Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 21 August 2026 - 27 August 2026

Oof, I should not be so far behind writing Fantasia reviews that I've got nothing to link to about something opening here.

• That would be Hot Spot, a sci-fi piece from director Agnieszka Smoczynska that may not be quite so out-there as The Lure and Fugue but is still a lot nuttier than you'd expect considering Universal (well, Focus) is distributing. I had a blast and can't wait to watch it again; it's at Boston Common.
  
  We get a second dose of Jason Statham beating down child traffickers this year, with Mutiny putting the action on a cargo ship. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  Insidious: Out of the Further has a sort of direct-to-video-hits-theaters vibe in that the only person from the first five who seems to have any meaningful involvement is Lin Shaye, serving as the mentor to a single-mom dentist who can apparently bring demons out of their Hell dimension of whatever is going on with the Insidious movies (and presumably can't help but do so, because why?). It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema & XL), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), and Arsenal Yards.
  
  Dang, Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, and Anna Faris in broad comedy Spa Weekend? I feel like they each had two or three movies like this a year, once upon a time, before Faris wound up on TV because they didn't put that sort of movie in theaters that much, and if you're recruiting all of them to do it… I'm not sure where that's going, but the movie's playing The Capitol, Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  (I mean the jokes are played big, not the other thing!)
  
  The Magic Faraway Tree, one of those British family films that is surprisingly packed with talent who apparently loved the Enid Blyton books when they were younger - Andrew Garfield has apparently reached "young father" age and Michael Palin is still working! - opens at Boston Common and Causeway Street. Notably, the first show of each day at Causeway is open-captioned, making me wonder if a character is Deaf and there are more efforts being made than typical to make it accessible.
  
  Two documentaries open at Boston Common: Learning to Fly follows a former runner-turned-photographer who finds her way back to the sport during an assignment to cover ultra-marathoners; Never Stop Chasing follows a group of storm chasers tracking tornados with a lot more emphasis on thrill-seeking than meteorological research in the trailer.
  
  Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma adds West Newton, CinemaSalem, Kendall Square, and the Seaport to the Coolidge and Boston Common; Tony adds the Somerville, Fresh Pond, the Lexington Venue, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Causeway Street, the Kendall, South Bay, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill to the Coolidge, Boston Common, and the Seaport.
  
  The original The Fast and the Furious gets a week of 25th Anniversary shows at Boston Common, Causeway Street, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row (mostly Dolby Cinema); last week's Dolby Cinema shows of La La Land were apparently popular enough for it to be held over at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row. Music doc Katseye: Wild Hearts returns to Boston Common and Assembly Row for matinee shows Friday to Sunday, while NOFX doc 40 Years of Fuckin' Up plays Boston Common Sunday & Wednesday and GHOST: 2 Big to Rig plays Boston Common (Imax Laser) and the Seaport Wednesday & Thursday, Six: The Musical gets a week-long run at Boston Common after last week's special presentations. Coyote vs. Acme has preview shows Sunday afternoon at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row, while Idiots previews Tuesday at Boston Common. There's a secret preview at Kendall Square on Monday.
• There are South Asian movies at Apple Fresh Pond this weekend: Malayalam-language age-gap romance Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, Malayalam-language crime flick Khalifa, Telugu-language drama Irumudi (also at Boston Common). Bengali-language drama Roid plays Fresh Pond on Saturday; Kannada-language crime thriller Toxic plays Tuesday & Wednesday at Fresh Pond (with a Telugu-language show on Tuesday and a Hindi-language date on Wednesday), Tuesday to Thursday at Causeway Street (all days in Telugu), and Wednesday at Kendall Square. Vishwanath & Sons continues in Tamil & Telugu at Fresh Pond; Awarapan 2 continues at Fresh Pond.
  
  I don't have access to the Chinese box office page I used to check, but I gather animated adventure All Wishes Come True has been a pretty big hit during the summer, and got extra Friday/Saturday/Sunday shows put on at Causeway Street when the initial booking was just one show at 3pm all week.
  
  The Ghibli Fest movie this weekend is Castle In The Sky dubbed Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday and Subtitled Monday/Tuesday at Boston Common, Assembly Row. The remastered Your Name is held over at Boston Common; The Samurai and the Prisoner continues at the Coolidge.
• The Brattle Theatre has Paint Your Wagon on 35mm for the Friday Film Matinee, and also starts a week-long run of IFFBoston selection Late Fame, featuring Willem Dafoe as a former poet whose rediscovery starts to go to his head. They also pick up the reissue of Train to Busan, playing in the 9pm hour through Monday.
  
  That knocks a matinee and a day off the vertical schedule, so The Man from Planet X & It Came from Outer Space on Tuesday are the only alien-invasion double feature. "TV Goes to the Movies" on Wednesday features A Face in the Crowd and Nightcrawler, looking separate-admission on the site. The last of Rohmer's Six Moral Tales on Thursday is Love in the Afternoon, with Basic Instinct for the 9pm When Carolco Was King presentation.
• The Harvard Film Archive reopens this weekend with "The Cold Heart Is More Precious Than Diamonds: The Cinema of Graham Greene", featuring a combination of films adapted from his works by others, those where he wrote the screenplay, and those he wrote about as a critic. This weekend's batch, mostly on 35mm film, are The Fallen Idol and Brighton Rock Friday night, Ministry of Fear and This Gun for Hire (DCP) on Saturday, Zéro de conduite (with "Mickey's Grand Opera") Sunday afternoon, and Confidential Agent on Monday.

• The Somerville Theatre celebrates Catherine O'Hara this weekend with Beetlejuice on Friday (35mm), Waiting for Guffman (35mm) & After Hours on Saturday, and a 35mm twin bill of Best in Show & A Mighty Wind on Sunday. All that pushes The Odyssey off the main screen to a digital show when they're playing (thought most others are 70mm). The Craft is the Saturday Midnight Special. Firefighting doc Burnin' Down the House plays Monday to Wednesday.
• I don't give them a lot of credit, but kudos to The Seaport Alamo for using the Kids' Camp series to introduce children to Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami with Where Is the Friend's House Friday afternoon. De Palma summer continues with a new eponymous documentary on Saturday night, and another doc, Butthole Surfers: The Truth and Nothing Butt plays Monday with a livestreamed Q&A from the director and band after. Rose of Nevada plays sort of randomly Wednesday afternoon.
• The Boston French Film Festival concludes at The Museum of Fine Arts this weekend with Comédie-Française (Friday night & Sunday morning), Leave One Day (Saturday morning), Colors of Time (Saturday afternoon, replacing The Great Arch), and Guess Who's Calling! (Sunday afternoon).
• The Embassy Cinema is booked Friday and Saturday evenings for Moments of Youth, a coming-of-age film about a senior scavenger hunt. Writer/director Gregory Pellerito will be on-hand for intros and Q&As both nights, with several members of the cast and crew appearing remotely.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre mostly holds steady as The Odyssey continues to play most shows in 70mm on screen 1 and Camp Miasma plays many in 35mm on screen 2, but check before buying your ticket.
  
  Camp Coolidge midnights this weekend are a 35mm print of The Burning on Friday (not to be confused with Korean thriller Burning) and Ernest Goes to Camp on Saturday, also on 35mm film. Midsummer stickups include The Thomas Crown Affair '68 on 35mm film Sunday afternoon, Sexy Beast on 35mm Tuesday evening, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford on Wednesday. Monday's Big Screen Classic is Casino. There's a special screening of the new transfer of Mysterious Skin with original author Scott Heim (apparently sold out) on Tuesday, plus both a "Queering the Screen" presentation of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and a Cult Classics screening of Zardoz on Thursday night.
• Landmark Kendall Square kind of stretches the definitions of its rep programs this week with Almost Famous on Tuesday for "Art House Essentials" and Blade Runner 2049 (directed by Denis Villeneuve but produced by Ridley Scott) on Wednesday for "Great Scotts".
• The Regent Theatre in Arlington once against hosts the Lonely Seal Film, Screenplay, and Music Festival, starting Thursday with the "Liftoff" and "Comedy Showcase" short film blocks.
• Outdoor screenings via Joe's Free Films (and elsewhere) this week show Ghost Cat Anzu at the MIT Open Space and Superman ('25, I think) at the Hatch Shell on Friday, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie at Cambridge's Urban Park Roof Garden and Bring It On at Aeronaut Brewing on Saturday, and Bring It On at TimeOut Market on Monday.
• The Museum of Science has The Odyssey on the Omnimax Screen at 7pm Friday & Saturday. They also have a free screening (with RSVP) of The President and the Dragon, followed by a discussion with Carter Center experts on the campaign to stamp out Guinea Worm Disease.
• The Lexington Venue is open all week but Monday & Tuesday with Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, Wild Inside (discussion group Wednesday), and Tony.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma and Tony, continuing PAW Patrol, The End of Oak Street, Wild Inside, Spider-Man, The Invite, and Hadestown.
  
  The Dedham Community Theatre holds over The Rivals of Amziah King and The Odyssey.
  
  Cinema Salem has Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Tony, The End of Oak Street, and Spider-Man Friday to Monday. Saturday offers La Strada with post-film discussion, while Sunday has the Sawdust Variety Show. The Wednesday Classic is My Fair Lady , with Weirdo Wednesday next door.

I've got a couple things pulling me away from theaters this weekend (baseball and my nephews' birthday party), so I don't know how much time I'll have to fit in Mutiny, All Wishes Come True, the expansions, and the reissues, on top of the Graham Green . Updates on my Letterboxd page, hopefully.