Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 20 September 2024 - 26 September 2024

There are two movies about women confronting older/younger versions of themselves this week, making me wonder if studios are all running things through an algorithm that spits out ideal release dates but the algorithms are all too similar.

• My Younger Self Movie #1 is The Substance, which has Demi Moore as an actress whose use of a black-market drug creates a clone which hasn't aged (Margaret Qualley), presumably for replacement organs or something. It's at the Coolidge, the Lexington Venue, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  My Younger Self Movie #2 is IFFBoston alum My Old Ass, with Missy Stella as a teenager whose mushroom trip manifests her at 39 (Aubrey Plaza), whose advice may or may not be helpful. It plays the Coolidge, Boston Common, and Kendall Square, and is scheduled to expand next week.
  
  Also opening is Never Let Go, a new horror film from Alexandre Aja starring Halle Berry as a mother whose family has been threatened by a curse, but things may change as the oldest child begins to doubt. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards. Another horror movie, The Shade, plays once a day at Boston Common, and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, a drama featuring Jim Broadbent as a man who just keeps walking after going out to mail a letter, plays one show a day at Fresh Pond.
  
  Of course, the biggest opening is probably Transformers One an animated prequel to, I imagine, every variation of the series, showing how one-time best friends Optimus Prime and Megatron found themselves on opposite sides. Nice voice cast, looks fairly kid-focused, too. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond (including 3D), Jordan's Furniture (Imax), West Newton, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema & RealD 3D), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D & Mandarin subtitled shows), Kendall Square, the Seaport (including RealD 3D), South Bay (including RealD 3D & Dolby Cinema & Imax Xenon 2D/3D), Assembly Row (including RealD 3D & Dolby Cinema & Imax Laser 2D/3D), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  There's also a 10th Anniversary re-release for Whiplash, and, sure, why not? It's at the Somerville, Kendall Square, Boston Common, and the Seaport. There's also "Batman Day" stuff, with Mask of the Phantasm at Boston Common (Friday-Sunday/Tuesday/Wednesday), South Bay (Friday-Sunday/Tuesday-Wednesday), and Assembly Row (Friday-Monday); Batman '89 at Boston Common (Friday-Tuesday), South Bay (Friday-Thursday), and Assembly Row (Sunday-Wednesday); Batman Forever at Boston Common (Friday/Saturday/Monday/Wednesday), the Seaport (movie party Friday), South Bay (Friday/Monday/Thursday). Batman is only mentioned in passing in Blue Beetle, which returns to Boston Common for Latino heritage screenings.
  
  Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story plays Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards on Saturday. & Wednesday Boston Common and South Bay also have one more show of The Babadook on Sunday after last week's run. The Matrix plays again on Sunday at Boston Common, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards. Paranormal Activity plays Boston Common on Wednesday. Megalopolis has Imax previews at South Bay, Assembly Row on Monday, and regular early-access shows of Azrael on Monday at Boston Common. Paul McCartney and Wings - One Hand Clapping opens at Boston Common, Kendall Square, and the Seaport for a four-day running starting on Thursday.
• Also opening at The Coolidge Corner Theatre is Girls Will Be Girls, and Indian indie about a girl at boarding school whose first romance is put under a microscope by friends and teachers.
  
  70mm September continues with Spartacus (Friday/Monday), Inception (Saturday/Wednesday), and The Sound of Music (Sunday).
  
  Classic (by some definition) midnights continues with Troll 2 (35mm Friday) and The Room (Saturday with Greg Sestero). Sunday's Goethe-Institut German film is Beyond the Blue Border, about an East German swimmer and a friend trying to swim 30 miles to the West. Tuesday's Science on Screen show is Join or Die, with a post-screening discussion with Robert Putnam about how America's plunging participation in clubs and other in-person social activities is making society rickety. They also set up an outpost at the Mount Auburn Cemetery that night with a double feature of The Seventh Seal & Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. The Rewind!" show on Thursday is Easy A and I stand by position that a generation must pass before something can be considered a throwback. And, finally, they start a five-week class on found-footage horror in the classroom space upstairs on Thursday.
• Six new ones from India at Apple Fresh Pond: Tamil-language near-future action flick Kahan Shuru Kahan Khatam; Tamil comedy Lubber Pandhu, Hindi-language action movie Yudhra (also at Boston Common) ; Hindi-language romantic comedy (?) Kahan Shuru Kahan Khatam; Malayalam-language drama Kadha Innuvare; Kannada-language musical drama Ibbani Tabbida Ileyali (through Sunday). Malayalam-language film Kishkindha Kaandam plays Saturday & Sunday Held over are The Buckingham Murders and Mathu Vadalara 2.
  
  Thai comedy How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies continues at Causeway Street and South Bay.
  
  Chinese drama Upstream is held over again at Causeway Street.
  
  K-pop documentary/concert film Jung Kook: I Am Still plays Boston Common, the Seaport, and Assembly Row through Sunday.
  
  Dan Da Dan: First Encounter, a collection of the upcoming series's first three episodes, plays at Boston Common.
• The Brattle Theatre has a special premiere screening of Cambridge Mosaic on Friday night, with red carpets & Q&As and more in association with the Cambridge Museum of History to celebrate Marvin Gilmore's 100th birthday.
  
  They've also got a special re-issue of Naked Acts, about a young actress nervous about doing a nude scene, from Friday to Sunday, as well as music documentary "We Are Fugazi From Washington, D.C."
  
  After that, they celebrate the Marcello Mastroianni Centennial with La Dolce Vita on Monday and 8½ on Tuesday. On Wednesday they have Boys State & Girls State with the filmmakers and the subjects of the new second film on hand afterward. Then on Thursday, they team with IFFBoston for a preview screening of A Different Man.
• The Somerville Theatre has The Searchers on Friday and a 35mm Hitchcock double feature of Strangers on a Train & Dial M for Murder on Tuesday (almost certainly the 2D version of the latter).
  
  The Capitol has a 4th Wall show with Trophy Wife, Shutups, and Main Era with visuals by Digital Awareness on Friday, and another with Stab, Video Days, and Wolfer (plus Digital Awareness visuals) on Sunday
• The Harvard Film Archive has Melville et Cie with the director's first film The Silence of the Sea (35mm Friday), Léon Morin, Priest (Sunday), and the new restoration of Army of Shadows (Sunday). Around that, they welcome Japanese director Hamaguchi Ryusuke, who will introduce Somai Shinji's Moving On Friday, present Drive My Car on Saturday, and two shows of GIFT, which he shot to match the score of frequent collaborator Ishibashi Eiko (who will be performing live), on Monday. All of those films are marked sold out on the website, but there may be rush tickets available if people don't show.
• The Seaport Alamo holds over ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amore!, and has a number of rep/enhanced screenings: The Warriors (Friday/Monday/Wednesday), a "Movie Party" screening of Batman Forever (Friday), The Muppet Movie (Saturday/Sunday), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Saturday/Sunday), Will & Harper with a livestreamed Q&A (Saturday), the uncut/restored Bad Lieutenant (Tuesday), and a member preview of Killer Heat (Tuesday).
• Movies at MIT has Malcolm X on Friday and Saturday and Sing Sing on Thursday. $5, open to the public.
• The Regent Theatre has surfing doc Maya and the Wave on Friday and the first screenings of the 2024 edition of Manhattan Short on Thursday.
• The ICA has two screenings of Eno, an unusual documentary by Gary Hustwit that is constructed anew from a bank of interview, performance, and archival footage each time; both will be presented on Friday and likely never presented the same way again. There is also a program of Sundance Film Festival 2024 Shorts on Saturday and Sunday.
• The Museum of Fine Arts screens Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition on Saturday afternoon.
• The Tuesday Retro Replay at Landmark Kendall Square is Magnolia.
• The Boston Film Festival is this weekend, looking semi-respectable with Sheepdog at the Aquarium Friday night (including director and cast members Vondie Curtis Hall and Virginia Madsen), events at the Boston Public Library (Saturday) and Paramount (Saturday/Sunday), Sweetwater at the MIT Media Lab on Sunday, and two closing-night events in Rockport on Monday.
• Cinefest Latino Boston takes place at various venues, opening with In The Summers including a Q&A with director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio at the Coolidge Wednesday and continuing Thursday with Frida at the Paramount on Thursday with director Carla Guitierrez. The latter is free (with reservation), so it's kind of like a Bright Lights show) The festival continues through Sunday.
• The Lexington Venue is open Friday to Sunday, plus Wednesday, with The Substance. They also have one screening of drama A New York Story on Wednesday.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens The Substance, Strange Darling, and Transformers One, keeping The Critic, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Good One, Between the Temples, Sing Sing, Didi (no show Tuesday), and Inside Out 2. They also begin a SPOTLIGHT: Newton Filmmakers series on Thursday with a program of five short films by three local filmmakers and documentary feature So Much So Fast.
  
  The Luna Theater has Look Into My Eyes on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Cuckoo on Saturday and Sunday, and a Weirdo Wednesday show.
  
  Cinema Salem has The Substance, Speak No Evil, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Friday to Monday; Batman '89 from Saturday to Monday, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Saturday (Teseracte doing their thing while Full body is at the Common).
  
  Despite getting a lot of previews at more centrally-located theaters, Wolfs, with Brad Pitt & George Clooney as rival fixers, is only playing at the Showcase in Dedham. The AMC at the Liberty Tree Mall has A Mistake, a drama starring Elizabeth Banks as a surgeon put under pressure from a new disciplinary system, ensemble comedy All Happy Families, and son-delivering-estranged-father's-car drama What We Find on the Road.
• Outdoor films on the Joe's Free Films calendar this week are really thin, with The Marvels on Saturday at Kendall Urban Gardens and Catch Me If You Can in the Seaport on Monday. They also list The Beast showing at BU as part of the Albertine Cinematheque French Film Festival on Wednesday.

I've got more to catch up on because I came back from my trip with a stuffed-up head that a test assures me isn't Covid, but which still kept me from a couple things. I'll probably do Big Film for The Searchers and Inception, plus Tuesday's Hitchcocks. I'd like to head out to Dedham for Wolfs on Sunday, but, ugh, the time for what may not be a great movie!