Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 3 October 2025 - 9 October 2024

Wow, that Taylor Swift thing is grabbing a lot of showtimes this weekend, and I kind of wonder what other movies might get a couple extra showtimes come Monday.

• That would be Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, which includes the music video for "The Fate of Ophelia", behind the scenes material, "lyric videos", and lots of talk about her new album The Life of a Showgirl. It's at the Capitol, the Coolidge, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), and Chestnut Hill through Sunday.
  
  In more conventional releases, there's The Smashing Machine, with Benny Safdie directing Dwayne Johnson as early UFC champion Mike Kerr and Emily Blunt as his wife. It's at the Somerville, the Coolidge, West Newton, Boston Common (including Imax Laser), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Also, welcome back Daniel Day-Lewis, coming out of retirement for Anemone, a drama he co-wrote with son (and director) Ronan. It also features Samantha Morton and Sean Bean, and plays the Coolidge, the Somerville, the Lexington Venue, West Newton, Boston Common, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  Boston Common opens Bone Lake, a thriller where two couples book the same estate for vacation and I gather both definitions of "bone" are in play. Coyotes features Justin Long and Kate Bosworth as a couple trapped in their home by some very large, very smart canids; it's at Boston Common.
  
  There's also a re-release of Avatar: The Way of Water to get you psyched for the new one, playing Boston Common (Imax Laser 3D & Dolby 3D & RealD 3D), Causeway Street (RealD 3D), South Bay (including Imax Xenon 3D), Assembly Row (Imax Laser 3D), and Chestnut Hill (RealD 3D starting Monday). A re-re-lease of 1995's Casper plays Boston Common and CinemaSalem. The Sam Raimi Spider-movies log another weekend at Boston Common and Arsenal Yards (1 Friday, 2.1 Saturday, 3 Sunday).
  
  The Rocky Horror Picture Show gets Dolby Cinema 50th Anniversary shows at 10:30pm Saturday night at Boston Common, Assembly Row, and South Bay (note that Boston Common also have the regular Full Body Cast show at its regular time). BTS re-releases at Boston Common and Assembly Row are 2019's Love Yourself: Speak Yourself and Muster Sowoozoo on Sunday. Documentary Are We Good?, a documentary about comedian Marc Maron, plays Boston Common on Sunday. There are secret previews at Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Monday; not-so-secret previews of Tron: Ares at Boston Common (Dolby Cinema 3D), Assembly Row (Imax Laser 3D) on Wednesday. The Devil's Rejects plays Boston Common Monday/Wednesday, Friday the 13th '80 plays Boston Common and Assembly Row on Wednesday.
• One of my favorites from this year's Fantasia Festival opens at Landmark Kendall Square, Boston Common, and the Seaport: Good Boy, a ghost story where the protagonist is the dog of a man who has moved to an isolated house in the woods after some health issues, and sees something wrong that his human simply can't, but Indy is a Very Good Boy who tries to help.
  
  Kendall Square also starts horror movie Retro Replays this Tuesday with Friday the 13th '80.
• Aside from the major releases (and One Battle After Another in VistaVision), The Coolidge Corner Theatre opens Chain Reactions, which examines the impact of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on pop culture and specific filmmakers, another deep dive from Alexandre O. Philippe, playing late shows. It pairs with a set of midnight slashers, starting with Psycho on Friday night and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre itself on Saturday.
  
  Saturday also sees the start of a monthly "Cinema Masala" series with Diwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, one of India's biggest Bollywood (Hindi-language) hits, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol set (at least before the interval) on a train trip across Europe. Monday's Big Screen Classic is The Spirit of the Beehive on 35mm film; Tuesday has an "Art House of Horror" screening of Carnival of Souls while Wednesday offers Repulsion; and Thursday's Cinema Jukebox show is Madonna: Truth or Dare.
• The big Indian movie this week is Kantara A Legend: Chapter 1, which opened Wednesday and continues with showtimes in Kannada, Telugu, and Hindi at Fresh Pond and Causeway Street, and in Hindi at Boston Common. Apple Fresh Pond also opens Hindi-language romantic comedy Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari and tamil-language drama Idly Kadai. Fresh Pond also has one last show of Nepali-language comedy Hari Bahadur Ko Jutta on Friday, and They Call Him OG continues at Boston Common and Causeway Street.
  
  Chinese fantasy A Writer's Odyssey 2 picks up a story of a writer discovering his serialized story is real, and plays Boston Common and Causeway Street.
  
  Another anime 4K remaster, Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue, plays Boston Common and the Seaport, South Bay. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle continues at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.
• The Brattle Theatre has two from Japan this week: Happyend, which played IFFBoston in the spring, is senior-year high school shenanigans with a nervy edge due to the constant surveillance and general apocalyptic feel; I liked it quite a bit. A more cheery high school story is 2005's Linda Linda Linda, with a high school band flailing after their lead singer quits and is replaced with the Korean exchange student (Bae Doo-Na).
  
  Speaking of IFFBoston, they'll be kicking off their Fall Focus series on Thursday with After the Hunt and Queens of the Dead (which I saw at Fantasia and is quite a bit of fun).
• The Seaport Alamo plays Predators, a documentary examining the To Catch a Predator phenomenon of the aughts, at least through Wednesday, and GoldenEye plays at least one show a day Saturday to Wednesday. There's also Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Saturday, a Scream '96 movie party on Monday, and Closer on Tuesday.
• The Capitol Theatre hosts Midnight Fest, which, really, should have sent me some sort of press release or something before starting back on Wednesday. It runs through Sunday with new short packages, features; (B0dycam, Meat Kills, Donnie Darko); restorations (Ringu, The Changeling, Bad Hiarcut); and Q&As (Lights Out, Hell House LLC).
  
  The Somerville Theatre keeps One Battle After Another on the main screen in 70mm, with Anemone and The Smashing Machine on the others.
• The Harvard Film Archive has one night for each program this weekend: Friday is a new one ("A Terra! The Cinema of Marta Mateus", with the auteur presenting a set of three short films in the evening and a 35mm print of Erich von Stroheim's Greed, with Robert Humphreville accompanying, later in the evening. On Saturday, Humphreville accompanies two from Mikio Naruse's early career, Every-Night Dreams and Street Without End, both on 35mm with National Film Archive of Japan director Hisashi Okajima giving introductions. Sunday has two free Small Axe presentations, with Mangrove in the afternoon and Lover's Rock in the evening. Finally, Monday has Hong Sang-Soo's feature film debut, The Day a Pig Fell into the Well, on 35mm film.
• Movies at MIT has Shrek 2 in 26-100 on Friday & Saturday; and would appreciate a head's up for attendees who aren't part of the MIT community.
• The Museum of Science has Spanish-language Imax featurette Cuerpo Sobrehumano: Un Mundo de Maravillas Médicas Saturday afternoon and two free shows of Blue Beetle on the Omni screen Saturday evening as part of their Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations.
• The main Revolutions Per Minute festival for 2025 kicks off at The Museum of Fine Arts with two selections of short films - "Aldo Tambellini: Reflections" on Saturday and "Guvor Nelson: Call and Response" on Sunday, and then a special double bill at the Cambridge Foundry on Thursday, with the first half combining the work of percussionist Jon Mueller and photographer Tom Lecky before a program of short films by Tomonari Nishikawa.
• The Regent Theatre has a free local screening of Coco on Thursday.
• Joe's Free Films shows The Addams Family '91 playing on the Rose Kennedy Greenway Friday evening, the first of four spooky outdoor films in October.
• The Taiwan Film Festival of Boston continues the virtual edition through next Sunday.
• The Lexington Venue is open every day but Monday with Eleanor the Great, Anemone and Downton Abbey (the latter matinees through Sunday). There's also a free Saturday morning show of Infernal Affairs.
  
  The West Newton Cinema has the Taylor Swift thing and opens The Smashing Machine and Anemone, also holding over One Battle After Another, Eleanor the Great,Gabby's Dollhouse, and Downton Abbey. There's a Sunday "Behind the Screen " show of Jane Austen Wrecked My Life and Ty Burr's Movie club with I Know Where I'm Going on Thursday.
  
  Cinema Salem has the Taylor swift thing through Sunday, plus a pretty family-friend start to spooky season, with Casper '95 and Hocus Pocus Friday-Sunday and Wednesday/Thursday. Friday night features both Mean Girls and The Gate. Wednesday's Classic is Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein, with Weirdo Wednesday on another screen. They also have a local premiere of A Halloween Feast, with the director and cast on hand for a Q&A.
  
  Killing Faith, a horror-western with Guy Pearce, DeWanda Wise, and Bill Pullman, opens out at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, as does One Big Happy Family, a comedy starring Lumi Pollack & Linda Lavin, and family fantasy Peas and Carrots..

Already got tickets for A Writer's Odyssey 2 and am looking forward to Anemone and The Smashing Machine, as well as Avatar 2 and Perfect Blue. Might be the week to head to Brookline for One Battle if I can just show up and get a ticket. Maybe I can squeeze something at Midnight Fest in too. (Follow my Letterboxd page to see if I follow through!)