Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 29 August 2025 - 4 September 2024

Labor Day weekend, where you wonder if the big movies coming out are the studios sensing an opportunity or their being kind of disasters.

• Like, Caught Stealing comes from director Darren Aronofsky, has a pretty nice cast led by Austin Butler, Zoe Kravitz, and the like, and looks like a fun loopy crime story. So why this weekend rather than something where people aren't traveling and moving? It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, West Newton, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport (Dolby Atmos), South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  And then there's The Roses, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman in an adaptation of War of the Roses directed by Jay Roach, and who knows where it will land between his goofy and high-minded movies. It's at the Coolidge, the Capitol, Fresh Pond, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  The long-shelved remake of The Toxic Avenger - written and directed by Macon Blair and featuring Peter Dinklage, Kevin Bacon, Taylor Paige, and more - opens at Boston Common, the Seaport, South Bay, and CinemaSalem. Run, a sci-fi/horror in which a bunch of young women doing a girls' trip after one has a bad breakup only to find themselves cut off from help during an alien invasion, plays at Boston Common.
  
  Universal returns Jaws to the big screen nationwide for its 50th anniversary, which is why it has ironically played much less than usual around here this summer. It's at the Coolidge (35mm at 7pm Friday to Monday), the Somerville (4K), Fresh Pond, The Museum of Science (Omnimax Friday/Saturday), The New England Aquarium (Imax Thursday through next Saturday), Jordan's Furniture (Imax), the Lexington Venue, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Imax Laser & RealD 3D), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Xenon & RealD 3D), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser & RealD 3D), Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  An Imax release of Prince: Sign O The Times plays Jordan's Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row for the weekend.
  
  The live-action Lilo & Stitch returns to Boston Common, Kendall Square, South Bay, and Arsenal Yards.
  
  MMA drama American Warrior, which I seem to recall had a few previews at Fresh Pond earlier this summer, opens there for its regular engagement.
  
  Concert film The Warning Live from Auditorio Nacional, CDMX has another weekend at Boston Common. There's mystery previews at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Monday. Batman & Batman Returns> have encore Dolby Cinema shows at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Monday.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre gets a 35mm print of Lurker, which plays on the main screen whenever Jaws doesn't. It's a thriller about an ordinary guy who becomes friends with a rising star. It plays digitally at Boston Common.
  
  Also opening at the Coolidge, Kendall Square, Boston Common before going wide next week is Splitsville, in which a man in a failing marriage discovers that his friends have stayed together by having an open one, but inserting himself into that causes chaos.
  
  The August midnight series at the Coolidge closes out with Them (Ils) on Friday and a 35mm print of John Carpenter's Village of the Damned on Saturday. On Sunday, they have a special screening of The Farmer & The Shark, with director John Campopiano on-hand to talk about his documentary on Craig Kingsbury, a Martha's Vineyard-er who worked behind the scenes on Jaws and became the model for Robert Shaw's portrayal of Quint. The Big Screen Classic on Thursday is a restoration of The Sting
• The Somerville Theatre opens French black comedy The Balconettes, with writer/director Noémie Merlant playing one of three women causing trouble from a Marseilles balcony during a heat wave. They supplement the Jaws re-release with Japanese cult-hopeful spoof Hot Spring Shark Attack on Friday & Saturday, and have A Star Is Born '54 (35mm) & '18 (digital) for "The Great Remakes" on Monday (starting early).
  
  The Capitol Theatre has an "RKO Army Live Shadowcast" screening of Troll 2 on Saturday night.
• Is it a holiday weekend in the Malayalam-speaking portion of India? Apple Fresh Pond opens Malayalam-language action-fantasy Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra; Malayalam-language romance Hridayapoorvam; Malayalam-language romantic comedy Odum Kuthira Chadum Kuthira; plus Hindi-language romance Param Sundari; Hindi-lnaguage thriller 55; Telugu-language drama Sundarakanda (also at Boston Common, Causeway Street). Boston Common holds over War 2 and Coolie.
  
  Vietnamese drama Leaving Mom (Mang Me Di Bo) plays Causeway Street and South Bay.
  
  Chinese holdovers are Jackie Chan in The Shadow's Edge at Boston Common and Causeway Street; Dead to Rights at Causeway Street, and the English-dubbed Ne Zha II at the Capitol, Boston Common (including RealD 3D), Causeway Street, and South Bay.
  
  The new 4K transfer of Shin Godzilla continues at Boston Common, with B&W "Orthocrhomatic" shows at Boston Common and Assembly Row on Sunday.
• The Brattle Theatre starts their fall calendar with "Cat Fancy: A Feline Film Feast", featuring An American Tail: Fivel Goes West (35mm Friday Film Matinee), Flow (Friday/Monday/Thursday), Kedi (Friday/Monday), The Night of 1000 Cats (Friday 35mm), Kiki's Delivery Service (dubbed Saturday/subtitled Sunday), Bell, Book and Candle & Amélie (Saturday), Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space (Saturday), The Cat from Outer Space & The Marvels (Sunday), Eye of the Cat & The Shadow of the Cat (35mm Sunday), The Third Man (Monday/Tuesday), The Black Cat (35mm Monday), Cat City & Felidae (Tuesday), Inside Llewyn Davis (Wednesday), The Cassandra Cat (Thursday), and Alien (Thursday).
• The Harvard Film Archive isn't doing a Labor Day Marathon this year (sniff), but does have a bunch of Hong Sang-soo: The Power of Kangwoon Province (35mm Friday evening/Sunday afternoon), Grass (Friday night), Hill of Freedom (Saturday evening), Hahaha (35mm Saturday night), and In Our Day(Sunday evening). They start a free series of Steve McQueen's Small Axe films with Mangrove on Monday.
• The Seaport Alamo starts weekly Nightmare on Elm Street screenings with the original on Friday/Monday, has Ran for Saturday Swordplay (encores Sunday/Tuesday), two from Scorsese with CasinoAfter Hours Saturday, the fourth Harry Potter movie (Order of the Phoenix) on Sunday/Wednesday. There are member previews of Twinless on Tuesday and Preparation for the Next Life on Wednesday.
• Landmark Kendall Square has a Tuesday "Festival Cinema" show with Nashville.
• The Lexington Venue is open all week with Honey Don't and Jaws. Nothing Solid has an encore Sunday afternoon with ticket sales donated to the Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Association.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens biographical documentary Shari & Lamb Chop, which has been kicking around the festival circuit a couple of years, as well as Caught Stealing and Jaws, keeping Honey Don't!, Highest 2 Lowest, and Rebel with a Clause.
  
  Cinema Salem has Weapons, Jaws, The Roses, and The Toxic Avenger through Monday. Citizen Kane plays Saturday afternoon with Grand Hotel for the Wednesday Classic (Weirdo Wednesdays down the hall).
  
  Drama A Little Prayer is at the Dedham Community Theatre and Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers. High school comedy Almost Popular and golf drama The Short Game are at the Liberty Tree Mall

I've got a little catching up to do, but will probably try to catch Caught Stealing, The Balconettes and some of the cat stuff at the Brattle (there's some real oddities). Not sure where to go for Jaws - the Coolidge for 35mm, someplace with the neat 3D conversion that they'll probably never put on disc, or the Aquarium for enormity?