Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 6 September 2024 - 12 September 2024

Welcome back, students! While you were away, AMC upgraded most of their theaters to laser projection (a good thing), (b) the HFA was dark during the summer but re-opens this weekend (probably neutral but maybe we get an upgrade out of it), Emerson ended the Bright Lights program (boo!), and the Embassy and their landlord have issues that have them "permanently closed" (a real bummer). But, hey, we're past the August blues!

• I don't know that I had graduated high school when Warner Brothers first started trying to make Beetlejuice 2, but 36 years later, we have Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, with Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Tim Burton back and Jenna Ortega as this generation's teenager getting a little too close to the dead. The trailers are kind of "hey, remember this bit?", but maybe that's just reassuring advertising and the actual film is more creative. It's at the Somerville, the Capitol, the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, the Lexington Venue, Jordan's Furniture (Imax), West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema & Spanish subtitles), 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.
  
  Also opening wide is The Front Room, with Brandy as an expectant mother whose sinister, racist mother-in-law moves in, a horror-movie situation that looks like an interesting combination of creepy and superheated. It's at the Somerville, the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  Lover of Men: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln a documentary on how same-sex relationships were often only barely euphemized in the 19th century, likely including the 16th President, plays Boston Common.
  
  Shaun of the Dead surrenders the Dolby screen but hangs around Boston Common for another week.
  
  There's an AMC Screen Unseen preview at Boston Common, Causeway Street, Assembly Row on Monday. Concert film Usher: Rendezvous in Paris plays Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, Assembly Row on Thursday, the start of a short four-day run.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre and Kendall Square open His Three Daughters, with Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olsen as half-sisters uniting on their father's deathbed.
  
  The Coolidge also has the projector in the main screen up and running the big 70mm prints for most of the month, with The Master (Friday/Tuesday), 2001: A Space Odyssey (Saturday/Wednesday), and Airport (Sunday).
  
  If there's a theme to the September midnights at the Coolidge, it's kind of "things that were pushed as midnight movies", with Showgirls on Friday and Mac and Me on Saturday, both on 35mm film. There's also a "Stage & Screen" show of Empire of the Sun on Monday plus a "Cult Classics" show of Eraserhead (Julianne Moore saw it there) on Thursday.
• Landmark Kendall Square also opens Merchant Ivory, a documentary on the partnership between Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, and others that produced a string of films that was almost synonymous with prestige filmmaker in the 1990s.
  
  They also have a "Landmark First Look" mystery screening on Monday (maybe the same as what's at the AMCs, maybe not), and a Retro Replay screening of The Virgin Suicides with a prerecorded interview with Sofia Coppola, Kirsten Dunst, and John Hartnett on Tuesday.
• The Brattle Theatre has Close Your Eyes, about a director whose final film collapsed decades ago when the star disappeared without a trace working with investigators to unravel the mystery. In meta fashion, this comes 30 years after director Victor Erice's previous film. It plays Friday to Monday.
  
  The (mostly) late show on those nights is Scala!!! a documentary about a punk repertory cinema during the Thatcher years. Also playing are several Scala favorites: King Kong '38 (Sunday/Thursday), the first and last film to play there; Whitnail & I (Monday); The Loveless & Ms. 45 (Tuesday); The Warriors & A Clockwork Orange (Wednesday), with the latter also playing Thursday, representing how an illegal screening of the banned film was one of the things that drove it out of business.
• The Greatest of All Time, an action flick about top hostage negotiators, opened at Apple Fresh Pond on Wednesday and continues to play in Tamil and Telugu (also at Boston Common in Tamil). Fresh Pond also open two more Telugu-language films this weekend, action comedy Uruku Patela and drama 35-Chinna Katha Kaadu. Held over are Saripodhaa Sanivaarm (also at Boston Common) and Stree 2 (also at Boston Common).
  
  Chinese comedy-drama Upstream, with writer/director Xu Zheng starring as a man who must rejoin the workforce after planning to be a stay-at-home dad, plays once a day or so at Causeway Street.
  
  There's a 30th anniversary screening of classic anime Ninja Scroll at Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row on Wednesday (subtitled) and Thursday (dubbed). Well, maybe not "classic", but "around a lot back then" at least. Boston Common also has The Concierge, a kid-friendly anime that I found pretty delightful at Fantasia last year, on Wednesday.
• The Harvard Film Archive doesn't start the academic year with one of their overnighters, but they do reopen with a heck of a weekend: Psychedelic Cinema kicks off with Roger Corman's The Trip (35mm Friday), Dennis Hopper's The Last Movie (Friday), Monte Hellman's The Shooting (Saturday), and Robert Altman's 3 Women (35mm Saturday). On Sunday, the "Melville et Cie" series that was supposed to play in the summer finally commences with Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped in the afternoon and Jean-Pierre Melville's Second Wind in the evening, both playing on 35mm film. On Monday, they present a shorts program - "Figures of Absence: The FIlms of Dore O." - with Masha Matze, editor of a recent book about the German artist, on hand for a discussion.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has a weekend of Art Docs, with Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition on Friday, Painting the Modern Garden: From Monet to Matisse on Saturday, and My National Gallery: London on Sunday. They also screen Mountains, with lead actor Atibon Nazaire and a number of folks who are part of the Haitian-American community on hand, Thursday evening.
• The Somerville Theatre is mostly new releases for the first time in a while, but does have a midnight special screening of Midnight Cowboy on 35mm film Saturday night. Documentary Borderland: The Line Within plays Monday with Q&A from filmmakers Pamela Yates and Paco de Onis.
  
  The Capitol has indie horror comedy Graveyard Shark on Saturday and cult oddity Troll 2 on Thursday. There are two 4th Wall shows this weekend; Lurid Purple Flowers, Dumb Waiter, and Judo play Friday with Partygirl, The Orrs, and Balsamine on Saturday, and visuals by Digital Awareness for both.
• The Seaport Alamo has a few special brunch & movie party shows for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice this weekend as well as a special menu, because of course they do. Repertory movie specials include Stalker (Saturday/Wednesday), Mad Max (Sunday), Zombie (Monday), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Tuesday/Wednesday), and a Wednesday preview of My Old Ass with livestreamed Q&A.
• Movies at MIT has their first screening of the school year with John Wick on Friday & Saturday. $5, open to the public.
• The Regent Theatre has "Summerdance 2024", which has seven short films and networking events, on Sunday afternoon.
• The Lexington Venueis open Friday to Sunday, plus Thursday, with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Between the Temples, and Sing Sing. The 2024 New York Dog Film Festival bumps the latter on Thursday, and a portion of ticket sales go to Street Paws Rescue.
  
  The West Newton Cinemaseems to be the only place in the area opening Tokyo Cowboy, with Arata Iura as a Japanese businessman on a company outing to Montana. They also get Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Good One, and Reaganholding over Between the Temples, Sing Sing, Deadpool & Wolverine, Thelma, Didi, and Inside Out 2. On Thursday, they're host to a screening of The Old Oak including a discussion of local immigration issues and resources (tickets via Eventbrite).
  
  The Luna Theater has Longlegs on Friday and Saturday, CatVideoFest 2024 Saturday, and Stand By Me on Sunday; plus a Weirdo Wednesday show.
  
  Cinema Salem has Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, It Ends with Us, Alien: Romulus, and Strange Darling from Friday through Monday. Seven Samurai plays Saturday and Tuesday.
  
  If you can make it out to the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, there are a number of films that aren't making it into Boston: British drama Hoard, Edie Falco comedy I'll Be Right There, Chinese drama/romance I'll Be Right There, and western The Thicket, featuring Peter Dinklage & Juliette Lewis.
• Outdoor films on the Joe's Free Films calendar this week are My Penguin Friend on Friday at MIT Open Space, Mean Girls in the Seaport on Monday, and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour at The LOT in Dorchester on Thursday.

Gotta say, I am tempted to head out to Danvers to catch one or two things, but as I am already planning some Absurd Movie Travel (a trip to New York for Johnnie To's appearances at the Museum of Modern Art), I'll stick with the two new releases, Upstream, and the Melville series films. Maybe 3 Women, plus some baseball.