Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 10 January 2025 - `6 January 2024

Okay, this is more what January looks like.

• The Somerville Theatre and the Coolidge get out the big 70mm projectors for The Brutalist, Brady Corbet's shot-in-actual-vistaVision epic with Adrien Brody as a famed architect who flees to America after the war and works menial jobs until a magnate commissions him to build a fantastic municipal center, though that's hardly the whole story. It also plays on regular DCPs at Kendall Square, Boston Common; and the Seaport, expanding to Assembly Row next week.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre also opens The Room Next Door, Pedro Almodóvar's first English-language feature, which features Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinto as writers who were friends in their youth reuniting decades later, with one perhaps diagnosed with a fatal illness. It also plays Boston Common and the Seaport.
  
  The French cult midnight at the Coolidge on Friday is Titane; Saturday's Giallo January midnight show is the Bird with the Crystal Plumage, introduced by Cinematic Void's Jim Branscome. Sunday morning's Goethe-Institut German film is thriller Turning Tables, Monday's "Stage & Screen " presentation is Pariah
• Among other potential award nominees is Better Man, a biography of British rock star Robbie Williams (who never really hit it big on this side of the pond), wth Williams voicing himself, though he appears on screen as a chimpanzee. It's at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema)
  
  Also opening is Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, in which Gerard Butler's detective, disgraced after his failure in the first movie, tracks down his former quarry (O'Shea Jackson Jr) and says he wants in on the next job, a daring diamond robbery in Europe. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), and Arsenal Yards (including CWX).
  
  Director Mike Leigh's latest, Hard Truths, reunites him with Secrets & Lies co-star Marianne Jean-Baptiste, here playing a woman who cannot seem to confront the world with anything but anger. It's at Boston Common.
  
  The Last Showgirl features Pamela Anderson as the title character in what is supposedly an unexpectedly great performance, trying to figure out her life after thirty years on the stage. It plays Boston Common, West Newton, and CinemaSalem. Another award contender is September 5, a look at the terror attacks at the 1972 Munich Olympics from the point of view of the sports reporters with an unexpected front row seat. That one is also at Boston Common, with some showtimes including a prerecorded Q&A.
  
  The Imax re-release of Seven continues at South Bay and Assembly Row through at least Wednesday. There are early access screenings of One of Them Days on Saturday at South Bay and Assembly Row. South Bay also has something called Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare from Monday to Wednesday, just a few days after the character entered the public domain.
• The big Indian film opening this week is Game Changer, with RRR star Ram Charan and Kiara Advani in the new film by Robot director S Shankar in an action epic about an IAS officer fighting corruption. It's at Fresh Pond in its native Telugu as well as Tamil (through Sunday) and Hindi (Friday & Sunday) and Boston Common (in Telugu).
  
  Because Game Changer takes up so many showtimes, other Indian films are grabbing showtimes here and there at Apple Fresh Pond: Two Malayalam thrillers also play, Identity on Friday & Sunday and Rekhachitram on Friday. Hindi action flick Fateh plays Friday, Saturday, Monday, wednesday, and Thursday. Tamil-language vigilante thriller Vanangaan plays Friday, Sunday, and Monday. Telugu action/adventure Daaku Maharaaj opens Saturday and plays at least through Thursday (including dates at Boston Common), and Sankranthiki Vasthunam in the same language opens Monday (including dates at Boston Common and South bay). Marathi-language musical Sangeet Manapmaan plays Saturday and Sunday.
  
  Hong Kong action flick The Prosecutor, starring Donnie Yen (who also directs) as a former cop and prosecutor investigating corruption, plays at Causeway Street, as does Mainland Chinese mystery Octopus with Broken Arms, the third film in a series that started with Sheep Without a Shepherd, with Zhang Jingxian (Duan Yijong) this time investigating a kidnapped girl. The second never reached America, but they seem pretty self-contained.
  
  Korean thriller Harbin continues at Causeway Street.
  
  Satoshi Kon's Paprika screens at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row, in Japanese on Sunday.
• The Brattle Theatre kicks off the weekend with a 35mm print of Fargo for the Friday Film Matinee, and then runs two documentaries focused on the intersection between the American Civil Rights battles and struggles in Africa: Ernest Cole: Lost and Found comes from I Am Not Your Negro director Raoul Peck and lakeith Stanfield as narrator in the story of the South African photographer who saw many parallels between American Jim Crow and the apartheid of his native land. They also run Soundtrack to a Coup d’État, which focuses on the CIA trying to use Louis Armstrong as a distraction from the coup they sponsored in the Congo to find he is not quite so pliant. Both play from Friday to Tuesday.
  
  They also have late shows of the Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinski version of Nosferatu the Vampyre from Saturday to Tuesday. After that, they begin the yearly "Some of the Best of 2024" series, with Hundreds of Beavers on Wednesday and Godzilla Minus One on Thursday.
• The Seaport Alamo has three screenings of Birdeater (Friday, Saturday, and Monday), an Australian thriller about a woman who accompanies her finacé and his friends on his bachelor party only to have things get far out of control, and also have matinees of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday; another Japanese film, Battle Royale. Plays Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There are "movie party" shows for Hot Rod on Saturday and Tuesday; The Perks of Being a Wallflower plays Sunday and Tuesday; Mind Game plays as part of World of Animation on Monday; and Furiosa plays on Wednesday.
• In addition to their other films, Landmark Kendall Square rotates a number of Netflix films pegged as award contenders, including Maria, Emilia Perez, Will & Harper, and Daughters through Tuesday. Tuesday also has a Best Picture Retro Replay in The Sting.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has Hong Sang-Soo's latest (or, at least, one he made last year), A Traveler's Needs, on Thursday; it features Isabelle Huppert as a woman stuck in Seoul and making a living by teaching French.
• The Capitol Theatre has a 4th Wall show on Saturday night with The Ways and Means Committee, Quantum Moon, and Threat Level Burgundy, plus Coolpics.Biz handling visuals.
• The Lexington Venue is open Friday to Sunday plus Wednesday and Thursdaywith Flow, Anora, and A Completed Unknown.
  
  The West Newton Cinema are the only places booking The Girl With The Needle, Denmark's submission for the Foreign Language Film Oscar, which follows a pregnant woman as she befriends a neighbor supposedly running an adoption agency but actually involved in more sinister business, and Union, a documentary about the work to form a labor union at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island. Also opening are The Last Showgirl,and Flow, with A Complete Unknown, Babygirl, and Wicked held over. There's also a "Gen-X Movie Club" screening of Reality Bites on Friday and a Sunday "Behind the Screen" presentation of The Seed of the Sacred Fig.
  
  The Luna Theater has Queer on Friday/Saturday, Anora on Saturday, The Shining on Sunday, and a Weirdo Wednesday show.
  
  Cinema Salem has The Last Showgirl, A Complete Unknown, Nosferatu, and WIcked from Friday to Monday. There is also a "VHS Vortex" event on Saturday & Sunday, and their own Weirdo Wednesday secret screening

Looking forward to Better Man, The Prosecutor, The Room Next Door, Harsh Truths, The Last Showgirl, Octopus with Broken Arms, and maybe some time at the Brattle.