Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 12 September 2025 - 18 September 2024

A lot of "hey, remember this?" this week

• It's hard to believe that the series that Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale supposedly concludes only started in 2010, even though ti sure seems "character whose birth was an event in the original series is an adult in the new movie" years old! Everybody returns, Paul Giamatti shows up, building probably doesn't get blown up with dynamite, at the Coolidge, the Capitol, the Lexington Venue, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common, Fresh Pond, Causeway Street, the Seaport (Dolby Atmos), South Bay, Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  The main cast and director Rob Reiner also return for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, and, honestly, I'm kind of surprised they haven't gone to the well sooner as a new mock-doc catches up with the band as they continue touring even as their eighties approach. It's at the Coolidge, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common, the Seaport, South Bay, and Arsenal Yards.
  
  Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk has one of those plots which used to seem unlikely but which I increasingly suppose could happen - officially sanctioned event where folks keep walking or get shot with a prize supposedly at the end - opens at West Newton, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.
  
  The original Toy Story is back in theaters for its 30th anniversary, playing Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards. The Sound of Music is at Boston Common for its 60th.
  
  Tin Soldier, which stars Scott Eastwood in a tale of PTSD-stricken soldiers being mobilized by a cult leader and also features a lot of folks who seemingly could afford not to be in it (Jamie Foxx, John Leguizamo, Robert De Niro, Rita Ora?), gets one show a day at Fresh Pond. Indie horror film Traumatika plays Boston Common; The Jester 2 plays Boston Common Monday & Tuesday.
  
  Polish Holocaust drama Triumph of the Heart plays Boston Common.
  
  Mystery movies at Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Monday; may vary by chain, may not. Concert film David Gilmour Live at the Circus Maximus plays Kendall Square, Boston Common (Imax Laser), South Bay (Imax Xenon), and Assembly Row on Wednesday; possible last call for The Warning Live from Auditorio Nacional CDMX at Boston Common Thursday. Documentary Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell's Swimsuit Issue plays Boston Common on Thursday.
• The biggest opening, though, may be anime blockbuster Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, whose trailers have been saying "final battle" things but I don't believe a word of it. It's at Fresh Pond, The Museum of Science (Omnimax), Jordan's Furniture (Imax), Boston Common (including Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards, Chestnut Hill.
  
  Apple Fresh Pond opens Hindi-language romantic comedy Aabeer Gulaal, Hindi-language romance Love in Vietnam, Hindi-language comedy Heer Express, Telugu-language fantasy adventure MiraI (also at Causeway Street and South Bay), and Telugu-language horror movie in a radio station Kishkindhapuri. Telugu-language romance Little Hearts returns after what was apparently a successful run last weekend, and Marathi-language thriller Dashavatar plays Sunday afternoon.
  
  Animated Chinese adventure The Legend of Hei 2 continues at Boston Common and Causeway Street.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre also opens The Baltimorons, in which a struggling comic chips a tooth on Christmas Eve and winds up on a series of misadventures (and romance?) with the on-call dentist. It's also at the Lexington Venue, West Newton, Boston Common, the Seaport, and South Bay.
  
  Midnight Hong Kong classics at the Coolidge this weekend are A Better Tomorrow II on Friday and The Killer on Saturday; Saturday also features a mystery mutant movie at 9pm (with poster!) and Greg Sestro back with a pre-show Q&A for The Room (on 35mm film). Monday has the Huntington's Charles Haughland introducing Postcards from the Edge (thematically aligned with their production of The Hills of California), while Friday has a 35mm screening of Ray for Cinema Jukebox and a digital restoration of Blue Velvet for the Cult Classic show later.
• The Somerville Theatre brings Boys Go to Jupiter for a second weekend with shows Saturday & Sunday. Those days also feature two separate films about New York City in the 1970s - documentary Drop Dead City covers the 1975 fiscal crisis, and the new restoration of Night of the Juggler has James Brolin as a father chasing his daughter's kidnapper through the Bronx. The Rocketeer plays Monday, and Civil Rights documentary Ain't No Back to a Merry-Go-Round plays Wednesday & Thursday.
  
  The Capitol Theatre 100th anniversary shows with A Night at the Opera Saturday night.
• Landmark Kendall Square has a mystery preview on Monday and Better Off Dead for the Retro Replay on Tuesday.
• The Seaport Alamo continue Nightmare on Elm Street screenings with #4 (The Dream Master) Friday and #5 (The Dream CHild) Saturday, and Harry Potter movies with #6 (Deathly Hallows Part I) on Sunday/Tuesday. There's also a member preview of Play Dirty on Monday with Livestream Q&A.
• The Brattle Theatre has the complete series of Twin Peaks: The Return running through Thursday. Interrupting that are Sunday's Found Footage Festival, and open crafting screening of Clueless on Monday, a special screening of Eno on Wednesday (each screening being algorithmically generated and different), and the kickoff to next week's "Found Footage Freakout", Dude Bro Party Masscare III with filmmaker(s) in person, on Thursday.
• The Harvard Film Archive has a lot of different things this weekend: Saturday afternoon has the semester's first Student Cinematheque with a double feature of Ozu's I Was Born, But… on 35mm film followed by Héctor Babenco's Pixote (and a Chuck Jones cartoon to start). Steve McQueen's Small Axe featurettes Alex Wheatle & Education play Saturday night; a new series of "Gore Vidal on Film" starts on Sunday afternoon with a 35mm print of The Catered Affair, and the Hong Sang-soo series continues with Yourself and Yours Sunday evening and Like You Know It All on 35mm film Monday evening.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has an afternoon of films from Anawan Studios on Saturday.
• The Regent Theatre has Unfinished Business, a film about politics in 1980s Massachusetts, with filmmaker Michael Connolly on hand; it is not the Vince Vaught film or apparently the best-selling author Michael Connoly.
• Joe's Free Films has the Coolidge presenting the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the Allston Speedway on Wednesday.
• The Lexington Venue has documentary Clemente through Monday and on Thursday, Downton Abbey all week, and The Baltimorons through Wednesday.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Downton Abbey, Spinal Tap II, The Long Walk, The Baltimorons, keeping Hamilton, Highest 2 Lowest, and *Rebel with a Clause. They show Castle in the Sky dubbed on Sunday, and the first of two shows of Hello Beautiful with director Ziad Hamzeh on hand on Thursday (Thursday's also features star Christine Handy and benefits the Junior League of Boston). Thursday also has The Pursuit of Happyness, as the start of an "American Dream and the Movies" series.
  
  Cinema Salem has Weapons, Downton Abbey, and The Conjuring: Last Rites through Monday. Stalag 17 has an encore Saturday afternoon, with An American in Paris the Wednesday Classic this week, with Weirdo Wednesdays on another screen.
  
  British horror film Rabbit Trap, paramedic comedy Code 3 , and German animated adventure Elli and the Ghostly Ghost Train (dubbed into English as Elli and Her Monster Team) open out at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers.

Got a lot of time booked out at Fenway this week, so maybe just catching up with The Legend of Hei 2 and Honey Don't.

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 5 September 2025 - 11 September 2024

Big movie news: The MBTA is running service an hour later - and for free on weekends during September - so there are more options for seeing stuff that starts late!

• Big release this week is The Conjuring: Last Rites, which could be the finale of this series that treats a married pair of real-world "exorcists" like the real thing! Or not! It's at Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture (Imax), CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema & Spanish subs), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport (including Dolby Atmos), South Bay (including Imax Xenon & Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Imax Laser & Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Also opening is The Threesome, in which a three-way hookup becomes truly ill-conceived as both women wind up pregnant. It's at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  After opening at the Coolidge, the Kendall, and Boston Common last week, Splitsville expands to the Somerville, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  The Broadway performance of Hamilton that went to Disney+ back when theaters were closed in 2020 gets a wide release, playing at West Newton, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Light of the World, an animated film about the life of Jesus (didn't we just have on of these?) told from the perspective of the apostle John, opens at Fresh Pond and Boston Common.
  
  The Breakfast Club has 40th anniversary shows at the Seaport Saturday & Monday and at Boston Common and South Bay on Sunday & Wednesday. There are Wednesday Early Access Screenings for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale at Boston Common (Dolby Cinema), South Bay (Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (CWX), and Spinal Tap II: The End Continues in Imax at Jordan's, Boston Common, South Bay, Assembly Row (probably the only Imax shows as Demon Slayer takes most screens Friday.
• Twinless opens at The Coolidge Corner Theatre; with writer/director James Sweeney co-starring as one of two folks who meet at a support group for people who have lost a twin. It also plays Kendall Square, the Lexington Venue, West Newton, Boston Common, and the Seaport.
  
  The last few screenings of Jaws, through Sunday, play on 35mm film at the Cooldige. The midnight series at the Coolidge for September is the first batch of restorations of the long-unavailable outside-Asia Golden Princess library, starting with A Better Tomorrow on Friday and City on Fire on Saturday, with Hundreds of Beavers also playing late Saturday. The 2025 CatVideoFest plays Sunday afternoon; Monday night offers a Panorama screening of Your Fat Friend; Tuesday has a special screening of Lesbian Space Princess; Wednesday has a "Page to Screen" show of the Cocteau Beauty of the Beast with Nicholas Elliott, who has translated a book about the film, on-hand; and Thursday has both a Rewind! Show of Clueless and an early show of The Baltimorons wite writer/producer/star Michael Strassner on-hand.
• Love, Brooklyn, a romance involving two connected couples in the titular borough, opens at Landmark Kendall Square and Boston Common. The Retro Replay series at Kendall Square for September is anniversary screenings, starting with Airplane! on Tuesday.
• The Somerville Theatre opens animated coming-of-age comedy Boys Go to Jupiter for a limited run Friday to Sunday. It gives way to rep shows during the week, with V for Vendetta on 35mm film Monday, and documentary featurette "Holding Up the Sky", with director Bob Nesson on hand to discuss his film about about two men who met in prison after killing their abusers as teenagers, on Wednesday. There's also a secret 35mm members' screening on Thursday.
  
  The Capitol Theatre opens A Little Prayer, with David Strathairn as a man who discovers his son is having an affair and finds himself mostly worried about how it will affect his daughter-in-law. They also begin a series of screenings celebrating their 100th anniversary, with a restored The Gold Rush playing Saturday night. Finally, there's a "Gothic Cabaret" with Velvet Dirtmunchers and Charming Disaster on Thursday.
• New South Asian movies at Apple Fresh Pond include Hindi-language historical drama The Bengal Files, Hindi-language thriller Baaghi 4 (also at Boston Common), Tamil-language thriller Madharasi, Telugu-language crime flick Ghaati, and Telugu-language romance Little Hearts (through Sunday). Held over are Malayalam-language action-fantasy Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra and Hindi-language romance Param Sundari.
  
  Animated Chinese adventure The Legend of Hei 2 opens at Boston Common, Causeway Street (the original is, thankfully, easily streamable). Chinese holdovers are Jackie Chan in The Shadow's Edge at Boston Common and Dead to Rights at Causeway Street.
  
  Vietnamese drama Leaving Mom (Mang Me Di Bo) continues at South Bay.
  
  Upcoming anime blockbuster Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle has a "Crunchroll Subscriber Early Access Screening" at Boston Common (Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (Dolby Cinema) on Tuesday.
• The Seaport Alamo opens Preparation for the Next Life, a romantic drama about an Uyghur refugee and an American soldier who meet in New York, playing all week.
  
  In rep, they continue Nightmare on Elm Street screenings with #2 (Freddy's Revenge) Friday and #3 (Dream Warriors) Saturday, and Harry Potter movies with #5 (Half-Blood Prince) on Saturday/Sunday. There are member previews of Twinless on Tuesday and Preparation for the Next Life on Wednesday. There's one last show of Jaws on Sunday, and a movie party for the original This Is Spinal Tap on Tuesday.
• The Brattle Theatre has the Quay Brothers' first feature in 20 years, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, a surreal combination of live action and stop-motion with a man seeking his father in a strange asylum - in since it's not long for a feature, they're also showing the Quays' 1986 short "Street of Crocodiles" with it! Friday through Sunday, it splits the screen with a restoration of Leos Carax's The Lovers on the Bridge. On Tuesday, they have a new restoration of Tsui Hark's screwball comedy Shanghai Blues. Wednesday and Thursday feature two episodes Twin Peaks: The Return each, while Thursday offers a 35mm matinee of The Palm Beach Story and an evening show of The Darjeeling LImited.
• The Harvard Film Archive mostly spends the weekend with Hong Sang-soo: On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate (35mm Friday evening), In Another Country (35mm Friday night), Hahaha (35mm Sunday afternoon), Hill of Freedom (Sunday evening), and A Traveler's Needs (Monday evening). The free series of Steve McQueen's Small Axe films with Lover's Rock and Red, White and Blue on Saturday.
• The rerelease of Jaws is held over for straggling shows at various places, most notably The Museum of Science and The New England Aquarium, who both have them on their Imax screens Friday & Saturday evenings.
• Movies at MIT has Conclave Friday & Saturday; open to the public but give them a heads-up if you're not part of the MIT community.
• Joe's Free Films has the sing-along version of Wicked outside at Boston Landing on Saturday evening.
• The Embassy in Waltham doesn't seem to be a regular going concern these days, but they've got a listing for indie Everyone Asked About You on Wednesday.
• The Lexington Venue is open all week but with Eden, My Mother's Wedding, and Jaws. They have another screening of Georgia O'Keeffe: The Brightness of Light on Saturday with art historian Nancy Scott, and also screen The Last Class Saturday, Sunday, and Thursday.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Twinless and Hamilton, holding over Shari & Lamb Chop, Caught Stealing, Honey Don't!, Highest 2 Lowest, and Rebel with a Clause. There's a "Behind the Screen" presentation and discussion of Caught By the Tides on Sunday afternoon and a Ty Burr's Movie Club screening of Michael Clayton on Thursday.
  
  Cinema Salem has Weapons, Jaws, The Roses, and The Conjuring: Last Rites through Monday. Stalag 17 is the Wednesday Classic with Weirdo Wednesdays down the hall, and Creepshow plays Thursday.
  
  Indie comedy Griffin in Summer joins drama A Little Prayer at the Dedham Community Theatre, with writer/direector Nicholas Colia on hand Sunday evening. The Liberty Tree Mall in Davers is playing Pools, which sounds like a modern distaff riff on The Swimmer, and Everything to Me, aka The Book of Jobs, about a girl growing up in Silicon Valley and idolizing Steve Jobs.

New Quay Brothers! Splitsville & The Threesome look like fun! Three restored Hong Kong movies I can get to and maybe even make it home afterwards! Boys Go to Jupiter looks neat! There's an actual reason to take the airport bus to the Alamo! It is a fun weekend even if you've never seen a Conjuring movie and grow more actively hostile to them the more you learn!