Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 6 December 2024 - 12 December 2024

Thought I'd be missing this whole week, but my vacation has been chaotic-weird, so I guess I'd better pay attention.

• The week's big release is Y2K, with a group of teenagers looking to make out on New Year's Eve 1999 discovering that, at least locally, there may be something to the Y2K bug as machines go hostilely haywire It's at the Somerville Theatre, Fresh Pond, CinemaSalem, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row. Another horror-comedy, Get Away, has Nick Frost as the head of a family whose rental home on an English island is a killer's stomping grounds. It's at Boston Common, Causeway Street, and South Bay.
  
  The Order is a true-crime tale with Jude Law as a fed digging into a racist militia organization involving Nicolas Hoult; it shows at Boston Common.
  
  The trailer for Werewolves doesn't mess around, saying right out that, a year ago, a super-moon turned millions of people into lycantropes, and now Frank Grillo is part of a project testing how to get them under control. It's at Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row. For something a little classier, there's The Return, which adapts the end of The Odyssey, as a broken Odysseus (Ralph Finnes) reaches Ithaca but does not reveal himself while Queen Penelope (Juliette Binoche) steadfastly refuses to remarry. That plays Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  For concert films, there's Laufey's Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl, playing for the week at Boston Common and Assembly Row (Imax Laser). K-pop feature RM: Right People, Wrong Place is at Boston Common, the Seaport Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards Friday to Sunday another K-pop show, NCT Dream Mystery Lab: Dream()scape, plays Boston Common on Wednesday.. Babymetal: Legend 43, the concluding concert of their world tour, plays Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Wednesday. Andre Rieu's Christmas Concert plays South Bay and Assembly Row Wednesday. Daft Punk & Leiji Matsumoto, a collection of animated music videos, plays Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, and the Saport on Thursday.
  
  Fresh Pond has matinees of Elf all week; Arsenal Yards through Sunday.
  
  Jordan's Furniture has an Imax re-release of Interstellar for the weekend.
  
  There's an AMC Screen Unseen show on Monday at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, Assembly Row. Ray plays Boston Common Sunday/Monday night and South Bay Saturday to Wednesday. The Green Knight plays in Imax at South Bay and Assembly Row on Wednesday.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre has three new films, including two from the IFFBoston Fall festival, which amusingly have a "dog & cat" theme. The cat, I think, gets the better of it - Flow is a terrific animated adventure about a black cat striving to survive a massive flood in a post-human world and having to grow beyond its nervousness around other animals. It's Latvia's Oscar submission, but that matters not because it has no dialogue - the animals mostly act like animals - but really plays to an audience. It also plays the Capitol Theatre, Boston Common, the Seaport.
  
  I wasn't quite so fond of Nightbitch, Marianne Heller's adaptation of a book about a mother who quit her job and moved to the 'burbs to raise her toddler son who may be going feral during her husband's long absences. Amy Adams stars; it also plays at Boston Common and Kendall Square.
  
  The bigger release is probably Queer, with Daniel Craig starring in an adaptation of a William S. Burroughs novel from the Challengers team of director Luca Guadagnino and writer Justin Kuritzkes, playing an expat in Mexico finding unexpected connection. It also runs at Kendall Square and Boston Common.
  
  In Coolidge rep, "Dracula Lives!" with Blade (35mm Friday Midnite) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (35mm Wednesday). The Ron Howard/Jim Carrey How the Grinch Stole Christmas gets both Saturday midnight and Sunday matinee shows for two presumably different crowds. There's a (sold out?) 35mm Science on Screen show of Gattaca on Monday, Open Screen on Tuesday, and a 35mm Big Screen Classic show of Eyes Wide Shut on Thursday.
• Has Tyler Perry been in a "doing stuff for Netflix just out of your sight" situation lately? At any rate, his latest for the company, The Six Triple Eight, stars Kerry Washington as the commander of the only Woman's Army Corps unit comprised of people of color to serve overseas in World War II, and gets some time at Landmark Kendall Square to make an impression.
  
  Kendall Square also has a "Landmark First Look" on Monday (maybe the same as AMC's, maybe not) and a Retro Replay of Elf on Tuesday.
• Hong Kong romantic comedy Love Lies opens at Causeway Street, with Sandra Kwan finding herself involved in an internet romance scam. Also coming from Hong Kong is Last Dance, with Michael Hui as a wedding planner who accidentally winds up a funeral director. It's at Causeway Street (which no longer seems to be playing Venom: The Last Dance, so that should be a little less confusing). Mainland comedy Her Story continues to have a full slate of shows at Causeway Street as well.
  
  Telugu action film Pushpa Part 2: The Rule opened on Wednesday but pushes wider, playing at Apple Fresh Pond (which also has Tamil & Hindi shows), Boston Common (also playing in Hindi), Causeway Street, and the Seaport.
  
  Anime Solo Leveling: ReAwakening looks like another "premiere event", putting together the first few episodes of the second season, which takes place some years later and has new dungeons and monsters. It opens at Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards. There's also Ghibli Fest shows of My Neighbor Totoro at Boston Common, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards from Saturday to Wednesday, with subs on even-numbered days and dubs on odd, but not every day at every theater, so check.
• The Somerville Theatre has road-trip comedy Lake George, with Shea Whigham as a reluctant hitman teaming up with his target (Carrie Coon), for one show a day all week. And remember, the main screen is out of action because of the annual burlesque thing.
• The Brattle Theatre has the premiere run of The Black Sea from Friday to Sunday, an improvised comedy about a Brooklyn barista who follows a girl to Bulgaria, and then finds himself marooned without a passport or ticket home (and the only Black man there to boot). The filmmakers will be there in person for a Friday evening show.
  
  There are also special screenings of Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90) on Saturday night, 35mm screenings of Big Time for Tom Waits's 75th on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, a "Best of RPM Festival" collection on Sunday, and a 4K restoration of Steven Spielberg's first theatrical film, The Sugarland Express, for its 50th on Sunday (also at the Seaport). During the week, there are best-of shows for Grrl Haus Cinema on Monday and Tuesday, and a 50th anniversary celebration of the Off the Wall Cinema with animation and live action shows culled from their collection on Wednesday and a "Big Event" on Thursday.
• The Seaport Alamo has 2046 on Friday & Sunday for the weekly Wong Kar-Wai. The Witch plays Friday to Sunday, and Female Trouble on Wednesday. For Christmas, there's Batman Returns on Friday/Saturday/Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday, The Holiday on Saturday/Sunday/Tuesday/Wednesday, and Elf Movie Party on Sunday, Klaus on Monday.
• Seven Samurai appears to be the last thing on the Movies at MIT schedule for the semester.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has art doc Georgia O'Keefe: The Brightness of the Light on Saturday afternoon.
• The Regent Theatre has adventure film package "Mountains on Stage: Winter Edition" on Tuesday.
• The Harvard Film Archive is being used for student films during the weekend, but has a 35m print of Where to After the Rain? to wrap the Yugoslar series on Monday, which also heralds the end of streaming the Yugoslavian Cinema episodes of Screening Room. TV-movie rarity Carol for Another Christmas, written by Rod Serling, directed by Joseph L. Makiewicz and starring Sterling Hayden, Peter Sellers, and Eva Marie Saint, shows there on Thursday evening.
• Last day to stream Boston Turkish Festival's Documentary & Short Film Competition on Friday!
• The Lexington Venue has WIcked, A Real Pain, and Conclave Friday to Sunday and Wednesday. They also have free screenings of classic WB short "Star in the Night" (free popcorn for those who come with canned goods and unwrapped toys) on Saturday and Sunday. They also have a special presentation of documentary Marqueetown, about a Michigander attempting to save his local 100-year-old cinema and learning about the history of film in the state, on Saturday Director Matt Farley will be on-hand for a Q&A.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Bird, keeping Moana 2, Gladiator II, Wicked (including "Behind the Screen" show on Sunday), A Real Pain, Small Things Like These, and Conclave (no show Thursday).
  
  The Luna Theater has Heretic on Friday/Saturday, Ghost Cat Anzu on Saturday, Gremlins on Sunday, and a Weirdo Wednesday show.
  
  Cinema Salem has Y2K, Moana 2, WIcked, and Gladiator II through Monday.
  
  If you can make it out to Danvers, Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties, about a band stranded in Prague and forced to busk when dropped from a European tour, is playing at the Liberty Tree Mall.

No idea what I'm doing this week, as I've got 20 hours of flying while my watch moves five on Monday, but I may abuse the heck out of the membership cards because The Return, Werewolves, Lake George, The Order, and Get Away mostly seem to be holding space before next week's big openings.