Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 15 November 2024 - 21 November 2024

Looks slightly less crazy this week as both the fall blockbusters and contenders grab blocks of screens rather than a room here and a showtime there.

• The big thing is Red One, with Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans as a mismatched team tasked with recovering a kidnapped Santa Claus with just a few days before Christmas; it's apparently been delayed a year because it was a messy shoot and you can only release this movie in a very narrow window. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture (Imax), Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, 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 A Real Pain, with Kieran Culkin and director Jesse Eisenberg as two cousins on a tour of Poland to honor their late grandmother. It's at the Somerville, the Coolidge, the Lexington Venue, West Newton, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, and Assembly Row.
  
  Bird, a nifty little British indie from Andrea Arnold with Barry Koeghan as the ne'er-do-well father of a girl (Nykiya Adams in a great debut) who encounters a strange wanderer, opens at Boston Common. Drama Albany Road, with Renee Elise Goldsberry and Lynn Whitfield as a woman and her ex's mother stuck in a rental car together, plays South Bay and West Newton. The Outrun returns to Boston Common.
  
  WWII thriller Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin opens Wednesday at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row. Does Angel still do ticket shenanigans with their movies?
  
  The Fifth Element plays Sunday and Wednesday at Boston Common, South Bay, and Arsenal Yards. Music doc Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird plays Boston Common and the Seaport on Wednesday. There's a mystery preview at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, Assembly Row on Monday (and one at Kendall Square that may be the same movie and may not be). There are early-access Amazon Prime shows of Wicked on the fancy screens at Boston Common (Dolby Cinema), South Bay (Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), and Arsenal Yards (CWX) on Monday , as well open-to-everyone ones at Fresh Pond (3D), Boston Common (RealD 3D & Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street (RealD 3D), South Bay (Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema & RealD 3D), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser & RealD 3D), Arsenal Yards (CWX), and Chestnut Hill (RealD 3D) on Wednesday.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre also opens Black Box Diaries in one of the small rooms; based upon of a sexual assault survivor's memoir that helped spark the #MeToo movement in Japan. Journalist Shiori Ito adapts her own book, having documented everything.
  
  They also open a remake of Street Trash, presented on 35mm at midnight on Friday and Saturday. The regular Lynch midnights this weekend of Wild at Heart on Friday and a 35mm print of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me on Saturday. On Sunday, they have a Kids' Show of the most recent version of The Grinch in the morning and a Noirvember show of Leave Her to Heaven with post-screening discussion upstairs. Monday's Science-on-Screen show is Amadeus, with a "Queering the Screen" presentation of the 5th Annual Black Trans Women at the Center Festival upstairs, with Kokomo City playing Tuesday, and a digital Restoration of Paris Is Burning on Wednesday. Then on Thursday they welcome John Waters, who will host a 35mm screening of Cecil B. Demented in the afternoon and a wide-ranging conversation and presentation of the Coolidge Award in the evening.
• The big release from India is Kaguva, a nifty-looking period action piece about an ancient warrior that apparently also has links to the present. Its primary language is Tamil, with showtimes at Fresh Pond (Tamil/Hindi/Telugu) and Boston Common (Tamil/Telugu). Also opening at Apple Fresh Pond is Hindi-language thriller The Sabarmati Report (also at Boston Common), Kannada-language drama Bhairathi Ranagal, a re-release of 2018 Hindi-language fantasy Tumbbad (also at Boston Common); Makta, a Telugu-language period crime film playing through Sunday. Held over are Nepali drama Purna Bahadur Ko Sarangi, Hindi-language horror-comedy Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 (also at Boston Common), Tamil film Amaran. Hindi-language actioner Singham Again continues at Boston Common.
  
  Anime Ghost Cat Anzu, which I couldn't fit into Fantasia but which features animated characters from director Yoko Kuno rotoscoped over live-action directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita (or at least, I presume that's the division of labor), opens at Boston Common. Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom continues at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  Filipino romance Hello, Love, Again, about a couple that reunites in Canada after being separated by the pandemic, opens at Boston Common.
  
  The two Chinese films at Causeway Street, The Unseen Sister and Cesium Fallout, expand to full days of showtimes.
  
  Vietnamese comedy The Trophy Bride continues at South Bay.
  
  K-pop concert/doc Fanmade: Enhypen plays Boston Common on Friday and Tuesday.
• The Brattle Theatre has music doc Louder Than you Think, which looks at the band Pavement through the lens of eccentric drummer Gary Young, from Friday to Sunday, though at somewhat limited times as the theater also host Wicked Queer Docs and a Friday Film Matinee of The Man Who Wasn't There (35mm).
  
  After that, they have a quick series about "Ester Krumbachová: The Secret Weapon of the Czech New Wave", including Daisies (35mm Tuesday/Wednesday), Krumbachová's Murdering the Devil (Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday), A Report on the Party and the Guests (Tuesday/Thursday), and Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Wednesday/Thursday).
• The Seaport Alamo's weekly Wong Kar-Wai selection is In the Mood for Love, playing Friday/Sunday/Monday; they also play The Godfather Part II Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday, Interview with the Vampire Friday/Sunday/Monday; Pulp Fiction movie parties Saturday/Wednesday;A Woman Under the Influence Sunday/Monday/Tuesday; Chinatown Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday; In a Lonely Place Monday/Tuesday. Too-early Christmas stuff includes an Elf movie party on Saturday and a member preview of Nutcrackers on Wednesday.
• ArtsEmerson and The Boston Asian American Film Festival have two screenings of The Glassworker on Friday night (the second added because the first ran out), a Pakistani animated film about two young people falling in love despite their clashing fathers. I donated to its crowdfunding campaign 8 years ago and, man, you'd think they'd give a heads-up about screenings like this!
• The Capitol picks up Memoir of a Snail. They also have a Friday 4th Wall show with Declaw, Trash Sun, The DreamToday, and Petal Dance, with Digital Awareness on visuals.
  
  Mostly new releases at The Somerville Theatre has an "Invasion of the B-Movies" double feature of The Wasp Woman & The Monster from Green Hell on Sunday. They're also the latest stop for Boston-set LGBTQ+ fantasy Playland on Monday and Tuesday, and play music documentary The World According to Allee Willis on Wednesday.
• Wicked Queer has their annual Documentaries festival this week, opening at The Museum of Fine Arts on Friday with George Michael: Portrait of an Artist, with shows through Monday at the MFA and Brattle, with an extra show next Friday at the ICA.
• The Boston Jewish Film Festival has its final in-person weekend, with Bad Shabbos at the Somerville on Saturday, Delegation and Children of Peace at the MFA on Sunday, and four selections available to stream from Monday to Wednesday.
• The Harvard Film Archive plays a number of films from the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection with guests (including Olson) present all weekend: "We're Here, We're Queer" and "Flaming Youth" collections on Friday; Something Special and Dallas Doll, both on 35mm, on Saturday; an "Afro Promo" trailer package and Olson's The Joy of Life on Sunday; and her film The Royal Road on Monday. They are also streaming the Yugoslavian Cinema episodes of Screening Room, with that program returning next weekend.
• Landmark Kendall Square has a surprise sneak preview on Monday, a Retro Replay show of Thelma & Louise on Tuesday, and documentary The World According to Allee Willis on Wednesday.
• The Midweek Music Movie at The Regent Theatre on Wednesday is The Last Seat in the House, with director John Kane and his subject, the legendary sound engineer Bill Hanley, there for a post-screening Q&A.
• The Museum of Science screens Canadian film Indian Horse, about a native who survives residential film to become a professional hockey player, in the Omnimax done on Friday and Saturday as part of Native American Heritage Celebration Weekend; admission is free but pre-registration is requested. They also add new Imax featurette "Train Time" to the Omnimax rotation and a shortened but enhanced version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" to the 4D room, both starting on Wednesday.
• Movies at MIT has an unusually full week, with Perfect Days Friday & Saturday, student-made feature Log Log Land on Sunday, and a preview of Y2K with special guests on Tuesday; their weekly email requests you give them a heads-up if you're not part of the MIT community.
• The Lexington Venue has A Real Pain and Conclave Friday to Sunday as late-ish shows of Rocky Horror on Friday & Saturday night (no live cast listed, though Full Body is at Boston Common on Saturday as usual). They also have two screenings of Daruma, an independent film about two people with physical handicaps traveling cross-country, on Saturday afternoon and Thursday evening.
  
  The West Newton Cinema picks up A Real Pain (including a special "Behind the Screen" presentation on Sunday afternoon), Albany Road, and Small Things Like These, holding over Anora, Blitz, Conclave, The Wild Robot, and The Substance.
  
  The Luna Theater has We Live in Time Friday/Saturday, A Different Man Saturday, Music for Mushrooms Saturday, and Escape From L.A. on Sunday. There's also a Weirdo Wednesday show.
  
  Cinema Salem has Conclave Heretic, We Live in Time, Anora, and Blitz through Monday. There's a Saturday Night Light show of the original Godzilla, and a Sunday evening tribute to Dame Maggie Smith with a free screening of Gosford Park.
  
  Freddy, a biography of Dominican comedian-turned-philanthropist Freddy Beras-Goico, plays at the Dedham Showcase
• Joe's Free Films calendar has the BU Albertine Cinematheque French Film Festival wrapping up with The Animal Kingdom on Tuesday.

I'm looking to check out The Glassmaker and Ghost Cat Anzu, probably should catch Conclave and Here before they're gone and kind of figure Red One and A Real Pain will stick around until vacation. Kind of tempted to head down to South Bay for Albany Road and/or The Trophy Bride, too, which doesn't leave a whole lot of time for the Czech films at the Brattle. Also, the previews for two Indian movies that weren't on my rader that I saw before Singham Again have me intrigued.