Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 25 September 2026 - 1 October 2026

It kind of feels like Fall Movie Season begins this weekend, with stuff that could possibly be awards contenders, if not certain ones.

• Primetime features Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen, who hosted the "To Catch a Predator" segments on Primetime Live, which were a sensation but drew controversy for being lurid and self-aggrandizing. It's at the Coolidge, the Somerville, Fresh Pond, Lexington, West Newton, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport (including Dolby Atmos), South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Director David Ayer reunites with Brad Pitt in Heart of the Beast, playing a veteran with his retired army dog who crash-land deep in the Alaskan wilderness and must rely on each other to get out. It's at the Captiol, Fresh Pond, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Get ready for a lot of animated films with young women going through portals to strange lands this fall, starting with Forbidden Island from DreamWorks, which starts in 1990s Manila and sends two friends to a strange world where they gain strange powers but may forget themselves and their old lives if they don't return. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, West Newton, Boston Common (including Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D & Spanish), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Romantic comedy Charlie Harper features Nick Robinson (Charlie) & Emilia Jones (Harper) as a couple hitting the first bumps in their relationships; it plays Boston Common and the Seaport. The Stunt Driver stars Jay Baruchel in a true-life comedy about a daredevil looking jump a mile-wide river in a rocket-propelled car, opening at Boston Common. Also coming from the Great White North is You Had to Be There (subtitled "How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love & Overalls, and Created a Community That Changed the World (in a Canadian Kind of Way)"), a documentary on a 1972 stage production that set the stage for decades of Canadian comedy. It's at Boston Common, Lexington, and West Newton.
  
  Marvel re-releases Avengers Endgame in an "Encore" edition that includes a few minutes of new footage and presumably some sort of preview for Avengers: Doomsday, playing Fresh Pond, Jordan's Furniture (Imax Friday-Sunday), Boston Common (including Imax Laser 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & XL 2D & RealD 3D), Causeway Street (including XL 2D & RealD 3D), the Seaport, South Bay (including Imax Xenon 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Assembly Row (including Imax Xenon 2D & Dolby Cinema 2D & RealD 3D), Arsenal Yards (including CWX), and Chestnut Hill. The Hispanic Heritage Month feature at Boston Common this week is Spanglish.
  
  Documentary No Limbs: No Limits: The NickV Story plays Boston Common Saturday; concert film Linkin Park: Unshatter plays Boston Common and Kendall Square on Wednesday night. There are early-access screenings for Verity at Fresh Pond, Boston Common (Dolby Cinema), Causeway Street (XL), the Seaport ("Girls' Night Out"), South Bay (Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (Dolby Cinema), and Chestnut Hill Wednesday.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre has a couple other notable openings: The History of Concrete is a documentary from John Wilson, which apparently gets meta as he tries to pitch the doc as a Hallmark-style movie. It also opens at Boston Common and the Seaport.
  
  Also opening at the Coolidge is Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty, with Rinko Kikuchi as a ballroom dancer making a comeback and perhaps finding romance with a new teacher. It also plays West Newton, Boston Common, and the Seaport.
  
  The Coolidge hosts a "Frizzi 2 Fulci" concert on Friday night, tying into their Midnight show of The Beyond on 35mm Friday; a new restoration of Cannibal Holocaust plays Saturday. "Welcome to the Art House" continues with Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives on Sunday afternoon and Nostalghia Wednesday evening. Sunday offers a screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail to tie into the upcoming Spamalot run at the Wang. Another tie-in (perhaps) is Strictly Ballroom playing Monday night, with Tony Gannana doing a pre-show seminar. The Halloween "Prints of Darkness" series/class starts Tuesday, fittingly with 1922 silent Häxan. Thursday's Big Screen Classic is a 35mm print of Witness.
• Telugu-language historic action film The Paradise opened Wednesday and continues at Apple Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, and South Bay. Also opening at Fresh Pond are Meesaya Murukku 2, a Tamil-language film which picks up its chronicle of the career of Hiphop Tamizha Adhi; Tamil-language crime drama Dorothy, and Hindi-language fantasy-actioner The Vvan: Force of the Forest. Hanuman Ansh continues at Fresh Pond.
  
  The week's Ghibli Fest entry is Princess Mononoke, playing Boston Common and Assembly Row dubbed Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday and subtitled Monday/Tuesday; there's also a presentation of the stage version of Spirited Away at Boston Common on Thursday. Akira's big-screen re-release continues at the Coolidge.
  
  Korean alien-attack movie Hope continues at at Boston Common.
• The Brattle Theatre has two Chaplin shorts for their Friday Film Matinee - "A Dog's Life" & "Shoulder Amrs" - with pre-recorded soundtracks on their 35mm prints. After that, they have a selection of new restorations from the Il Cinema Ritrovato, with Charles Burnett's My Brother's Wedding (Friday/Saturday), Agens Varda's Vagabond (Friday), Kon Ichikawa's Ten Women in Black (Saturday), Tod Browning's Freaks (Saturday), Tsui Hark's The Blade (Saturday), Guy Maddin's Careful (Sunday/Tuesday), Luchino Visconti's Bellissima (Sunday), John Berry's He Ran All the Way (Sunday), Franco Rossi's Smog, an Elements of Cinema presentation of Mitchell Leisen's Midnight (Monday), F.W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (Tuesday), Diva de Jean-Jacques Beineix (Wednesday), and Martin Scorsese's New York, New York (Thursday).
• The Harvard Film Archive has a couple more from the João César Monteiro series, with Recollections of the Yellow House on Friday and God's Comedy on Saturday. The Saturday Student Cinematheque is Federico Fellini's Amarcord on 35mm, and then they spend two days of "The Adventures of Lotte Reiniger", with Robert Humphreville accompanying The Adventures of Prince Achmed on Sunday afternoon and a selection of her short films on 16mm film Monday evening.
• The Somerville Theatre salutes Dolly Parton on Friday (9/25), with Nine to Five on 35mm for $9.25. Monday's F— the Nazis show is Casablanca on 35mm, with Pink Flamingos on film for Cult Classics Tuesday They've also got one more 70mm presentation of The Odyssey on Thursday.
  
  French comedy/drama The Marching Band continues at The Capitol. It's also the end of the month, so Monday should be the day for the monthly Disasterpiece Theatre tape-trading/trash-talk night.
• The Seaport Alamo has an AGFADrome mystery screening late Friday, and has Destroy All Monsters for the monthly TohoScope show Saturday & Sunday. NOFX: 40 Years of Fuckin' Up plays Saturday (with another show in a month). The Birdcage plays Monday, there's a special presentation of Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon on Tuesday, there's a Nacho Libre movie party on Wednesday, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day as part of the Carolco series on Thursday.
• Landmark Kendall Square has music doc Occupational Hazard: The First Coral Reefers Saturday afternoon. September's rep series finish with Mean Girls for "School Days" Tuesdays and The Stepford Wives for Wednesday's Nicole Kidman show.

• The Museum of Science has The Matrix on the Omnimax dome Friday & Saturday evening for Sci-Fi Supersized, and a free-with-RSVP screening of Vivo for Hispanic Heritage month on Saturday.
• RPM Festival has a show at CAMlab Harvard University featuring films and performances by Hampshire College Faculty & Alumni on Saturday.
• The Regent Theatre has screenings of the 2026 edition of the Manhattan Short Film Festival on Sunday & Thursday.
• CineFest Latino 2025 opens Wednesday at the Coolidge with American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez with director David Alvarado on hand for a Q&A, moving over to ArtsEmerson's Paramount Theater for Theydream with director William Caballero there on Thursday.
• The Museum of Fine Arts has an "Exhibition on Screen" presentation on Thursday devoted to James McNeill Whistler.
• The Taiwan Film Festival of Boston has completed its in-person portion but the virtual festival will run through 11 October (the website is a bit confusing; go to the ticketing page).
• The Lexington Venue has is open Friday to Sunday and Tuesday & Wednesday with Primetime and You Had to Be There (no show Tuesday). Palestine '36 also plays Wednesday.
  
  The West Newton Cinema gets Forgotten Island, Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty, Primetime, and You Had to Be There, and keeps Filipiñana, Coyote vs. Acme, and Tony. They show 1924 Baby Peggy feature Captain January with live accompaniment by Leslie & Barbara McMichael on Friday, a "Musical Matinee" of High Society on Saturday, documentary featurette The Boston Bulldogs (with panel discussion) on Sunday, and Situations with director Greg Vrotsos present for a Q&A on Thursday.
  
  The Dedham Community Theatre holds over Bad Apples and The Weight.
  
  Cinema Salem is going with Salem witches this Halloween season with Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic 2 taking up most of the screen times Friday to Monday. Friday's Night Light show is Chow Yun-fat in John Woo's The Killer, there's a sold out Rocky Horror Picture Show with Teseracte Players on Saturday (Full Body Cast at Boston Common). 2001: A Space Odyssey is the Wednesday Classics, with Weirdo Wednesday next door.
  
  The Showcase in Dedham opens Hello Beautiful, a drama starring Tricia Helfer as a woman dealing with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The storm is making the weekend crazy, as I had tickets for the Sunday Red Sox game that got moved up to Friday, so I'm no longer worried about Destroy All Monsters bumping into it and, as a bonus, maybe the new time for the Friday game will make it possible to get to the AGFADrome show (no tickets sold one day out!). Also got tickets for Deathgasm 2, which makes for a pretty full week already before even looking at new releases. Also probably hitting two at the Brattle Saturday, excited in part because I wind up staring at a poster for The Blade half the times I use the men's room there. Updates on my Letterboxd page.