We’re currently between legs of IFFBoston’s Fall Focus , but that doesn’t mean there’s any shortage of great festival screenings. On Friday, the Boston Globe continues its annual GlobeDocs festival at the Brattle Theatre (with additional screenings across the river at Coolidge Corner Theatre and Alamo Drafthouse Boston Seaport). Highlights include “Union Town” (2026), the latest feature from legendary documentarian Barbara Kopple, on Friday; “The Other Side of Memory” (2026), screening Saturday, in which Massachusetts-bred filmmaker Nick Capezzera and his sister, Anna, seek out their respective biological parents in South Korea, to strikingly different results; and closing night (Sunday) selection “Playing POTUS” (2026), in which a range of comedians (including Will Ferrell, Dana Carvey, Maya Rudolph, and Keegan-Michael Key) reflect on the experience of satirizing sitting heads of state. For the full schedule (including pass and ticket info), check out GlobeDocs’ website.
On Friday, the Harvard Film Archive begins its latest artfully curated repertory series. In Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema 1945-1960, programmer Ehsan Khoshbakht explores the ways in which U.K. filmmakers grappled with questions of uncertainty and cultural identity in the wake of World War II. The series begins Friday with two very different films: Alexander Mackendrick’s “Mandy” (1952), the tender story of a little deaf girl learning to fit in with her classmates, and J. Lee Thompson’s “The Yellow Balloon” (1953), a jet-black film noir in which a young boy is drawn into a criminal underworld in the ruins of post-Blitz London. Saturday brings a pair of socially progressive features in Basil Dearden’s “Pool of London” (1951), which casts Black actor Earl Cameron as its romantic lead, and “Turn the Key Softly” (1953), which follows three women as they readjust to society following their respective prison sentences. “It Always Rains on Sunday” (1947), appropriately screening on Sunday, and “Hunted” (1952), on Monday, both tell of fugitives making their way through the bleak landscapes of postwar London. The series continues through Nov. 20, with more rarely screened gems from this unique era.
Cinephiles with a taste for podcasts will likely be familiar with “You Must Remember This,” film writer Karina Longworth’s acclaimed series that delves into “the secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century.” To celebrate the podcast’s latest season, “The Bisexuals,” which charts a path through early queer Hollywood by way of the life of singer and so-called black widow Libby Holman, Longworth visits the Brattle this week to introduce a trio of thematically relevant films. Holman herself appears in the landmark surrealist feature “Dreams That Money Can Buy” (1947), which includes contributions from such art world luminaries as Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and John Cage; it screens Tuesday in a double feature with Otto Preminger’s art-world noir classic “Laura” (1944). On Wednesday, Longworth introduces “A Place in the Sun” (1951), whose star, Montgomery Clift, was among the closeted Hollywood royalty who were drawn into Holman’s web. Truth is often stranger than fiction; with these films and Longworth’s introductions, you get both.
On Tuesday, the Somerville Theatre kicks off its sixth annual Halloween Hullabaloo, a series of lovingly selected double features from guest programmer Julia Marchese, co-host of the long-running podcast “Horror Movie Survival Guide.” Tuesday brings a pair of creepy house parties in George A. Romero’s beyond-influential zombie masterpiece “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s gonzo cult classic “Hausu” (1977). Things get zany Wednesday with the self-explanatory “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” (1988) and Don Coscarelli’s oddball nightmare “Phantasm” (1979). On Thursday, Marchese pays tribute to the king — Stephen King, that is — with “Cujo” (1983) and the original “Pet Sematary” (1989). The series wraps up Friday with a very special guest, who we will discuss in next week’s column.
This being spooky season, the local cinemas are pulling out all the stops with too many eerie offerings to count — but we’re going to do our best. On Friday and Saturday, the Museum of Science projects Ridley Scott’s space-horror classic “Alien” (1979) onto the gigantic screen of the Mugar Omni Theater. Also on Saturday, the Kendall Square Cinema continues its Monster Madness series with “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954). On Sunday, Claudio Simonetti, of the legendary Italian prog rock band Goblin, stops by the Somerville to perform his score to Dario Argento’s 1982 giallo classic “Tenebre.” (Similarly cool, though somewhat less eerie, is the Psychedelic Cinema Orchestra’s live score of Dziga Vertov’s silent 1928 documentary “The Eleventh Year” at the Somerville on Saturday.) On Monday, thrifty horror hounds have their choice between two free screenings: Roger Corman’s “The Premature Burial” (1962), presented by the Somerville Ciné-Club at the Somerville Public Library Central Branch, and John Carpenter’s slasher classic “Halloween” (1978) at the Brattle.
Don’t stop trick-or-treating yet — there’s more! The Kendall concludes its October offerings with Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” (2024) on Tuesday and John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982) on Wednesday. If that Eggers screening whets your fangs, head to Lesley University’s Marran Theater Thursday for a very special screening of F.W. Murnau’s original “Nosferatu” (1922), with a live performance of the score played by members of the Arpeggione Ensemble on vintage instruments from the early 20th century. And if you prefer your vampires with a more contemporary bite, stop by Cambridge Public Library (Central Square branch) that same night for a free screening of Ryan Coogler’s modern classic “Sinners” (2025). All that should have you well and truly prepared for Halloween proper next weekend — if you’re not too scared to leave the house.
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