Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 13 September 2024 - 19 September 2024

Where are good places to read film coverage to get jealous of the folks at TIFF or Fantastic Fest? I feel like I'm going to see laurels on stuff later and be like, oh, I wonder if my friends had a good Q&A with that, if they're even still going.

• The big release this week is Speak No Evil, with Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis as parents finding themselves houseguests of a very creepy James McAvoy. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, CinemaSalem, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.
  
  The Killer's Game is a kind of standard-issue action plot - Dave Bautista as an assassin who takes out a contract on himself when he learns he has a fatal brain tumor to his girlfriend won't watch him suffer, only to discover it won't be rescinded when he learns the diagnosis is mistaken, but the cast includes action notables like Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, and Sofia Boutella (along with Pom Klementieff, Terry Crews, and Ben Kingsley), so there should be some pretty decent fights. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.
  
  Kevin Smith's latest, period teen comedy (1986 is period now!) The 4:30 Movie, has a run at Boston Common (all 7pm-hour screenings, though, even though the title is right there!). They also have Disney's Encanto through Monday.
  
  Concert film Usher: Rendezvous in Paris continues through Sunday at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row. There are early-access screenings for Transformers One at Boston Common (RealD 3D), South Bay, Assembly Row, Chestnut Hill on Saturday, plus "Fan Event" shows at Boston Common (Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (Dolby Cinema) Wednesday; and of The Substance at Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Wednesday. 50th Anniversary screenings of Blazing Saddles play Boston Common, South Bay Arsenal Yards on Sunday and Wednesday (also Monday at Arsenal Yards); 25th Anniversary shows of The Matrix play Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards on Thursday; 10th Anniversary shows for The Babadook and Boston Common, South Bay on Thursday (with Whiplash starting an actual anniversary run at Boston Common that day).
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre (and other places) get a couple of wide-release documentaries this week. Will & Harper has the benefit of a big name, as Will Ferrell learns that a friend of 30 years is a trans woman and they go on a road trip together. It's at the Coolidge, the Somerville, Kendall Square, Boston Common, and the Seaport.
  
  Also opening surprisingly wide for something that really wasn't on much radar a week ago is Look Into My Eyes, though, see intro, it played a bunch of the spring festivals; it takes a look at psychics and the niche they fill for their clients (amusingly, the hotel where I'm writing this has a psychic in the front and I walked past it several times before checking in because the psychic's signage was much bigger than the hotel's). Director Lana Wilson will be at the 7pm show on Friday at the Coolidge; it also plays Kendall Square.
  
  70mm September continues with Vertigo with a projection 101 seminar (Friday/Tuesday), Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (Saturday/Wednesday), Lawrence of Arabia (Sunday), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (Monday).
  
  It's the first actual Friday the 13th in almost a year, so the Coolidge After Midnight guys are setting up at Rocky Woods for an outdoor double feature of The Final Chapter and Jason X, including a pre-screening presentation by the folks at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. IF you can't head out, midnights in Brookline are Glen or Glenda? (Friday) and Miami Connection. In other rep, Sunday's Goethe-Institut German film is Facing Cancer, with director Volker Heise and Dr. Wolfram Goessling on-hand for a Q&A about their film where the latter, a cancer researcher, winds up a patient (note that while most GI films are early-morning shows, this one is in the afternoon). Monday's Big Screen Classic is a 35mm print of David Lynch's The Straight Story, a charming, decidedly eccentric but non-weird story of an old man riding his tractor across backroads to make peace with his estranged brother. Thursday offers both a Cinema Jukebox sing-along of Grease and a Cult Classics screening of But I'm a Cheerleader.
• Landmark Kendall Square opens The Critic, with Ian McKellen as a theater critic who, faced with disfavor form his paper's new management, launches a scheme to regain his position. Nice supporting cast with Gemma Arterton, Lesley Manville, and Mark Strong, too. Also playing West Newton and Boston Common.
  
  One more documentary at the Kendall, with IFFBoston selection Seeking Mavis Beacon opening there; it follows a pair of folks looking for the Haitian-born model on the cover of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing and pondering how a fictional character that was basically one photo conferred authority.
  
  Tuesday's Retro Replay is The Iron Giant, with a pre-recorded Q&A featuring producers Alison Abbate & Des McAnuff and voice actor Eli Marienthal afterward.
• New Indian films at Apple Fresh Pond this week include The Buckingham Murders (also at Boston Common), a UK-set but mostly-Hindi-language thriller features Kareena Kapoor as a grieving detective investigating a missing child; A.R.M. (Ajayante Randam Moshanam), a multigenerational Malayalam-language adventure (including 3D shows!); Ardaas Sarbat De Bhalle Di, a Punjabi-language ensemble drama with writer/director/star Gippy Grewal one of several people bonding while taking a bus as part of a pilgrimage to Sri Hazur Sahib; Telugu-language adventure Kalinga; and Telugu action-comedy Mathu Vadalara 2. Tamil-language actioner The Greatest of All Time is held over at Fresh Pond and Boston Common.
  
  Thai comedy How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies opens at Causeway Street and South Bay.
  
  Chinese action film Untouchable, billed as comic actor Shen Teng's first action movie, opens at Causeway Street; they also upgrade Xu Zheng's Upstream to a full schedule after only showing it once a day during its first week.
  
  K-pop documentary/concert film Jung Kook: I Am Still plays Boston Common, the Seaport, and Assembly Row on Wednesday and Thursday.
  
  Anime Dan Da Dan: First Encounter opens at Boston Common; it's a Science Saru production and director Fuga Yamashiro was the #2 guy on Inu-Oh, so it should be a high-energy blast. There's one last 30th anniversary screenings of anime Ninja Scroll continue at South Bay and Assembly Row on Sunday (subtitled). Boston Common has Trapezium, an anime about a would-be idol singer, on Wednesday.
• The Brattle Theatre celebrates Lauren Bacall's Centennial with To Have and Have Not (35mm Friday/Saturday), The Big Sleep (35mm original Saturday/Monday), Dark Passage (Saturday), Key Largo (35mm Saturday/Sunday), Written on the Wind (35mm Sunday/Thursday), How to Marry a Millionaire (Sunday), Dogville (Sunday), Harper (35mm Monday/Wednesday), Murder on the Orient Express (Tuesday),
  
  They also have a special presentation (w/ Strictly Brohibitied, BUFF, and Wicked Queer) of a restored 35mm print of 1994 oddity Fresh Kill with director Shu Lea Cheang in person on Friday night. On Wednesday and Thursday, they welcome animator Emily Hubley to host two programs for A Faith Hubley Centennial, with Wednesday's show dedicated to Faith and Thursday featuring the entire Hubley family of animators.
• The Harvard Film Archive continues Melville et Cie with Bob le Flambeur (Friday), Jacques Becker's Touchez pas au grisbi (35mm Friday), Un Flic (35mm Saturday), Le Doulos (Saturday), and Le cercle rouge (Sunday). There's also a Psychedelic Cinema show of the Disney Alice in Wonderland on 35mm film Sunday afternoon, and filmmaker Hamaguchi Ryusuke begins a visit on Monday, hosting a screening of Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has Global Cinema Now shows of Sisi and I on Friday and Evil Does Not Exist on Sunday (though it doesn't look like the coordinated with Hamaguchi and HFA for a visit). There's also a Cult Classic show of Donnie Darko on Thursday (one could probably get from the HFA to the Coolidge for a weird teens cult classic double feature without a lot of trouble).
• The Somerville Theatre has a Midnight Special show of The Outlaw Josey Wales on 35mm Saturday night. There's also a big 35mm "Hack the Planet Day" screening of Hackers on Sunday, with a "360° visual preshow" that includes DJ and chiptune sets, a special appearance by cast member Renoly Santiago, and an afterparty upstairs in the Crystal Ballroom. Tuesday kicks off the "A Bit of Hitch" fall program with two of HItchcock's great early films, The 39 Steps & The Lady Vanishes. On Thursday and (next) Friday, they have a 70mm print of The Searchers.
  
  The Capitol picks up Good One on top of Speak No Evil; they have Dan Da Dan from Friday to Sunday, although it looks like they are showing the first three episodes of the anime rather than the film. There's a 4th Wall show with Makeout Palace, American Ink,and Trophy Husband on Friday, with Visualist supplying visuals; Saturday's is "H4XOR5" performed by Videopunks, a live rescore of Hackers before it plays at the Somerville the next day..
• The Seaport Alamo has ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amore!, a documentary that follows South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone as they try to rescue a beloved Denver Mexican restaurant, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday. Other rep screenings include a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie party with cast members Paris Themmen & Julie Dawn Cole in person (Friday), Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (Friday the 13th), The Deer Hunter (Saturday), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Sunday/Tuesday), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Director's Edition Sunday/Tuesday), Rango (Monday), Clue (Movie Party Tuesday), and The Babadook, which right now they only have on Thursday rather than a full run.
• Movies at MIT has Dead Poets Society on Friday. $5, open to the public.
• The Regent Theatre has Boom: A FIlm About the Sonics for its Midweek Music Movie on Wednesday and Anytime, a feature following 15 freeride mountain bikers, on Thursday.
• The ICA has the first screening of a program of Sundance Film Festival 2024 Shorts on Thursday; there will be more next Saturday and Sunday.
• The Lexington Venue is open Friday to Sunday, plus Thursday, with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Across the River and Into the Trees, and Tokyo Cowboy.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens The Critic, keeping Tokyo Cowboy, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Good One (no show Thursday), Between the Temples, Sing Sing, Thelma, Didi (no show Tuesday), and Inside Out 2.
  
  The Luna Theater has Cuckoo on Friday and Saturday, Longlegs on Saturday, and The Goonies on Sunday; a Weirdo Wednesday show, and a free UMass Lowell Philosophy & Film screening of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on Thursday.
  
  Cinema Salem has Speak No Evil and Beetlejuice BeetlejuiceFriday to Monday; It Ends with Us Friday; and Strange Darling from Friday, Sunday, and Monday. The Time Masters is Friday's Night Light show, and there's a double-mystery Whodunnit (at a wedding) screening on Wednesday (double in that the movie is a cozy mystery but not revealed until you arrive).
• Outdoor films on the Joe's Free Films calendar this week are thinning out, with Meet the Robinsons on Friday at MIT Open Space, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in the Seaport on Monday, and Common Ground at the Lexington Community Farm on Wednesday.

I'm in New York watching the Johnnie To series with To in person until Monday, but might fit some other stuff in around that and baseball then I'll probably hit the Hitch double and 70mm Searchers at the Somerville.