Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 9 August 2024 - 15 August 2024

Back from Montreal and… kind of tempted to watch a couple of movies I saw in Montreal again, actually

• Why? Because Cuckoo (which I saw at Fantasia) is a blast, the first non-student film from Tilman Singer starring Hunter Schafer as a 17-year-old girl who moves to Germany with her father, only to find that the man who hired him is into some deeply weird stuff. The Coolidge has it on a 35mm print (for all the shows in theater #1) and it plays digitally at CinemaSalem, Boston Common, Kendall Square, the Seaport, and South Bay.
  
  Also opening is Borderlands, an adaptation of the video game series which looks like someone saw an empty ecological niche after James Gunn finished with Guardians of the Galaxy and got Eli Roth to make a sci-fi action-comedy with Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and Jamie Lee Curtis in the same vein. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Imax Xenon), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), and Arsenal Yards.
  
  Perhaps the biggest opening, though, will be It Ends with Us, starring Blake Lively as a woman who fears that she may be repeating the mistakes of her parents' abusive relationship. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, the Lexington Venue, West Newton, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Belgian-produced but English-language World War I film The Last Front plays at The Embassy and Boston Common.
  
  The Olympics continue to screen at South Bay and Assembly Row through Sunday. Lawrence of Arabia plays Boston Common Sunday & Monday. French animated feature Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds plays Boston Common Sunday (dubbed) and Monday (possibly subtitled). There's a "Screen Unseen" preview at Boston Common, Causeway Street, Assembly Row on Monday, an "Early Access" preview with streamed Q&A for Strange Darling at Assembly Row on Wednesday, and "Fan Event" early shows for Alien: Romulus on Thursday at Assembly Row (Dolby Cinema). Despicable Me 3 plays matinee kids' shows at Boston Common, Causeway Street Monday and Wednesday. A24 reaches kind of deep into their catalog for Mid90s at Boston Common on Wednesday. Drama Good Bad Things plays Boston Common on Thursday.
• In addition to Cuckoo, The Coolidge Corner Theatre opens a new 4K restoration of Burden of Dreams, a terrific documentary about the making of Fitzcarraldo and how Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski were one of the most fascinatingly combustible combinations of director and actor. It plays Friday to Sunday and Thursday; Fitzcarraldo itself plays once on each of those days as well.
  
  The midnight shows this weekend are Dragonslayer on Friday and a digital restoration of The Church on Saturday. "Out of Time 1999" shows this week are all 35mm prints, with All About My Mother on Sunday and one of The Insider on Tuesday, and Go on Wednesday, with the annual The Big Lebowshi party in the big room on Monday and a 35mm print of Bird as the Cinema Jukebox show on Thursday, There's also a special preview screening of Good One with director India Donaldson on Tuesday.
• The Capitol opens Dance First, a biography of Samuel Beckett that stars Gabriel Byrne as the noted literary figure. They also have afternoon matinees of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish all week and a Throwback Thursday screening of Moonrise Kingdom. Two 4th Wall/Digital Awareness shows this week, with Clifford, Robber Robber, and Prewn on Friday and Battlemode, Lions and Lavender, Plague Dad, and Vices Inc. on Saturday.
  
  The Somerville Theatre opens National Anthem on Sunday, with the film about a construction worker who learns about himself among an eccentric group of rodeo performers, plays at least through Thursday. Knowing for the Saturday Midnight special, a rare chance to see the local town get destroyed on film. Dirty Dancing plays Monday, an "Off the Reel… Onto the Dance Floor!" show with a dance party upstairs in the Crystal Ballroom afterward. IFFBoston Hot Summer Nights continues with No Way Out on Tuesday and Sex, Lies, and Videotape on Wednesday; all three are on 35mm film.
• Telugu film Committee Kurrollu opens at Apple Fresh Pond this weekend, but the big action happens on Wednesday & Thursday, when six new films open for Parsi New Year. In Hindi, there is Khel Khel Mein, a comedy about six friends who meet for dinner and reveal secrets about each other, and, yes, it's the latest remake of Perfect Strangers, the 25th since the original came out in 2016; action flick Vedaa (also at Boston Common); and horror-comedy sequel Stree 2. In Telgugu, there's Mr. Bachchan, a crime flick based upon a raid on an industrialist; and Double Ismart, a sci-fi flick about an assassin who has the memories of a dead police officer implanted in his brain. And, finally, in Tamil, there's Thangalaan, based on events in the lives of miners in the Kolar Gold Fields in the 19th Century.
  
  Chinese comedy Successor and thriller A Place Called Silence are held over at Causeway Street. Maybe them sticking around is why Hong Kong hit Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, an action/star-packed crime movie set in the Kowloon Walled City of the 1980s, is getting the one-screening-a-day treatment at the Seaport. UPDATE: It's now also playing at Boston Common!
• The Brattle Theatre has a weekend of Hitchcock in 4K with double features of Rebecca & Saboteur on Friday, North by Northwest & Vertigo on Saturday, and To Catch a Thief & North by Northwest on Sunday.
  
  In the vertical part of the schedule, "Musical Columbia" has a double feature of The Buddy Holly Story & La Bamba on Monday and another featuring American Pop (35mm) & Heavy Metal on Tuesday. Marie Antoinette 9n 35mm) is the Summer of Sophia show on Wednesday, and "Cruel Summer" on Thursday is Do the Right Thing & Falling Down, the latter on 35mm.
• In addition to holding over The Instigators and picking up Walled In, The Seaport Alamo continues the Seaport Selects with Shogun Assassin (a dubbed mashup of two Lone Wolf and Cub movies) on Friday & Saturday, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for brunch on Sunday, Firestarter on Monday, Streets of Fire on Wednesday, and previews of Skincare on Tuesday and Jackpot on Wednesday (the latter for members).
• The Tuesday Retro Replay at Landmark Kendall Square is Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, which will feature a pre-recorded Q&A with cinematographer Tim Maurice-Jones.
• The Midweek Music Movie at The Regent Theatre is on Thursday this week, with director John McDermott on-hand to introduce his film Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision and answer questions afterward.
• Twisters is still running at The Museum of Science on Friday and Saturday evening.
• The Lexington Venue opens It Ends with Us, with Kneecap and Seven Samurai. Open Friday to Sunday
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens It Ends with Us and keeps Harold and the Purple Crayon, Deadpool & Wolverine, Widow Clicquot, Despicable Me 4, Thelma, and Inside Out 2. There's also 100th Anniversary screenings of two Buster Keaton movies - Sherlock Jr. & Our Hospitality - on Sunday with Jeff Rapsis on the organ. No listings for Thursday.
  
  The Luna Theater has MaXXXine on Friday, Saturday, and Thursday; the original Friday the 13th on Sunday; and a Weirdo Wednesday Show.
  
  Cinema Salem has Cuckoo, Trap, Deadpool & Wolverine, Twisters, and Despicable Me 4 from Friday through Monday. The Friday Night Light show is Hard Boiled and Three Kings plays Saturday & Sunday afternoon.
• Outdoor films on the Joe's Free Films calendar this week are The Goonies on Saturday at Boston Common, National Treasure Saturday at the Prudential Center, A Million Miles Away Monday at Jamaica Pond, School of Rock in the Seaport on Monday, Finding Nemo at TimeOut Market on Monday, Elemental at Healy Playground on Tuesday, Wonka at Hynes Playground on Wednesday, Kung Fu Panda at Donnelly Field in Cambridge on Wednesday, I'm Your Man at Goethe-Institut on Wednesday (RSVP required), Knives Out at the Navy Yard on Wednesday, The Outsiders at Seven Hills Park on Thursday, and Toy Sory at The LOT on Thursday.

It's awful quick to see Cuckoo again, even with a 35mm print, and I want to support HK Cinema with Walled In, but, again… I'll probably check out Borderlands, Successor, and The Instigators, some of the Brattle's Hitchcocks, maybe give Knowing another chance, because, man, I did not like it 15 years ago.