Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 2 August 2024 - 8 August 2024

Back home on Wednesday; what'll be waiting?

• The latest from M. Night Shyamalan (after his daughter had a movie in theaters earlier in the summer) is Trap, with Josh Hartnett as a serial killer who is also a good dad, discovering that police have surrounded the arena where he's taken his daughter to a concert. It's at Fresh Pond, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Spanish subtitled shows), Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.
  
  Also opening is Harold and the Purple Crayon, which posits that the little baby from the classic children's book grew up (to become Zachary Levi) and has somehow drawn a portal to the real world where he gets into shenanigans and someone tries to steal his magic crayon. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Kendall Square, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.
  
  This week's "absolute least we can do" release at Fresh Pond (Friday to Wednesday at 11:30am) is Detained, starring Abbie Cornish as a woman who wakes up in a police station with no memory of the previous night with things getting stranger from there. Coup! - about a cook who gets the staff to rebel against their employer in 1918 - has roughly the same number of shows but some more convenient screentimes at Boston Common.
  
  The Firing Squad opens at Boston Common and South Bay. Apparently Cuba Gooding Jr. is doing evangelical slop with Kevin Sorbo now.
  
  There are daily screenings of the Olympics at Assembly Row and South Bay. Blackpink World Tour (Born Pink) plays Boston Common and Assembly Row on Saturday & Sunday at noon. The kids' matinee at Boston Common, Causeway Street, and South Bay on Monday & Wednesday is Despicable Me 2. Boston Common has Eighth Grade on Wednesday. It Ends With Us has early previews on Wednesday at Boston Common, the Seaport, Assembly Row before opening with a full slate on Thursday.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre gets two from this past IFFBoston. I can vouch for Sing Sing, which stars Colman Domingo as a prisoner who helps with a theater program within the walls; it also plays Boston Common (expanding to the Seaport on Thursday). Similarly great things have been said about Didi, also at Kendall Square, Boston Common, (and expanding to Assembly Row on Thursday), is about a son of immigrants navigating a modern teenage life that his mother cannot prepare him for.
  
  August Midnights at the Coolidge will mostly be the essential cult films that could also, perhaps, be Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, starting with 35mm prints of Army of Darkness on Friday and Reign of Fire (a good sleeper Movie Grid game pick, by the way) on Saturday. The 2024 edition of CatVideoFest plays there Sunday afternoon, with a Big Screen Classic presentations of Being John MalkovichThe Taking of Pelham One Two Three (in 35mm and with a seminar featuring Odie Henderson) on Thursday, and the start of "Out of Time 1999" with Election on Tuesday.
• The Somerville Theatre, the Coolidge, the Lexington Venue, Kendall Square, Boston Common get Kneecap, with members of the Irish hip-hop group playing themselves in a story of how a schoolteacher and a pair of reprobates met up and found trouble, both in their own lives and with various authority figures.
  
  The Somerville also has a Metallica Film Fest on Saturday afternoon, with three concert films back to back (well, with intermissions) starting at 2pm and getting out sometime around 9pm. The midnight special that night is a 35mm print of Klute, starring Jane Fonda and the late Donald Sutherland.
  
  The Capitol has summer vacation matinees of Sing 2 all week at noon. They also started a "Throwback Thursdays" series last week; this week's entry is Wet Hot American Summer. Saturday night has a 4th Wall/Digital Awareness show featuring ZekeUltra, Kayana, Swooli, Bobby Woody, and Ronnie Riggles.
• Because it's also streaming on AppleTV, crime comedy The Instigators is apparently only opening at The Seaport Alamo despite the trailer being so Boston it hurts before you even see that it stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck! The Seaport Selects show on Friday & Saturday is The Heroic Trio; they also have Stranger Than Paradise (Saturday), a Sunday morning movie party with The Wizard of Oz, a World of Animation screening of new Chinese film Art College 1994 on Monday, Elliott Smith doc Heaven Adores You on Tuesday, and the David Lynch Dune on Wednesday.
• There are four new movies from India at Apple Fresh Pond this week. Hindi-language Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha (also at Boston Common) stars Ajay Devgn as a man released from prison after twenty years trying to rebuild his relationship with the love of his life, played by Tabu. Also in Hindi, Ulajh (also at Boston Common) is a spy thriller starring Janhvi Kapoor as a member of India's diplomatic service from a prominent family who finds herself enmeshed in a conspiracy on her first overseas posting. Tamil thriller Boat has ten people fleeing a bombing in a small boat, which starts taking on water while they are at sea. Malayalam-language film Level Cross is apparently a slow-burn drama about two people from different backgrounds (Asif Ali & Amala Paul) meeting in an isolated area.
  
  Tamil action movie Raayan is held over at Fresh Pond and Boston Common and Bad Newz is held over at Boston Common.
  
  Chinese comedy Successor, from the team that made Goodbye Mr. Loser among others, opens at Causeway Street; it stars Shen Teng and Ma Li as parents who have staked all their hopes for their poor family on their son. Also opening at Causeway Street (with fewer showtimes) is A Place Called Silence, a Chinese remake of a Malaysian film about a mother investigating after bullied middle-school children go missing.
  
  The week's Studio Ghibli Fest movie is Ponyo playing Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row Sunday (dubbed), Monday (subtitled), Tuesday (dubbed), and Wednesday (subtitled)
• The Brattle Theatre celebrates the James Baldwin Centennial this weekend by showing a new 4K restoration of I Heard It Through the Grapevine (Friday/Saturday/Sunday), If Beale Street Could Talk (Friday/Saturday), and I Am Not Your Negro (Saturday/Sunday).
  
  They also have the feature cut of Don Hertzfledt's World Of Tomorrow, preceded by his new short "ME", from Friday to Monday. I didn't notice at first, but this go at getting "ME" on the big screen is attached to a different feature than was at the Seaport a few months back, so bonus Hertzfeldt!
  
  The latest team-up with The Harvard Film Archive is Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, with the most recent Sight & Sound top film playing on 35mm Sunday evening.
  
  On the vertical rep calendar, the "Musical Columbia" section reaches the rock & roll era with Tommy on Monday and a concert movie double feature of Let the Good Times Roll (on 35mm) & Wattstax on Tuesday. Wednesday's "Summer of Sofia" pairing is a 35mm double feature of Somewhere & The Bling Ring; Thursday's "Cruel Summer" presentation is a twin bill of In the Heat of the Night & Dog Day Afternoon, the latter on 35mm film.
• The Tuesday Retro Replay at Landmark Kendall Square is The Matrix
• The Boston French Film Festival wraps up at The Museum of Fine Arts with The Beast (Friday), Menus Plaisirs - Les Troigros (Saturday), Little Girl Blue.(Sunday), and Toni en Famille (Sunday).
• The Midweek Music Movie at The Regent Theatre on Wednesday is My Morning Jacket: Okonokos, which is apparently a "new version" of a 2006 concert film covering two 2005 shows at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. They also have a free screening of Neighborhood on Thursday, described as a modern reimagining of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood
• The Museum of Science has Twisters Friday and Saturday evenings through next week.
• The Lexington Venue has an entirely new slate, with Kneecap, Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, and the new restoration of Seven Samurai. Closed Monday
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Harold and the Purple Crayon and keeps Deadpool & Wolverine, Widow Clicquot, Despicable Me 4, Thelma, and Inside Out 2. Closed Monday & Tuesday.
  
  The Luna Theater has MaXXXine from Friday to Sunday and a Weirdo Wednesday Show.
  
  Cinema Salem has Trap, Deadpool & Wolverine, Twisters, Despicable Me 4, and Longlegs from Friday through Monday. The Friday Night Light show is a surprise 1990s movie; they also have Varsity Blues on Saturday & Sunday.
• Outdoor films on the Joe's Free Films calendar this week are Elemental (Friday at the Kroc Center), My Neighbor Totoro (Friday at the MIT Open Space), The Princess and the Frog (Saturday at the Prudential Center), Jaws (Monday at the TimeOut Market)The Little Mermaid (Tuesday at the Ringer Playground in Allston), Mamma Mia! (Wednesday at the Charleston Navy Yard), Trolls Band Together (Wednesday at Raymond Park in Cambridge), Scooby Doo (Wednesday at the Speedway via the Coolidge), Toni Erdmann (RSVP required Wednesday at the Goethe-Institut), Barbie (Thursday at Seven Hills Park in Somerville), and The Imitation Game (Thursday at the MIT Open Space).

Fantasia wraps Sunday, although I may catch a couple more movies in MTL because what else am I doing with my evenings? It would be kind of hilarious if I wind up seeing hyper-Boston movie The Instigators north of the border because it doesn't look like I'll have a chance to see it at home unless I stop at the Drafthouse on the way back from the airport. I'm imagining them doing a double take as I roll my luggage in now.