Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 30 May 2025 - 6 June 2024

Ah, the quiet week after big holiday releases.

• Karate Kid: Legends, in which kung fu master Han (Jackie Chan) recruits old friend Mr. Miyagi's prize student Daniel (Ralph Macchio) to teach a student (Ben Wang) who has recently moved to America, opens widest, playing The Capitol Theatre, Fresh Pond, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Spanish-subtitled shows), Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill. No sign of Jaden Smith, Hilary Swank, or the Cobra Kai cast, but maybe they're working up to the Karate Kid Avengers.
  
  Also opening wide is Bring Her Back, the latest film from Talk to Me's Danny & Michael Philippou, who send a foster mother played by Sally Hawkins and her two new charges to an isolated house to complete a dangerous ritual. It's at the Somerville Theatre, the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Spanish-subtitled shows), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  Tornado, an grimly efficient chase between a samurai's daughter and local highwaymen in 1790 Scotland from the director of Slow West, plays Boston Common.
  
  Boston Common also has "Peppa Meets the Baby" cinema experience matinees.
  
  AMC has a Monday mystery preview at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row. There are non-mystery previews of Dangerous Animals at Boston Common and Assembly Row on Tuesday; Ballerina at Boston Common (Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (Dolby Cinema), South Bay (Dolby Cinema), and Arsenal Yards (CWX) on Wednesday; and the Wicked: For Good trailer (in front of last fall's Wicked) at Boston Common, Assembly Row on Wednesday.
• The Brattle Theatre starts the weekend with a Friday Film matinee of The Sword and the Sorcerer, but the week's main event is Caught By the Tides, a Jia Zhangke film that combines footage from his other films, deleted scenes, and aborted projects to tell the tale of a gangster and his girl over 22 years of a changing China. It plays Friday to Thursday, although some of those are just matinees.
  
  In between, there's an interesting group: They pay tribute to the late George Wendt with a new restoration of House Friday & Saturday (the American horror movie, not the Japanese one); the local Frederick Wiseman tribute conclude withs City Hall on Sunday afternoon; the ART starts weekly showings of Richard Linklater's "Before" trilogy with Before Sunrise on Monday; and Exact Change has a two-day celebration of Chris Marker's "Immemory: Gutenberg Edition" with Marker's "La Jetée" preceding a 35mm print of Vertigo on Tuesday and Marker's Sans Soleil on Thursday. Thursday also has a presentation of band Turnstile's "Albumovie", "Never Enough" (also at Boston Common).
• The Seaport Alamo opens BUFF favorite Sister Midnight, in which a small-town woman in an arranged marriage suspects she may be becoming a vampire, for at least the week. They also have a live viewing of J-Hope's "Hope on the Stage" tour finale Saturday night, with an encore on Sunday. When Harry Met Sally… plays Sunday, Midnight Run Monday, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (Part 1) on Tuesday, and Stand By Me on Wednesday. There are also previews of The Life of Chuck on Sunday and Dangerous Animals on Monday, both with livestreamed Q&A afterward.
• It's a relatively quiet week for new South Asian movies at Apple Fresh Pond: Nepali drama Unko Sweater and Telugu-language Bhairavam play through Sunday; The Eken: Benaras e Bibhishika, the latest in what looks like a Bengali-language series of mysteries, has a matinee Sunday afternoon. Hindi romantic comedy Bhool Chuk Maaf is held over, at least through Tuesday. Tamil-language crime drama Thug Life opens at Fresh Pond (which also has Telugu-language screenings) and Boston Common on Wednesday.
  
  Vietnamese thriller Detective Kien: The Headless Horror, with the title sleuth attempting to get to the bottom of a headless corpse and other possibly-supernatural mysteries, plays at Causeway Street and South Bay.
  
  J-pop Concert film Ado Special Live "Shinzou" has an encore at Boston Common Saturday afternoon.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has the tail end of the Festival of FIlms From Japan, including samurai epic Bushido on Friday, two-minute time-loop fantasy River on Saturday, and coming-of-age figure skating story My Sunshine on Sunday.
• Final Tangerine Dream midnights at The Coolidge Corner Theatre are both on 35mm film, with Vision Quest playing Friday and Firestarter on Saturday; Saturday also has Rocky Horror (also at Boston Common as per usual). Sunday afternoon, there's a Wes Anderson double feature of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou & The Darjeeling Limited, with The Grand Budapest Hotel Monday evening, and The Phoenican Scheme opening Thursday. Thursday also has a BIg Screen Classic show of James Ivory's Maurice
• The Somerville Theatre has two rep shows in the big room on Sunday: For "Silents, Please!", there's Forgotten Faces, with Jeff Rapsis accompanying a late-silent-era thriller that's one of the earliest proto-noirs featuring Clive Brook, Olga Baclanova, and William Powell; later on, IFFBoston and The Good present a 35mm print of Satoshi Kon's sci-fi anime Paprika. There's a secret 35mm member screening on Monday (if you've gotten the email, you know it's a good one), and "F___ the Nazis" continues with Sisu on Tuesday.
• Belmont World Film returns to the West Newton Cinema after a week or two off with the first in their Pride/World Refugee Awareness Month series, Romanian Oscar submission Three Kilometers to the End of the World.
• Landmark Kendall Square has a secret screening on Monday and starts a month of LGBTQ+ Tuesdays with To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.
• The Regent Theatre hosts the annual A-Town Teen Film Festival on Wednesday and screens student protest doc The Encampments on Thursday with a panel of student protesters afterward.
• Joe's Free Films shows an outdoor movie with Inside Out 2 on the lawn at Assembly Row on Thursday.
• Pakistani animated feature The Glassworker plays on The Museum of Science's Omnimax screen Saturday evening, with a special showing of A Million Miles Away with José M. Hernández, whose life inspired the story, on hand next Saturday.
• The Embassy just has on screen with Lilo & Stitch through Sunday. They also finish a month of free sci-fi matinees with The Day the Earth Stood Still on Monday.
• The Lexington Venue is open all week with Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible, plus a free screening of local comedian Matt Farley in Evil Puddle on Thursday.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Karate Kid: Legends (including a Saturday matinee & lunch show) and holds over Lilo & Stitch, Mission: Impossible, Friendship, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, and Secret Mall Apartment. Performance (with Mick Jagger and James Fox) plays Friday evening.
  
  Cinema Salem has Bring Her Back, Karate Kid Legends, Lilo & Stitch, and Sinners, and Final Destination Bloodlines through Monday. Singin' in the Rain has Friday night and Monday afternoon encores; Wednesday's Classic is Rebel without a Cause (with the regular Weirdo Wednesday show across the hall), and there's a Girlies with Anniversaries show of Miss Congeniality on Thursday.

Already have a ticket for Detective Kien, but may switch it out for Bushido, then staying around Davis for what the Somerville has Sunday to Tuesday. Could kind of go both ways on both new releases.