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

It kind of feels like a quieter week than is traditional for mid-December, but maybe the placement of Thanksgiving and Christmas this year has studios feeling like there's not a slot in between.

• Ella McCay is the new film from James L. Brooks, starring Emma Mackey (not confusing at all!) as a young woman suddenly elevated to governor. The nifty cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis and Woody Harrelson as her parents. It's at Fresh Pond, CinemaSalem, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema).
  
  The second film this year directed by Joe Carnahan (with another hitting Netflix in January) is Not Without Hope, with four gym-bro friends (Zachary Levi, Quentin Plair, Terrence Terrell, Marshall Cook) lost at sea when their sport-fishing boat capsizes and Josh Duhamel as the Coast Guard captain leading the rescue. It plays Boston Common and Causeway Street.
  
  Dust Bunny is writer/director Bryan Fuller's first foray into cinemas - surprising, because he's done some of the most visually impressive TV out there - and has an eight-year-old girl recruiting her neighbor (Mads Mikkelsen) to help fight the monster under her bed. It's at the Lexington Venue, Boston Common, and the Seaport.
  
  The new film from Paolo Sorrentino, La Grazia, opens at Boston Common; it stars Toni Servillo as a president in his last months in office confronting matters of life and death - his late wife's infidelity, legislation about euthanasia, and potentially pardoning murderers.
  
  Can't say Mike P. Nelson is a particularly notable auteur for the Silent Night, Deadly Night remake opening at Boston Common and South Bay, but there should be plenty of gore.
  
  The Shining gets an Imax release at Boston Common, South Bay, I guess to celebrate the winter solstice. Rolling Stones at the Max also plays the Imax screens at Jordan's Furniture and Boston Common through Sunday. One Battle After Another also returns to Boston Common's Imax screen.
  
  The Ron Howard/Jim Carrey How the Grinch Stole Christmas has a 25th Anniversary run at Fresh Pond, West Newton, Boston Common, the Seaport, and South Bay. One-off Christmas screenings include the Illumination Grinch at Boston Common (Friday); Love Actually at the Seaport (Friday) and Boston Common (Monday); The Polar Express at Jordan's (Imax Friday/Saturday/Sunday) and Boston Common (RealD 3D Sunday/2D Tuesday); Elf at Boston Common (Saturday/Wednesday), Kendall Square (Tuesday), and the Seaport (Movie Party Wednesday); plus National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation at the Seaport (movie party Sunday) and Boston Common (Thursday).
  
  An encore of The Cure: The Show of a Lost World plays Sunday at Boston Common and Kendall Square; REBECCA: Becky G plays Boston Common Saturday afternoon. Christina Aguilera: Christmas in Paris plays Boston Common Sunday. Sense and Sensibility has 30th Anniversary shows on Sunday/Tuesday/Wednesday at Boston Common.
  
  Song Sung Blue has Dolby Cinema early access screenings Sunday at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row; David also previews Sunday at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row; No Other Choice has an early show at Boston Common (Imax Laser) on Monday. There are secret preview screenings at Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row Monday night; the three chains are probably showing the same thing (PG-13, 120-140 minutes) but maybe not! There's also early access "fan event" screenings of The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants on Wednesday at Boston Common (RealD 3D), South Bay (RealD 3D), Assembly Row (RealD 3D), and Chestnut Hill.
• The Secret Agent, with Wagner Moura as a man who suddenly finds himself a target of Brazil's military government in 1977, opens at The Coolidge Corner Theatre and Boston Common. The Coolidge has introductions and Q&A from filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho for the Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon shows, although those look to already be sold out (maybe they'll release tickets, or maybe you just don't want to take the C line out there to be disappointed).
  
  They also hold over their 70mm print of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. Planet Hollywood midnights are Striptease (Demi More) on 35mm Friday and Pumping Iron (Arnold Schwarzeneggar) on Saturday. Saturday afternoon also has a (sold-out) Panorama presentation of documentary The Librarians with director Kim A. Snyder and others on-hand. The Goethe-Institut German film on Sunday morning is Hysteria, and there's a "Rewind!" screening of The Santa Clause on Thursday.
• This week's Netflix awards run at Landmark Kendall Square is Goodbye June, with Kate Winslet directing her son Joe Anders's script and co-starring as one of several siblings saying farewell to their terminally ill mother (Helen Mirren). It looks like the Netflix four-pack option is expired (although they will be playing five Netflix movies this weekend).
• Scarlet, the new anime film from Mamoru Hosoda, opens on the Imax Laser screen at Assembly Row but apparently nowhere else in the area, a month and a half before its main American release. Visually, it's a big departure from his previous stories and has a princess waking up in limbo and meeting a man from the modern age. There's also a special "Crunchyroll Anime Nights Sneak Peak" Monday night at Boston Common, the Seaport, and Assembly Row, featuring episodes of series that will debut on the service in January. Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution continues at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  Apple Fresh Pond opens Telugu-langauge fantasy adventure Akhanda 2 - Thaandavam and Telugu-language jungle adventure Mowgli (also at Causeway Street). Telugu-language drama Naa Telugodu opens at Causeway Street. Hindi-language comedy Kis Kis Ko Pyaar Karoon 2, about a man with three wives of different religions planning a fourth wedding, opens at Boston Common, South Bay. There's also a re-release of Sholay, considered by many to be the greatest Bollywood film ever made, in its "Final Cut" at Fresh Pond, who also celebrate Rajinikanth's birthday with Tamil-language Padayappa (through Sunday).
  
  Held over is Hindi-language crime epic Dhurandhar at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, and Causeway Street. Gujari-language family drama Laalo: Krishna Sada Sahaayate plays Saturday & Sunday at Fresh Pond and Marathi-language political drama Punha Shivajiraje Bhosle plays Fresh Pond Sunday.
• The Brattle Theatre has their annual screenings of It's a Wonderful Life on 35mm this weekend, and as usual they are selling out quickly. That also means they have their annual "Alt X-Mas" late shows, with Do Not Open Till Christmas Friday (introduced by Justin La Liberty with a Vinegar Syndrome pop-up shop), Female Trouble on Saturday, The City of Lost Children on Sunday, and Eyes Wide Shut on Monday.
  
  On Tuesday, they team with neighbor Lovestruck Books to celebrate Jane Austen's 250th with a double feature of the 2005 Pride & Prejudice and the 2020 Emma.. On Wednesday they welcome Whit Stillman to host his debut film Metropolitan, and then on Thursday they begin their Robert Redford tribute with a double feature of All the President's Men (35mm) & Three Days of the Condor.
• The Capitol Theatre has a secret "Celluloid Confidential" screening on 16mm film Tuesday (the 16th) (it sure looks like Ten Little Indians, FWIW).
• The Seaport Alamo has a bit of unconventional Christmas programming with Carol Tuesday evening.
• The Regent Theatre has a "First Descents" pairing of two outdoor films focused on Trango and Lhotse on Thursday.
• The Harvard Film Archive continues with Columbia Rarities, with My Sister Eileen on Friday evening, Together Again later that night, Women's Prison at 7pm Saturday and Pickup at 9, a pairing of short features Vanity Street & Three Wise Girls Sunday afternoon, and None Shall Escape Sunday evening, most on 35mm film. Saturday afternoon is a student-programmed double feature of Rebel Without a Cause (35mm) and High School (16mm), and then they complete the fall calendar with a rescheduled screening of Mikio Naruse's Every-Night Dreams, with Robert Humphreville accompanying on the piano.
• The Museum of Science has Wicked: For Good on Friday and Saturday through next week, with Avatar 3 on the giant screen next weekend.
• The Lexington Venue is open all week but Monday with Dust Bunny, Sentimental Value, and Hamnet. They also have their annual free screenings of short "Star in the Night" Saturday & Sunday morning (free popcorn with toy/canned good donation), a free screening of locally-shot indie Fear of Flying on Sunday, and a special screening of The Librarians Thursday (no guests, but the show at the Coolidge is sold out).
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Sentimental Value, keeping Hamnet, Five Nights at Freddy's 2, Wake Up Dead Man, Zootopia 2, Wicked: For Good, and Nuremberg. A Face in the Crowd plays Thursday afternoon, and Drink and Be Merry that evening with director Adam Volerich there for a Q&A.
  
  Cinema Salem has Ella McCay, Zootopia 2, Wicked: For Good, and Five Nights at Freddy's 2 from Friday to Monday. The original Silent Night, Deadly Night is Friday's Night Light show, there's a shadow-casted Elf hosted by Miz Diamond Wigfall Saturday night, "VHXMas" on Sunday (a physical media market in the afternoon and a holiday horror movies screened off VHS in the evening), Anatomy of a Murder Sunday evening. Hitchcock's second take on The Man Who Knew Too Much (with James Stewart & Doris Day) is the Wednesday classic, with a Weirdo Wednesday show next door, and Crimson Peak plays Thursday.
  
  Eastern Western, a film about a Bosnina immigrant raising a son in the mountains of Montana, opens at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers.

Kind of under the weather, so I'm glad to have a chance to catch up with Kill Bill on the big film, and will likely hit Ella McKay, Not Without Hope, Dust Bunny, Goodbye June, and Scarlet. (Follow my my Letterboxd page for what I do get to)