Guy through Monday. Friday's Night Light show is the original Django, Rocky Horror plays with Teseracte Saturday night (Full Body is, as always, at Boston Common). Indie horror film BLack Mold plays Thursday evening, with director John Pata doing a Q&A.
The intent would be to do catch-up, but the Karloff stuff at the Somerville and Sunday's Hong Kong surprise and Robot Monster show at the Brattle can eat the weekend. I'll fit The Roundup 4 and Hot Pot in somewhere, and also kind of need to go through my Apes discs (because I only saw the first of the new series) before catching the new one. Maybe fit Poolman and Aggro Drift in.

Friday, May 03, 2024

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 3 May 2024 - 2 May2024

Kind of a weird weekend - IFFBoston is later than usual, and it's kind of been Marvel's weekend for 15+ years but since strikes and stuff have them using 2024 to regroup, studios are looking to fill in the gap.
  • Independant Film Festival Boston opened Wednesday and continues that the Somerville and Brattle through Monday, with spotlight screenings of My Old Ass, The Road to Ruane, and Secret Mall Apartment, plenty of shorts, including free student and indigenous blocks. On Tuesday, they move to the Coolidge for "My Own Normal", Sing Sing, and Handling the Undead, with Thelma closing things out there on Wedneday.
  • The Fall Guy was supposed to come out earlier this year, but grabbed this weekend when it became available. It looks to be the loosest possible adaptation of the 1980s TV show - Ryan Gosling's Colt Seavers is a stuntman who stumbles on a crime running an errand rather than one who does bounty-hunting on the side - but it looks fun, with Emily Blunt as the director he has a crush on and former stunt guy David Lietch overseeing the mayhem. It's at The Capitol, Fresh Pond, West Newton, Jordan's Furniture (Imax), CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport (including Dolby Atmos), South Bay (including Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.

    Horror movie Tarot looks like a decent-enough horror premise - college kids using a haunted set of tarot cards found in an attic are picked off by manifestations of the illustrations - although it sure looks like a lot made the trailer. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.

    Disney's substitute for a Marvel movie is leaning into the "May the 4th Be With You" meme with a 25th anniversary re-release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Maybe the weakest of the series until Rise of Skywalker came around, but it's got some good bits and will look great back up on the big screen at Fresh Pond, CinemaSalem, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill. If you can make it out to the Showcase in Dedham, they're doing a marathon of the whole dang 9-movie Skywalker saga starting at 8pm on Friday night and concluding roughly 24 hours later.

    Two dubbed animated imports show up in limited release. Dragonkeeper is a Spanish/Chinese co-production about a young girl who has to protect the last dragon egg and the dragons who protect her; it plays Fresh Pond and Boston Common. Mars Express comes from France and has a private detective and her android companion investigating a case that could cause the simmering human/robot tensions on Mars to explode. That's at Boston Common.

    Jeanne du Barry, a biography of the famed 18th Century courtesan written, directed, and starring Maiwenn (who, holy cow, was the Diva in The Fifth Element!) is probably going to get most of its interest here for co-star Johnny Depp, who plays Louis XV, and has a limited run at Boston Common through Monday.

    Steel Magnolias has 35th Anniversary shows at Boston Common, South Bay, Arsenal Yards on Sunday and Wednesday. Spider-Mondays shift to the bad period with The Amazing Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone deserved so much better) at the Coolidge (35mm), Boston Common (through Thursday), the Seaport (also Wednesday), Assembly Row (through Thursday). Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has Early Access shows Wednesday at Boston Common (Imax Xenon & Dolby CInema), South Bay (Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (CWX), Assembly Row (Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema). John Travolta action movie Cash Out is either playing one night or starting a run on Wednesday.
  • I thought it was odd that Nowhere Special didn't open at the Landmark Kendall Square last week since the preview had been before every movie I saw there, but it arrives this week, so you can see the story of a single father with a terminal diagnosis trying to find a place for his 4-year-old son without heading to the burbs.
  • The Coolidge Corner Theatre opens Ken Loach's final film, The Old Oak, which follows the fate of a pub that may be dying along with its mining town, though mostly in the small rooms. There's a special Panorama screening with post-film discussion on Sunday. They also put on more showtimes of the Le Samourai restoration.

    The weekend's midnights are zombie holdovers from April as they continue to partner with Salem Horror Fest and the Romero foundation, with Day of the Dead on 35mm Friday and Land of the Dead also on film Saturday night. The Big Screen Classics are The Devil Wears Prada on Monday and a 35mm print of Ali: Fear Eats the Soul with introduction by Gerald Peary on Thursday. The Amazing Spider-Man is on 35mm Monday night, and Giblitheque features The Secret World of Arrietty on Tuesday.
  • This year's entry in the Korean maverick cop series that started with The Outlaws, The Roundup: Punishment, has Ma Dong-suk aka Don Lee as a detective bringing his ham-sized fists to bear against a vicious gang of cyber-criminals. It plays Assembly Row.

    Malayalam-language drama Malayalee from India opens at Fresh Pond and Boston Common. Otherwise, Apple Fresh Pond turns over its South Asian slate completely, bringing in Malayalam-language comedy Nadikar, Telugu-language comedy Aa Okkati Adakku, Telugu-language crime drama Prasanna Vadanam (about a face-blind detective), Telugu-language thriller Sabari (through Sunday), and Tamil-language horror movie Aranmanai 4 on Friday. Marathi-language musical drama Swargandharv Sudhir Phadke plays Fresh Pond Saturday & Sunday, and Bengali thriller Omar plays Sunday.

    Mobile Suit Gundam: Seed Freedom, the latest entry in the 45-year-old series of giant mech sci-fi, plays Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Tuesday (subbed) and Wednesday (dubbed/not at South Bay). Anime hit Spy X Family - Code: White continues at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row; check showtimes for subs vs dubs.
  • The Alamo Seaport has a fun one from last year's IFFBoston, Free Time on Friday afternoon (probably already playing when this posts) and Tuesday evening, arguably more rep than release at this point. Ditto The People's Joker, with an encore Monday night.

    Their rep calendar features 1989 throwbacks Santa Sangre (Friday) and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (Saturday). There's also a Movie Party for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 on Sunday, and The Amazing Spider-Man Monday & Wednesday.
  • The Brattle Theatre is hosting IFFBoston through Sunday, and if the last two nights of that aren't your thing, they celebrate Ishiro Honda's birthday with the original Godzilla on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a double feature of two of the Honda-helmed sequels, Mothra vs. Godzilla & Destroy All Monsters (all subtitled) on Wednesday. On Thursday, they start a weekend of celebrating film collectors with a 35mm print of Pulp Fiction
  • The Harvard Film Archive has a weekend of Edward Yang encores before going dark until (perhaps) the Labor Day Weekend marathon: Yi Yi on 35mm Friday, A Brighter Summer Day on Saturday, In Our Time Sunday afternoon, and A Confucian Confusion Sunday evening. The first two are marked sold out, but an email says there may be a few last-minute tickets available the nights of the show.
  • The Somerville Theatre will be bringing back Civil War after its IFFBoston hosting is done, and also showing documentary Peace, War and 9/11, an interview with Graeme MacQueen filmed shortly before his death, with post-film panel discussion on Tuesday.
  • Joe's Free Films shows The MIT Lecture Series Committee doing their own May the 4th thing, showing The Empire Strikes Back on Friday & Saturday.
  • Belmont World Film moves out to the West Newton Cinema on Monday for Àma Gloria, looking at the bond between a French child and her local nanny in Cape Verde.
  • The Lexington Venue has Challengers and Le Samourai through Sunday.

    The West Newton Cinema - which just got a big donation and matching fun which should keep it in operation for some time! - picks up The Fall Guy and holds over Growing Through Covid-19, Remembering Gene Wilder (through Sunday), Wicked Little Letters, Kung Fu Panda 4, Dune: Part Two (not scheduled Thursday), American Fiction (not scheduled Thursday), and The Boy and the Hero (through Sunday).

    The Luna Theater has Immaculate Friday, Saturday, and Thursday; Spaceballs on Sunday; and a Weirdo Wednesday Show.

    Cinema Salem has Challengers, Abigail, The Phantom Menace, and The Fall Guy through Monday. On Thursday, they have both Blazing Saddles and a special free local horror night featuring four trailers, seven shorts, and feature The Guest on Topsfield Road.

    Elsewhere in Salem, Salem Horror Fest has their second weekend, notably including Ghost Game, the latest from The Stylist director Jill Gevargizian.

    Out at the Liberty Tree Mall, family film Thabo and the Rhino Case (a German film taking place in South Africa and thus English-language) has an 11-year-old sleuth investigating a poached rhinoceros.
My time is spoken for, with IFFBoston looking like Sugarcane and shorts Friday; Richland, Green Border, Crookedfinger and Animalia on Saturday (although both may have me going somewhere else); a thoroughly up-in-the-air Sunday and Monday; Sing Sing and Handling the Undead Tuesday, and Thelma Wednesday before catching Mars Express and The Roundup 4 before they leave town.