Kind of scrounging because I haven't seen the predecessor to the big sequel that's squeezing everything I couldn't get to during IFFBoston into a few scattered showtimes, how 'bout you?
- That sequel is The Devil Wears Prada 2, reuniting Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci from the 2006 original, with Hathaway's character now a seasoned veteran outside of fashion brought in Streep's legend starting to decline. It's at the Somerville, the Coolidge, Fresh Pond, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema & XL), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport (including Dolby Atmos), South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
Also opening wide-ish is IFFBoston selection Hokum, with Adam Scott as a writer visiting the Irish hotel where his parents honeymooned, and with Oddity director Damian McCarthy behind the camera, it's going to get weird. That plays the Coolidge, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
An animated take on Animal Farm opens at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row. It's directed by Andy Serkis and features an all-star voice cast, but also adds a segment at the end so it's more upbeat, which doesn't seem like Animal Farm.
Renny Harlin is amusingly being cited as the director of Die Hard 2 and Deep Blue Sea on the posters for Deep Water, which fits, because it's a plane crashing in shark-infested waters. Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley play the pilots, and it plays Boston Common. Hip-hop legend and action aficionado RZA steps back behind the camera for One Spoon of Chocolate where an ex-military ex-con tries to start over in a small town and some hood make the very bad decision to mess with him. It's also at Boston Common.
The week's other just-Boston Common opening is Indie romance Erupcja; interestingly, director Pete Ohs shares writing credits with stars Charli XCX, Lena Gora, Will Madden, and Jeremy O. Harris.
Modern western Casa Grande gets what looks like a minimal four-wall booking at Fresh Pond, playing one of the small theaters at 4pm all week (slightly more showtimes at the Liberty Tree Mall). Everything Everywhere All At Once plays more or less the same schedule at Boston Common, Causeway Street, and South Bay; Past Lives plays Boston Common, Causeway Street, and South Bay on Sunday & Monday.
There's a secret family-friendly screening at Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, South Bay, and Assembly Row Sunday afternoon; a different (R-rated) movie screens secretly on Monday at Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
Power to the People: John & Yoko Live in NYC has encores at the Kendall and Boston Common on Sunday. Concert film Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition plays Boston Common and the Seaport Thursday.
- In addition to the wide releases, The Coolidge Corner Theatre opens Steal This Story, a documentary on reporter Amy Goodman, for matinee in the Goldscreen after its panorama shows on Thursday. They also anchor a May Ghibliotheque series with a new 4K restoration of Kiki's Delivery Service, supplementing it with screenings of Pom Poko (Friday), Ponyo (Saturday), My Neighbor Totoro (Sunday), Howl's Moving Castle (Monday), Princess Mononoke (Tuesday), and Spirited Away (Wednesday).
The May midnights are (almost) all about Sam Raimi, kicking off as you might expect with The Evil Dead on 35mm Friday night and arguably-even-more iconic Evil Dead 2 projected from VHS on Saturday. There's also Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt with Wellesley's Vernon Shetley leading a pre-film seminar Monday, and the "Take Two: Filmmaking in the Movies" class begins Wednesday with Living in Oblivion (feel free to watch the movies without the class). There's also a Cinema Jukebox presentation of the 4K restoration of Tommy on Thursday.
- Apple Fresh Pond turns their South Asian offerings over for a new slate of seven: Telugu-language mid-air action-comedy Jetlee, Hindi-language romantic fantasy Ek Din, Marathi-language historical epic Raja Shivaji (with late shows in Hindi), Tamil-language action thriller Kara, Malayalam-language thriller Patriot, Telugu-language satire Gaaya Padda Simham (through Monday), and Gujarti-language drama Dhabkaaro (through Sunday).
Anime That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: The Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea opens at Boston Common. Japanese horror film Exit 8 and the reissue of Whisper of the Heart continue at Boston Common.
- The Brattle Theatre has new restorations of Barbara Kopple's Harland County USA and American Dream on Friday & Saturday/
They also feature three noteworthy Chinese filmmakers, starting with the annual "pineapple expiration day" showings of Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express from Friday to Sunday. They also have the three features of Bi Gan, with Kaili Blues & Long Day's Journey into Night (presumably all-2D) Saturday & Monday and Resurrection Sunday & Tuesday. In between, they team with STArt Film Studio to screen Jiang Wen's Let the Bullets Fly, which was a massive hit in China.
After that, there's two GRRL Haus Cinema programs on Wednesday and the first of their Mother's Day series, Everything Everywhere All at Once, on Thursday.
- The Capitol Theatre has a 4th wall concert with Circus Trees, Vivid Bloom, and Decla on Friday.
The Somerville Theatre has documentary The Chaplin & the Doctor on Monday and Crushing Wheelchairs, a film about the homeless in San Francisco made by its subjects, on Tuesday. They also kick off their summer "Thirsty Thursdays" series with a 35mm print of Cocktail.
- The Seaport Alamo has Jacques Tati's Playtime on Saturday afternoon; www.RachelOrmont.com on Saturday & Tuesday; Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters on Sunday; period Māori thriller Mārama Tuesday afternoon; and a preview of Obsession with livestreamed Q&A Wednesday.
- Landmark Kendall Square has John They Live Saturday & Tuesday for the "Aliens Among Us"; John Houston's The Maltese Falcon plays there Sunday & Wednesday.
- The Harvard Film Archive has just one program this week, debuting their new print of Little Fugitive by pairing it with "The Red Balloon" and a 1962 commercial for Oreos.
- The Museum of Fine Arts has Sirāt Thursday evening as part of "Global Cinema Now"
- Joe's Free Films shows the Somerville Cine-Club screening four Chaplin shorts from 1915 on Friday night, all accompanied by different local musicians and screening on film ("The Bank" and "Shangaied" on 8mm, "A Jitney Elopement" on 16mm, and "The Tramp" on Super 8).
- The Movies at MIT page has Empire of Light playing in room 26-100 on Friday.
- The Lexington Venue is open all week but Tueesday with The Devil Wears Prada 2, I Swear, and Palestine '36 (no show Thursday). Indie comedy The Hay Man plays in (presumably anaglyph) 3D Saturday morning.
The Embassy Cinema continues Michael, apparently running a full slate every day but Tuesdays until the 21st.
The West Newton Cinema opens The Devil Wears Prada 2, continuing Michael, I Swear, The Christophers, Fantasy Life, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and Project Hail Mary. Documentary feature Join or Die plays Saturday afternoon with a local club fair in the lobby afterward, while documentary short "Healing Between Two Worlds" plays Sunday afternoon with panel discussion, and there's a Behind the Screen show of In the Whale with filmmaker David Abel in person Thursday. The Belmont World Film presentation on Monday is Cyprus's Hold on to Me, which features both a pre-recorded conversation with director Myrsini Aristidou and an in-person discussion.
The Dedham Community Theatre has The Christophers and I Swear.
Cinema Salem plays The Devil Wears Prada 2, Project Hail Mary, Michael, and Super Mario from Friday to Monday. The Wednesday Classic is War of the Worlds, with no Weirdo Wednesday listed, and Thursday they present the locally-shot pilot for Witch City.
(They are not, surprisingly, one of the venues for the Salem Horror Fest, which has many horror-film-oriented events around town through Sunday.)
The AMC at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers has Spanish high-school drama Boulevard, and also seems to be doing a Friday-night frightfest series with the director's cut of Cabin Fever this week.
Might have to see where
The Devil Wears Prada is streaming, for a little catch-up, although its sequel is making it tricky to figure out how to catch up on
Mother Mary,
Over Your Dead Body and maybe
Desert Warrior while looking forward to
Hokum,
Deep Water, and
One Spoon of Chocolate, with
Kaili Blues and
Let the Bullets Fly at the Brattle and maybe the Chaplin program. Something, I fear, is getting left off
my Letterboxd page!
