It’s a new year, and what better way to shake off the cobwebs of the old than to spend the day with cinema’s original comic anarchists? As it has since time immemorial, the Brattle Theatre celebrates New Year’s Day with its annual Marx Brothers Marathon, an all-day party with Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo. This year’s lineup consists of four of the brothers’ classic comedies from their Paramount era: “The Cocoanuts” (1929), “Animal Crackers” (1930), “Monkey Business” (1931), and “Duck Soup” (1933). “Duck Soup” — the Marx Brothers’ masterpiece and one of the funniest screen comedies of all time (Groucho and Harpo’s famous mirror routine having lost none of its power over the past near-century) — fittingly bookends the event with both a matinee and an evening screening. Whether you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Marxist or just looking to laugh through your post-New Year’s hangover delirium, you’re not likely to have a better time at the movies in the next 364 days.
On Friday, the Brattle launches week-long runs of two recent raves. Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident” (2025) is one of the most gripping and timely movies of the past year. A mechanic, recognizing the clomp of a customer’s prosthetic leg, becomes convinced that he’s come face to face with the cruel jailer who tortured him for years. However, since he was blindfolded for the duration of his sentence, he can’t be sure, so he kidnaps the man and consults with an ad-hoc team of fellow onetime prisoners. The film’s critique of the Iranian regime’s abuses of power is particularly cogent coming from Panahi, jailed as a political dissident for six months in 2022-23, and earlier this month arrested in absentia. On the other end of the spectrum is Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s bonkers genre pastiche “Reflection in a Dead Diamond” (2025), a wildly stylized, borderline abstract homage to the pulpy Italian spy thrillers of the 1960s and ’70s. Both films run Friday through Tuesday, and, while not officially presented as a double feature, offer the opportunity for a true case of cinematic whiplash.
The Kendall Square Cinema this week presents repertory screenings of two 1970s classics that are completely different yet equally influential. The theater kicks off its first Retro Replay series of the year on Tuesday with Richard Donner’s original blockbuster adaptation of “Superman” (1978). Then, on Wednesday, the Kendall turns its Filmmaker Focus on Stanley Kubrick and his 1971 adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ “A Clockwork Orange.” As diametrically opposed as the two films are, both instantly entered the cultural lexicon, for their visuals (Superman’s iconic cape and tights, Alex DeLarge’s unmistakable white jumpsuit and bowler), their music (John Williams’ rousing horns, Wendy Carlos’ chilly synth riffs on Beethoven), and perhaps most of all their performances (Christopher Reeve as Krypton’s favorite boy in blue, Malcolm McDowell as the brutal leader of the droogs). Between the two, you have a pretty handy illustration of both ends of the ’70s cultural spectrum.
On Thursday, the Somerville Cine-Club once again takes up residence at the Somerville Public Library Central Branch with a free screening of one of the most out-there sci-fi epics of the 1960s. Adapted from the very risque (and very French) comic book of the same name, Roger Vadim’s “Barbarella” (1968) casts Jane Fonda as the titular spacefaring heroine, who embarks on an interstellar voyage of sexual discovery on the orders of professor Duran Duran (!). While no one would likely hold “Barbarella” against, say, “2001” as the greatest space opera of 1968, it retains an undeniable campy charm and an irresistibly groovy aesthetic. The screening will be preceded by a true rarity from the Cine-Club’s vaults: an original, silent, black-and-white 8mm print of a condensed version of “Star Wars” (1977), sold for home viewing in the last gasp of that format at the dawn of VHS. As winter holds us in its icy grip, who wouldn’t want to escape to the stars?
We lost some true giants in 2025, so to cover all the bases the Brattle kicks off an all-purpose Cinematic Tribute series on Wednesday. The series begins with a 35mm print of Francis Ford Coppola’s all-timer “The Godfather” (1972), which, in addition to being in serious contention for the title of Best American Film Ever Made, features an early supporting role from the much-missed Diane Keaton as Michael Corleone’s long-suffering wife Kay. It’s followed by a crime picture of a different sort: Perry Henzell’s genre-defining “The Harder They Come” (1972), starring the late reggae legend Jimmy Cliff as a Jamaican singer turned outlaw (and revolutionary icon). The list of dearly departed screen greats is, sadly, a long one (watch this space next week as the Brattle’s series continues), but it offers the silver lining of an excuse to catch some true classics on the big screen.
Oscar Goff is a writer and film critic based in Somerville. He is film editor and senior critic for the Boston Hassle and his work has appeared in the monthly Boston Compass newspaper and publications such as WBUR’s The ARTery and iHeartNoise. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and the Online Film Critics Society.
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