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.