Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 18 October 2024 - 24 October 2024

Happy "no more Smile 2 trailer" day to those who celebrate!

• The preview disappears because Smile 2 hits theaters, with Naomi Scott as a pop star who is menaced by the killer expression or entity that makes people smile or whatever this series's deal is. It's at Fresh Pond, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, The Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Also opening pretty wide is We Live in Time, with Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield as a couple who meet cute when she hits him with her car, have a kid, and then face a cancer diagnosis. It's at the Coolidge, the Somerville, Boston Common, Kendall Square, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill; it expands to South Bay next weekend.
  
  While his returning to a character after 35+ years is still playing in theaters, Michael Keaton does a new riff on Mr. Mom after 40+ years, which means that Goodrich has him seeking help from the daughter from his first marriage (Mila Kunis), and if that doesn't make you feel old enough, it's written & directed by by Hallie Meyers-Shyer, who is, yes, the daughter of Nancy Myers and Charles Shyer. It's at Boston Common and Causeway Street.
  
  Exhibiting Forgiveness plays Boston Common and South Bay, with André Holland as an artist on the rise whose addict father arrives and disrupts his life.
  
  Two new animated films get one-show-at-Boston-Common-a-day releases you have to work around. Gracie & Pedro: Pets to the Rescue has a couple of pets lost during a move trying to find their family (with some fun folks doing supporting voices), while Kensuke's Kingdom has a shipwrecked boy trying to survive alone - although maybe there is some other presence on the island after all.
  
  Hocus Pocus is now apparently a holiday tradition, getting a run at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, and South Bay.
  
  Several concert films this week: Taeyong: Ty Track in Cinemas at Boston Common Saturday; Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party at the Kendall and Boston Common on Sunday, Whitney Houston: The Concert for a New South Africa at Assembly Row on Wednesday; and Tears for Fears Live: A Tipping Point Film at Kendall Square, Boston Common, and the Seaport on Thursday.
  
  Back to the Future Part II gets 35th anniversary shows on Saturday & Monday at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards (Monday only); Saw plays Boston Common and South Bay Sunday & Wednesday for its 20th. There's a Screen Unseen preview at Boston Common, Causeway Street, and Assembly Row on Monday. There are previews of Memoirs of a Snail at the Seaport on Tuesday and Assembly Row on Wednesday, the latter with a livestreamed Q&A. The A24 x Imax showing at South Bay, Assembly Row on Wednesday is The Witch, while Longlegs also returns to Boston Common, the Seaport, and South Bay with a prerecorded Q&A (and preview of The Monkey) on Wednesday & Thursday, and Boston Common also shows Black Phone on Wednesday . Some of the Imax Venom: The Last Dance early shows on Thursday are "Opening Night Fan Event" presentations, including at South Bay and Assembly Row.
• Rumours opens at Landmark Kendall Square, with the directing team of Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson attacking the G7 Summit with zombies, with the heads of state played by a group including Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander, Roy Dupuis, and Charles Dance. It's also at West Newton, Boston Common, and South Bay, which means absolutely unsuspecting people will be hit with Maddin-level weirdness.
  
  There's a "Landmark First Look" on Monday; a Tuesday Retro Replay of Election with a (livestreamed?) Q&A of Alexander Payne, Reese Witherspoon, and Matthew Broderick; and a Wednesday Fright Night Retro Replay of Gremlins.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre also opens a couple in the 14-seat GoldScreen. The Goldman Case comes from France and chronicles a pivotal trial of the 1970s where a left-wing activist was accused of murder and the fallout divided the country on partisan and racial lines, and documentary Leap of Faith follows a group of American Christian leaders at a retreat in Michigan.
  
  Last call for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at midnight on Friday, well, for a while, at this location. Friday's 35mm Corman midnight is Tales of Terror, while Saturday has a 35mm print of William Friedkin's Director's Cut of The Exorcist on screen #1 and Dinner in America on screen #2, including a (very late) post-film Q&A with director Adam Rehmeier and producer Ross Putman.
  
  Sunday afternoon includes a Panorama screening of Invisible Nation with director Vanessa Hope and producer Ted Hope discussing their film about Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's sitting president (and the first woman to have the job). There are two "Schlock and Awe" screenings of The Tingler in Percepto! on Monday (the 70m show including a seminar by Mark Anastasio), and a 35mm Big Screen Classic show of Eyes WIthout a Face on Thursday.
• Relatively quiet week for new Indian movies with Diwali less than two weeks away, with Malayalam thriller Bougainvillea the only new release at Apple Fresh Pond. Held over are Tamil-language Vettaiyan (also at Boston Common), Jigra (Hindi), and Janaka Aithe Ganaka (Nepali); Devara: Part 1 returns for one Telugu-language show Saturday night.
  
  The week's Chinese movies are Stand By Me, with Karry Wang as a homeless teenager who bonds with an abandoned child played by Zixie Guan, and Panda Plan, with Jackie Chan playing "movie star Jackie", who winds up paired with a baby panda that has poachers or animal smugglers or something after him. Both are at Causeway Street.
  
  Vietnamese horror film The Sisters opens at South Bay.
  
  In anime, My Hero Academia: You're Next! continues at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row; Look Back stays around at Boston Common. Gundam Fest also continues with Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Sunday, with Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space on Wednesday.
• The Brattle Theatre has a 35mm presentation of An American Werewolf in London at 3:30pm Friday They also have Stop Making Sense Friday & Saturday nights and Sunday morning for… Well, they don't particularly need a reason. They've also got locally-made Captain Dymo vs. The Cowmaster, shot on 16mm film in the mid-1970s but only put through post-production recently, on Saturday afternoon. RPM Fest presents Sasha Waters: "Labor and Parts" on Sunday afternoon.
  
  Those are mostly scheduled around the back half of Roger Corman: King of Cult, which also features some of the art-house films he imported: The Student Nurses & Caged Heat Friday, a single bill Amarcord on 35mm Saturday, a double feature of Chopping Mall & Piranha later Saturday; Autumn Sonata on 35mm Sunday afternoon; Rock 'n' Roll High School & Suburbia Sunday evening; Galaxy of Terror & Battle Beyond the Stars on Monday; Stripped to Kill on Tuesday; The Slumber Party Massacre & The Slumber Party Massacre II on Wednesday; and a 35mm print of Death Race 2000 on Thursday to wind things up.
• The Harvard Film Archive begins a new series this weekend, António Campos and the Promise of Cinema Nuovo, with Belarmino & Campos's short "The Tuna Trap" (Friday 7pm), Change of Life (Friday 9:15pm), Paths (Sunday 3pm), Vilarinho das Furnas (Sunday 7pm), and a double feature of Campos's Falamos de Rio de Onor & Gente de Praia da Vieira on Monday evening; the Sunday and Monday evening shows will have conversations with José Manuel Costa and Haden Guest. Saturday, they have two "Psychedelic Cinema" shows: Kenneth Anger's shorts "Lucifer Rising" & "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome" on 16mm film at 7pm and Alejandro Jddorowsky's El Topo on 35mm film at 8:30pm.
• The Somerville Theatre has a bunch of live events in the big room over the weekend, which means even Saturday's midnight show - Onur Tukel's serial killer flick Poundcake - is downstairs. Sunday's Attack of the B-Movies double feature is surprisingly good, though, with Vincent Price in House on Haunted Hill & The Last Man on Earth. Independent documentary Holding Back the Tide, which examines the oyster as a onetime major New York industry and queer icon, also plays Sunday afternoon, with director Emily Packer and writer/producer Josh Margolis on hand for a Q&A. On Monday, though, they start a three-day run of North by Northwest on 70mm film. On Thursday, they show the 2024 Quality Ski Time packages of short films.
  
  The Capitol has a specia screening of Empire Waist with a Q&A featuring director Claire Ayoub as well as a book signing and sample sale. Thursday's Creature Double Feature is Frankenstein & The Bride of Frankenstein. The Friday Fourth Wall show features Cal Fish, Forbes Graham, Leathe Projection, and Rachel Devorah with visuals by Black Tourmaline.
• The Museum of Fine Arts hosts The Boston Palestine Film Festival with The Teacher on Friday, Life is Beautiful and Aida Returns on Saturday, and a short film package on Sunday. Sunday evening, they present "speculative documentary" Lyd at the Coolidge; experimental short "Familiar Phantoms" is paired with documentary feature Three Promises at the MassArt and Design Center Monday; documentary No Other Land plays The Regent Theatre on Wednesday; and featurette "From Ground Zero (Part 1)" plays the Brattle on Thursday.
• The Seaport Alamo continues showing the new restoration of Tarsem Singh's The Fall, which also plays at the Coolidge. The Alamo also has The Shining Friday, Saturday, and Monday; World of Animation shows of Coraline (2D, I think) on Sunday & Tuesday; Cronenberg's The Brood on Monday; and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors on Tuesday & Wednesday
• Movies at MIT has The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Full Body Cast for free on Friday (they will, as usual, be at Boston Common on Saturday), although the email suggests you give them a head's up if you're not part of the MIT community.
• The Museum of Science will be showing Coco on the Omni screen for two weekends, starting on the 25th.
• The Lexington Venue has Rumours, Saturday Night and The Apprentice Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday/Thursday. Locally produced family Halloween movie The Hay Man plays Saturday, and Nosferatu has another Radiohead-synced show on Thursday.
  
  The West Newton Cinema has a fancy new website that shows them getting Rumours and Blink while keeping Saturday Night, The Apprentice, White Bird, Lee (no shows Saturday/Sunday), The Wild Robot, and The Substance. The Halloween movie for Wednesday is The Purge: Election Year, and they've got Jeff Rapsis in on Thursday to accompany Nosferatu.
  
  The Luna Theater has Terrifier 3 Friday and Sunday; Creepshow on Saturday; Roger Corman's The Raven on Sunday (presented by Poe in Lowell and with local horror host Penny Dreadful for the 2pm show); a Weirdo Wednesday show; and a free presentation of Election from UMass Lowell's Philosophy department on Thursday.
  
  Cinema Salem has Smile 2 Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday/Thursday; A Nightmare on Elm Street Friday/Sunday/Wednesday/Thursday, The Monster Squad Friday/Saturday/Sunday (plus doc Wolfman's Got Nards on Sunday); The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Friday/Saturday/Sunday; Rocky Horror with Teseracte Players on Saturday; Halloween '78 Saturday/Wednesday/Thursday, a potential Universal Monsters triple-feature of The Wolf Man, Dracula, and Frankenstein on Wednesday; then another on Thursday Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and Creature from the Black Lagoon (plus Dracula in the same slot as Frankenstein).
  
  If you can make it to the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, they have Allswell in New York, about three Nuyorican sisters played by Elizabeth Rodriguez, Liza Colon-Zayas, and Daphne Rubin-Vega; it seems to have kicked around a bit since playing Tribeca in 2022.
• Someone hit the "suddenly cold" button, so consider the two outdoor screenings on the Joe's Free Films calendar this week at your own risk There's the Vancouver INternational Mountain Film Festival at the MIT open space on Friday and BeetleJuice on the Rose Kennedy Greenway on Thursday. There's also an RSVP-required show of Made in Germany? at the Harvard Art Museum on Sunday and a BU Albertine Cinematheque French Film Festival presentation of The Animal Kingdom on Thursday, with author Victor Dixen on-hand (who doesn't seem to be connected with the film but is a top French sci-fi/fantasy author).

AMC is not making it easy to see both Panda Plan and Kensuke's Kingdom if you work, so I guess that settles my late afternoons this weekend. Aside from that, Rumours and North by Northwest are top priorities, and maybe I'll do the Keaton double feature of Goodrich and the oddly-delayed Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.