Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 7 August 2026 - 13 August 2026

Having arrived back home with no particular difficulty, I am actually kind of relieved that studios are still giving The Odyssey and Spider-Man a bit of space, so I can watch some suddenly-good baseball and write movie reviews.

• I opted to skip The Samurai and the Prisoner at Fantasia once I saw that it was booked at The Coolidge Corner Theatre; so I'll get a chance to catch the new one from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, which stars Masahiro Motoki as the man defending a castle under siege who must also solve a series of murders with the perhaps-untrustworthy help of someone being held in the dungeon (Masaki Suda). It's also at Boston Common.
  
  The Coolidge also picks up three documentaries: Cookie Queens, an IFFBoston alum that follows four girls aiming to be top-sellers, is kind of delightful; I've got to admit, the exhausted-looking girl in the trailer lamenting that it never ends speaks to me (also at Boston Common). Bernstein's Wall tells the story of Leonard Bernstein in his own voice and with a great deal of archival footage; it mostly plays evening shows but there's a special presentation on Sunday with filmmaker Douglas Tirola there in person. Finally, Wild Inside takes the day shift, looking at the saga of Flaco the owl, born in captivity but escaping his enclosure to explore Manhattan in February 2023 (also at West Newton all day).
  
  Camp Coolidge midnights feature the pretty entertaining The Final Girls on Friday and a 35mm print of Heavyweights on Saturday. Midsummer Stick-Ups include The Great Muppet Caper Sunday morning, Kubrick's The Killing Tuesday evening, a 35mm print of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three on Wednesday, and a late "cult classic" screening of Danger: Diabolik on Thursday. There's a sold-out CatVideoFest show on Sunday afternoon; a "Panorama" show of documentary Do You Love Me, which examines Lebanon entirely through local archival footage, with a panel of Lebanese folks to discuss their own memories afterward; and a Big Screen Classic screening of King Hu's Dragon Inn with a pre-film seminar by Cass Clarke on Thursday.
• The widest release is One Night Only, whose trailer kind of hides that it's set in an alternate reality where sex outside wedlock is only allowed one night a year, maybe because it opts to play it as a romantic comedy rather than dystopian satire. Word is bad! It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.
  
  Also opening is Super Troopers 3, which comes 25 years after the first! I had no idea Broken Lizard was still a thing. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards.
  
  Boston Common also opens Olmo, following a teenager whose crush has asked him to a party on the night when he's expected to watch his ailing father.
  
  My eyebrows were up at the release of Eli Roth's Ice Cream Man since it looked like Vinegar Syndrome already had it listed on disc, but that's apparently the Clint Howard-starring original; the remake looks rough and apparently uses a lot of generative AI to boot. Late shows at Boston Common and Causeway Street; regular schedule at CinemaSalem.
  
  The annual Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies is at Boston Common, Kendall Square, and Assembly Row Saturday & Monday; K-pop visual album Ateez: Light the Way plays an encore at Boston Common on Saturday; music doc Katseye: Wild Hearts starts a weekend run at Boston Common and Assembly Row on Wednesday & Thursday. There are "My First Movie" previews of PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie at Boston Common, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Saturday; the preview at Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Arsenal Yards on Monday is a surprise; and Nimrods (aka Idiots) has a preview with bonus features on Tuesday at Boston Common and South Bay. There are summer matinees of Muppet Treasure Island at South Bay Monday & Wednesday; a re-release of Practical Magic plays Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row on Tuesday.
• After a quiet couple weeks, there's a bunch of South Asian cinema opening at Apple Fresh Pond and elsewhere this weekend. Korean Kanakaraju (also at Boston Common) is a Telugu-language horror comedy about a man possessed by a spirit trapped in an urn he picked up in South Korea; G.D.N. is a Tamil-language biography; DC is a Tamil-language crime film (also at Boston Common); and Thudakkam is a Malayalam-language action movie. Telugu-language action movie Dookudu plays a 15th-anniversary show on Saturday; Nepal-language drama Gauthali plays one show Monday night.
  
  Vietnamese comedy-drama Mr. Hero opens at South Bay, with a single dad creating a larger-than-life hoax to help raise money for his ailing daughter.
  
  The week's Studio Ghibli Fest entries are Tales From Earthsea, at Boston Common, Assembly Row dubbed Sunday and subtitled Monday, and Only Yesterday, playing the same venues dubbed Sunday and subtitled Monday.
• The Somerville Theatre picks up I Want Your Sex downstairs while The Odyssey continues in 70mm on the main screen (except Monday, when it's downstairs because of a live show on the stage). The Midnight Special Friday is Inland Empire for its 20th anniversary.
  
  The Capitol Theatre gives CatVideoFest 2026 a full one-week run; it also plays the Seaport Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday, The Regent Theatre Friday/Saturday/Sunday, and the Coolidge on Sunday (sold out).
• The Brattle Theatre has Funny Girl on 35mm for the Friday Film Matinee before picking up two new restorations: I Shot Andy Warhol plays Friday to Monday, with Tally Brown, New York playing Saturday & Sunday.
  
  There's a craft-along show of Donnie Darko on Monday, which is also when they get back to the vertical calendar: The War of the Worlds '53 plays Monday & Tuesday, with Earth vs. The Flying Saucers as the special added feature on the latter day. Broadcast News is the "TV Goes to Movies" show on Wednesday. My Night at Maud's is one of Eric Rohmer's Six Moral tales on Thursday, with Angel Heart for the Carolco late show that night.
• The Seaport Alamo picks up Kore-Eda's Sheep in the Box after it leaves Boston Common, and have Mikey and Nicky in case you missed it at the Brattle last weekend. The Kid's Camp show Friday & Wednesday is Marcel the Shell with Shoes On; De Palma Summer continues with Raising Cain Saturday & Wednesday. There's a "Terror Tuesday" screening of the Final Cut of Michael Mann's Manhunter, with a sold-out preview of Tony on another screen.
• WBUR's CitySpace has a "Set in Boston" show of The Heat on Friday night with the station's Sean Burns & Erin Trahan chatting with casting director Carolyn Pickman afterward.
• The Museum of Fine Arts continues their Boston French Film Festival with Case 137 (sold out Friday night), Bazaar (Saturday, with an added early show replacing the canceled The Grand Arch), and The Little Sister (Sunday afternoon).
• Landmark Kendall Square has The Tenant on Tuesday for "Art House Essentials" and Tony Scott's Days of Thunder on Wednesday for "Great Scotts".
• Outdoor screenings via Joe's Free Films this week show Chicken Run at the MIT Open Space and How to Train Your Dragon (live action?) at the Hatch Shell on Friday; Shrek 2 at Aeronaut Brewing on Saturday, Crazy Rich Asians at TimeOut Market on Monday; and Zootopia 2 at Seven Hills Park in Somerville on Thursday.
• The Museum of Science has The Odyssey on the Omnimax Screen at 7pm Friday & Saturday.
• The Lexington Venue is closed Monday & Tuesday with Spider-Man and The Odyssey playing the rest of the week. French crime flick 11.6 has a free show Saturday morning.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Wild Inside, continuing The Floaters, Spider-Man, The Odyssey, The Invite, Minions & Monsters, The Sheep Detectives, and Hadestown. Citizen Kane plays Thursday for Ty Burr's movie club.
  
  The Dedham Community Theatre opens The Odyssey with The Invite continuing.
  
  Cinema Salem has Ice Cream Man, Spider-Man, The Invite, >Rose of Nevada, and The Odyssey Friday to Monday. There's a Whodunnit Watch Party on Sunday, The Wednesday Classic is Ben-Hur, with Weirdo Wednesday down the hall and short film "Sprinkles" with director Andrew Koreznik for a wide-ranging discussion afterward.

Missed the Red Line shutdown, but the Green Line is more or less gone this week, so we'll see how much crime I can catch at the Coolidge (including Dragon Inn). Around that, there's catching up with the two Japanese films, The Odyssey, and Toy Story. Follow my Letterboxd page for more.