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.