Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 25 December 2024 - 2 January 2024

Let's see just how much free time I have/need…

• Lots of movies that have been promoted pretty much non-stop for a couple months opening for Christmas! First up is A Complete Unknown, with Timothee Chalamet playing Bob Dylan in his early years. It's at The Capitol Theatre, the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, the Lexington Venue, West Newton, CnemaSalem, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  It's kind of nuts that we're on our third version of Nosferatu, when the first is basically an end run around Dracula still being under copyright. Here, Robert Eggers puts together a nifty cast (Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgaard, Willem Dafoe, Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and draws heavily from the original's German Expressionist imagery. It plays The Somerville Theatre, the Coolidge (including 35mm), Fresh Pond, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), and Assembly Row (including Imax Laser).
  
  I feel like I've spent more time watching the trailer for Babygirl than the film's actual runtime. Nicole Kidman stars as an executive who enters a submissive affair with her intern, and, you know, she looks pretty good for someone who has been doing movies about inappropriate relationships with younger guys for 30 years. It's at the Somerville, the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, West Newton, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row..
  
  The Fire Inside has cinematographer Rachel Morrison stepping into the director's chair (with a script by Barry Jenkins) to tell the story of Claressa Shields (Ryan Destiny), a teenage boxing prodigy who discovers that Olympic gold may not lift a girl from Flint, Michigan out of poverty on its own. It's at Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  Bloody Axe Wound, a horror comedy about a young woman taking over the family slasher business, opens for late shows at Boston Common on Thursday.
  
  Los Frikis, a Spanish-language film from the makers of The Peanut Butter Falcon about Cuban youths who infect themselves with HIV to gain access to a care facility in the 1990s, opens at Boston Common.
  
  Folks who have been holding it in: Wicked adds sing-along shows with on-screen lyrics at the Capitol, Boston Common, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards. Boston Common also has Terrifier 3 on Christmas night, because it is apparently a Christmas movie..
• New Indian movies at Apple Fresh Pond for Christmas are Baby John, a Hindi-language action movie with Varun Dhawan as a cop who fakes his own death to get to the bottom of a case (also at Boston Common); Telugu-language mystery Srikakulam Sherlockholmes, with a consulting detective hired to solve a serial murder case in 1991; and Barroz: Guardian of Treasures, a Malayalam-language action adventure playing in 3D. Tamil-language crime film Viduthaliai Part 2 is held over.
  
  Hong Kong's The Last Dance and Mainland China's Her Story share a screen at Causeway Street. On Tuesday (New Year's Eve), Causeway Street opens romantic comedy-drama Honey Money Phony, with Jin Chen as a nice girl in deep debt and Sunny Sun Wang as a con artist.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre has A Complete Unknown and Babygirl like everything else, but they've got a 35mm print for Nosferatu, at least when it's playing on screen #1. On Friday, they open The Seed of the Sacred Fig, a thriller set (and secretly shot) in Tehran where a newly-appointed judge finds himself gripped by paranoia. That one also opens at Kendall Square and Boston Common.
  
  The final midnights of 2024 at the Coolidge are Dracula 2000 on Friday and a 35mm print of New Year's Evil on Saturday. Speaking of New Year's Eve, Strange Days plays on 35mm film both Monday and Tuesday, On Wednesday, they kick off the new year and annual "Projections" sci-fi series with Return of the Jedi. Thursday's Big Screen Classic is a 35mm print of Fellini's Amarcord.
• The Brattle Theatre wraps the year-long celebrations of Columbia's 100th with Nineties Nostalgia, mostly on 35mm: A double feature of Little Women & Go on Christmas, A League of Their Own & Groundhog Day (plus a late DCP show of Anaconda) on Thursday, Single White Female & The Cable Guy on Friday, Bottle Rocket & El Mariachi on Saturday, separate shows of The Age of Innocence and Boyz n the Hood (both digital) Sunday, and Double Team & Bad Boys on Monday.
  
  In the middle of that, Friday's Friday Film Matinee is a 35mm print of Tap, which I never would have thought of as directed by Nick Castle. Then there are some holiday festivities - matinees of The Thin Man on New Year's Eve, with Stop Making Sense for the evening show, then the annual Marx Brothers Marathon - A Night at the Opera, Room Service, Animal Crackers (35mm), and Duck Soup (35mm). Then on Thursday, they open the new 4K restoration of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
• The Seaport Alamo has The Holdovers on Christmas, Paris, Texas on Saturday, When Harry Met Sally… on Sunday (including brunch) and Tuesday, South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut on Monday, The Apartment on Tuesday, and Phantom Thread on Tuesday and New Year's Day. No rep scheduled for Thursday the 2nd.
• In addition to playing the big releases, Landmark Kendall Square brings back Emilia Perez.
• The Regent Theatre switches up their school vacation sing-along shows this week with Bohemian Rhapsody playing with on-screen lyrics from Thursday to Tuesday. They also have a screening of Being Robin with star Roger Kabler on hand Sunday evening.
• The ICA has a second weekend of Kids Flicks Short Films matinees this weekend, with shorts for kids as young as 5 on Saturday and Sunday's package recommended for ages 8 and above.
• The Lexington Venue is open every day through the 2nd with Mufasa and A Completed Unknown.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens A Complete Unknown, Babygirl, and Nosferatu, keeping Mufasa, Sonic 3, and Wicked. There's also a special "Behind the Screen"preview of The Room Next Door with producer Han West on hand.
  
  The Luna Theater has Ghost Cat Anzu on Thursday the 26th, Saturday the 28th, and Thursday the 2nd, Y2K on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and Heretic on Saturday.
  
  Cinema Salem has A Complete Unknown, Nosferatu, Mufasa, and WIcked from Christmas to New Year's Day. Friday's Night Light show is Pan's Labyrinth, and Eyes Wide Shut plays Sunday & Monday.

I've got the week off from work, so I'm looking at Nosferatu, The Fire Inside, Mufasa, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Honey Money Phony, Wallace & Gromit, and whatever else I can fit in.