Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 22 November 2024 - 26 November 2024

Ah, the weekend before Thanksgiving, where it's briefly summer movie time again.

• Two of the big Thanksgiving releases open this weekend, which means we'll finally be free of the trailer for Wicked, the film adaptation of the musical adaptation of the book which posited that maybe the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz had a complicated backstory. It's apparently only the first half, with Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, and others. It plays at the Capitol, Fresh Pond (including 3D), the Lexington Venue, Jordan's Furniture (Imax), West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including RealD 3D), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), Kendall Square, the Seaport (including Dolby Atmos), South Bay (including Dolby Cinema & RealD 3D), Assembly Row (including Colby Cinema & RealD 3D), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill (including RealD 3D).
  
  That took a while to get made, as did Gladiator II, which has Ridley Scott returning to direct and Paul Mescal as a new captured warrior placed in the arena as a pawn for an ambitious businessman (Denzel Washington), and Connie NIelsen and Derek Jacobi the most notable returning actors from the original. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Jordan's (Imax), West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Xenon), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre picks up a new (?) black-and-white edition of Basquiat, Julian Schnabel's biography of the artist starring Jeffrey Wright with David Bowie as Andy Warhol and one heck of a supporting cast, though it plays limited showtimes in some of the smaller rooms.
  
  Midnights continue the David Lynch series with Lost Highway on 3on Friday and Mulholland Drive on Saturday, both on 35mm film, plus Coolidge Award winner John Waters's Female Trouble on Friday. There's also a special Saturday afternoon Rewind! presentation of Shrek 2, Winners for the Goethe-Institut German film on Sunday morning and The Lady from Shanghai for the Sunday afternoon Noirvember show with Nathan Blake leading discussion afterward. Monday's Big Screen Classic is a 35mm print of Hook, with Jeff Rapsis on-hand for a Sound Of Silents show of The Thief of Bagdad on Tuesday.
• Apple Fresh Pond more or less clears house of South Asian Material, with new release Sookshma Darshini - a Malayalam-language thriller where the younger residents of a neighborhood are suspicious of a man's return - only plays through Sunday. They also have a re-release of Karan Arjun, a Hindi-language action picture from 1995 with Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khanas brothers reincarnated to avenge their deaths on Saturday and Monday. Nepali drama Purna Bahadur Ko Sarangi continues its run.
  
  Possibly the final week for Ghibli Fest, with Pom Poko playing Boston Common on Sunday (dubbed) and Tuesday (subtitled); The Tale of the Princess Kaguya plays Monday (dubbed) and Wednesday (subtitled). South Bay has Pom Poko on Sunday only.
  
  Vietnamese comedy The Trophy Bride hangs on for a show or two at South Bay through Monday.
• The Brattle Theatre has a hodgepodge this weekend: A Friday Film matinee of their 35mm print of The Brothers Bloom, the new 4K restoration of Paris, Texas on Friday and Saturday, and a "Selected by R.F. Kuang" series where the author will present three films that relate to her work, all on 35mm: Lust, Caution (Sunday/Monday), The Grandmaster (Sunday/Monday), and Inglorious Basterds (Sunday/Tuesday), with Kuang present to introduce/discuss the films on Sunday.
• The Harvard Film Archive is back at The Yugoslav Junction this weekend: A 16mm pairing of "Bergman's Non-Verbals" & "Light-Play: A Tribute to Moholy-Nagy" Friday evening with post-screening discussion Friday evening; another short film package later that night; Soviet silent Wings of a Serf with live accompaniment by Robert Humphreville on Saturday; and a "Drawn to Bits: THe Zagreb School of Animation" anthology on Sunday afternoon, screening on 16mm & 35mm film, with the Yugoslavian Cinema episodes of Screening Room streaming.
  
  On Sunday evening, they show Times Square, part of the Jenni Olsen Queer Film Collection. On Monday, Max Goldberg introduces Chris Marker's Sans Soleil, screening on 35mm film.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has The Fall as part of their Cult Classics series on Friday, plus Tears of Cem Karaca (Saturday) and Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul as part of the Boston Turkish Festival's Documentary & Short Film Competition; with a number of other films slated to stream online starting on Monday.
• Wicked Queer has the finale of their documentaries festival on Friday night, with S/He Is Still Her/e playing at The ICA
• The Somerville Theatre has a 35mm double feature of Casablanca & Out of the Past on Saturday.
  
  Their sister theater in Arlington, , has their monthly Disasterpiece Theatre tape-trading/live-riffing event on Monday, and while it's free as always, there will also be a fundraiser for their sponsor High Energy Vintage
• The Seaport Alamo has "Movie Party" shows for Wicked on Friday and Sunday and Elf on Monday.
• Tuesday's "Friendsgiving" Retro Replay at Landmark Kendall Square is Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
• Movies at MIT has American Fiction on Friday & Saturday; their weekly email requests you give them a heads-up at lsc-guest at mit.edu if you're not part of the MIT community.
• The Lexington Venue has WIcked, A Real Pain, and Conclave Friday to Sunday.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Gladiator II and Wicked, keeping A Real Pain (once again with a special "Behind the Screen" presentation on Sunday afternoon), Albany Road, Small Things Like These, Anora, Conclave,and The Substance.
  
  The Luna Theater has We Live in Time Friday/Saturday, Music for Mushrooms Saturday, and Addams Family Values on Sunday.
  
  Cinema Salem has WIcked, Gladiator II, Conclave, and Heretic through Monday. Friday's Night LIght show is David Cronenberg's Crash.
  
  If you can make it out to the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, they have fantasy romantic comedy Say a Little Prayer in addition to the other new releases.

Really up against vacation even for this short week as I try to squeeze Small Things Like These in around Gladiator II and maybe Wicked (when would the best time be to see it in 3D but not be hit with an audience that wants to sing along?). Maybe work in the Casablanca/Out of the Past twin bill, or even see how difficult the Red Line is going to make catching the last show of The Trophy Bride. Maybe work a silent in there, too.

Also, shout-out to The Wild Robot and The Substance, probably on their last weekends two months after release and weeks after hitting their distributors' streaming services. That's some quality hanging around, especially for a weird art-house horror movie like The Substance!