West Newton Cinema

West Newton Cinema Reads & Newtonville Books present: The iconic filmmaker John Sayles reading from and discussing his new novel, Crucible, along with his classic film, City of Hope, with Here & Now’s Robin Young. Join director John Sayles as he reads from his new novel, Crucible, following a screening of his riveting film, City of Hope (1991). In Crucible, Henry Ford—the Elon Musk of his day—aims to rule both an automotive empire and the rambunctious city of Detroit. In an epic tale ranging from the Prohibition Era to the Second World War, featuring violent labor disputes, misbegotten jungle expeditions, a tragic race riot, and the gestapo tactics of Ford’s private army, Sayles does what he’s become famous for: shows us, through multiple perspectives, the country in which we live. In City of Hope, an old apartment complex stands in the way of a major commercial development. Its owner, Joe, feels pressure to torch it, and Joe’s estranged son, Nick, soon becomes a pawn in the game. Following the arrest of two teenagers, idealistic city councilman Wynn finds himself torn between what he thinks is right, and what his Black constituents want. Sayles and Young will walk us through this incredible cast of characters and the themes that make both Crucible and City of Hope so crucial to understanding our current moment. Their talk will follow with a signing in the lobby, with books for sale courtesy of Newtonville Books. John Sayles is an independent filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and once for the National Book Award. He has written eight novels, including, most recently, Jamie MacGillivray and To Save the Man. Robin Young is a host of Here and Now, the nationally syndicated radio program produced by WBUR. A Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Robin has been a correspondent for ABC, CBS, NBC, and the Discovery Channel. She is a former guest host of The Today Show and one of the first hosts on Boston’s ground-breaking television show, Evening Magazine.

What if rainbows were actually time travelers flying across the sky? On his first flight through time, Arco (10) crash lands from the year 3000 into our near future. His fall is witnessed by a little girl, Iris, who helps him return home.

ABOUT THE FILM SINNERS is a genre-defying period horror drama written and directed by Ryan Coogler, set in 1932 Mississippi during the Jim Crow era. The story follows twin brothers Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore, portrayed by Michael B. Jordan in dual roles, who return to their hometown to open a juke joint for the local Black community, only to find that an ancient, supernatural evil threatens their celebration and their lives. The film blends Southern Gothic, blues music, historical memory, and supernatural horror, creating a richly layered narrative about community, survival, and cultural expression. COMPLIMENTARY POST SCREENING PANEL DISCUSSION SPONSORED BY SPARK NEWTON Our panel will explore the film’s fusion of music, history, and horror, considering how SINNERS engages with African-American cultural traditions, the symbolic role of blues music in confronting evil, and the artistic choices that make the film a singular cinematic experience. JAKE BLOUNT, A.M. Musician, Scholar, and Music Consultant on SINNERS; Specialist in Traditional African-American Music and Afrofuturism Jake Blount is an award-winning musician and scholar whose work bridges performance, research, and advocacy. He specializes in African-American traditional music and Afrofuturist approaches, and his recordings have appeared on best-of lists from NPR, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone. Blount served as a music consultant on SINNERS and his work often interrogates the cultural and historical roots of American music. JOEL LARUE SMITH, Ph.D. Associate Teaching Professor, Tufts, Pianist, Composer, Arranger Joel LaRue Smith has been the Director of the Tufts Jazz Orchestra (formerly the Big Band) and Jazz Activities at Tufts University since 1996. He is also a pianist and composer known for moving seamlessly between jazz, classical, gospel, and Afro-Cuban repertoire. He has performed globally at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Royal Albert Hall, and has received numerous awards including ASCAP’s distinguished George and Ira Gershwin Award. BILL LOWE, Ph.D. Composer, Performer, Educator; Leader of Signifyin’ Natives Bill Lowe is a distinguished bassist trombonist, tuba player, composer, and educator with decades of experience in creative music. His ensemble Signifyin’ Natives explores African-American musical traditions through improvisation and collaboration, and Lowe has performed and taught extensively throughout the United States and internationally. MODERATED BY: SARAH VINCENT Sarah G. Vincent is a freelance writer and film critic, who writes for sarahgvincentviews.com, Boston Movie News, In Between Drafts, and AwardsWatch. She is a Tomato-approved critic and a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, Critics Choice Association, Online Association of Female Film Critics, African American Film Critics Association, and formerly the Alliance of Women Film Journalists.

ABOUT THE FILM: From award-winning writer-director Mona Fastvold (The World to Come, The Brutalist) comes the extraordinary true legend of Ann Lee, founder of the devotional sect known as the Shakers. Academy Award nominee Amanda Seyfried stars as the Shaker's irrepressible leader, who preached gender and social equality and was revered by her followers. The Testament of Ann Lee captures the ecstasy and agony of her quest to build a utopia, featuring more than a dozen traditional Shaker hymns reimagined as rapturous movements with choreography by Celia Rowlson-Hall (Vox Lux) and original songs & score by Academy Award winner Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist). PANEL DISCUSSION FOLLOWS A post-screening conversation will explore the film’s portrayal of Ann Lee and Shaker spirituality, with particular attention to women’s religious leadership, utopian community-building, and the historical contexts of dissenting Protestant movements in the Atlantic world. CHRISTOPHER H. EVANS, Ph.D. Christopher Evans is Professor Emeritus of the History of Christianity at Boston University School of Theology. A teacher and scholar of American religion, he is the author of several books including Do Everything: The Biography of Frances Willard (Oxford University Press), The Social Gospel in American Religion, a History (New York University Press),and Histories of American Christianity, an Introduction (Baylor University Press). MARGARET LAMBERTS BENDROTH, Ph.D. Historian of American Protestantism; former Executive Director, Congregational Library & Archives (Boston) Margaret Lamberts Bendroth is a historian of American religion and the author of FUNDAMENTALISM AND GENDER, 1875 TO THE PRESENT and other works on Protestant history. She served for many years as Executive Director of the Congregational Library & Archives. MODERATED BY PROF. JULIE LEVINSON Prof. Julie Levinson is Professor of Film at Babson College. She has been a film curator for many arts institutions including Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art, the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Boston Film/Video Foundation, the Celebration of Black Cinema, and the Flaherty Film Seminar.

Winner of the Golden Lion Best Film prize at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER is the eagerly-awaited new film from Jim Jarmusch. Funny, tender and astutely observed, this is an intimate exploration of the universal intricacies of family dynamics. Starring Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat. Told in the form of a triptych divided into chapters set in New Jersey, Dublin and Paris, each story concerns the relationships between adult children, their somewhat distant parent (or parents), and each other. Blending remarkable performances from its ensemble cast with Jarmusch’s wry and idiosyncratic observations of everyday life, the iconic indie director’s latest serves as a timely reminder that you can choose your friends and your lovers, but you can’t choose your family.

Special Screening Hosted in Partnership with Newton At Home. ABOUT A weatherman finds himself inexplicably living the same day over and over again.

From Academy Award® winning writer/director Chloé Zhao, HAMNET tells the powerful love story that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.

DUE TO THE SNOWSTORM, THIS HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FOR FEBRUARY 1 at 5pm. Join us for screenings of Buster Keaton's, THE GENERAL (1926), and Charlie Chaplin's, THE IMMIGRANT (1917) with live musical accompaniment. ABOUT THE FILMS: THE GENERAL, Buster Keaton- After being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines. THE IMMIGRANT, Charlie Chaplin- Charlie is an immigrant who endures a challenging voyage and gets into trouble as soon as he arrives in America. LIVE MUSIC BRUCE VOGT Bruce Vogt is a Canadian pianist who has devoted a distinguished career to performing and teaching. He has toured cities and towns of all sizes throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician. He has mentored generations of young artists in his role as professor of piano at the University of Victoria, and has lectured widely, leading master classes, workshops, and adjudicating for festivals. Bruce has sustained an interest in exploring the many conversations to be found between music and film, literature and painting. This has evolved into an unusual side hustle: improvising accompaniments for the great films of the silent era. He has developed a robust career in this multimedia sphere bringing sound to many masterpieces -- by Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Griffith, Sjöström, Von Sternberg and many others. In movie theaters across Europe, Asia, and North America, he has provided for audiences a greater intimacy with these films, transforming the silence of the medium into another sphere.

PLEASE NOTE: The February 8th show is Romanian with English subtitles and the February 9th show is Romanian with Russian subtitles. In his striking new staging of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, director Timofey Kulyabin and writer Roman Dozhanskiy place the Tyrones in a solitary luxury hotel room — a liminal space where time hangs suspended. Celebrated author Edmund Tyrone confronts the ghosts of his past and the burden of his fame in a night that stretches into endless regret. Stripped of domestic comfort, O’Neill’s family drama unfolds as an intense study of addiction, longing, and impossible love, with four lost souls seeking connection amid the wreckage of memory.

Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.

Join us for a screening of Mary Pickford's, SPARROWS (1926) with live musical accompaniment. ABOUT THE FILM: Molly, the eldest child at a baby farm hidden deep in a swamp, must rescue the others when their cruel master decides that one of them will be disposed of. LIVE MUSIC BRUCE VOGT Bruce Vogt is a Canadian pianist who has devoted a distinguished career to performing and teaching. He has toured cities and towns of all sizes throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician. He has mentored generations of young artists in his role as professor of piano at the University of Victoria, and has lectured widely, leading master classes, workshops, and adjudicating for festivals. Bruce has sustained an interest in exploring the many conversations to be found between music and film, literature and painting. This has evolved into an unusual side hustle: improvising accompaniments for the great films of the silent era. He has developed a robust career in this multimedia sphere bringing sound to many masterpieces -- by Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Griffith, Sjöström, Von Sternberg and many others. In movie theaters across Europe, Asia, and North America, he has provided for audiences a greater intimacy with these films, transforming the silence of the medium into another sphere.

From director Park Chan-wook and based on Donald E. Westlake's novel THE AX, the story follows Man-su on his desperate hunt for a new job after his abrupt layoff from the paper company he served for 25 years.

Back at West Newton Cinema, January 23. When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunites to rescue one of their own's daughter.

Come hang out with Brandt and Ellen at this National Grammar Day grammar extravaganza! Ellen will set up her nationally acclaimed Grammar Table before each show to answer your most pressing grammar questions, resolve long-standing family grammar disputes, and take complaints. After each screening, please stick around for a Q&A with Brandt and Ellen, followed by a book signing of Ellen’s national bestseller, also called Rebel with a Clause. ABOUT Rebel with a Clause is a charming and insightful documentary that follows grammarian Ellen Jovin as she travels the country with her “Grammar Table,” sparking spontaneous conversations about commas, clauses, and the quirks of English with curious passersby. What begins as a playful educational project turns into a moving exploration of civility, curiosity, and the unexpected ways language brings people together.

20th Century Studios’ Send Help, the upcoming darkly comedic psychological thriller from genre-bending visionary director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, The Evil Dead). The all-original film stars Oscar® and Tony Award® nominated actress Rachel McAdams (Spotlight, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., Mean Girls), Dylan O’Brien (Twinless, Saturday Night), Edyll Ismail (La Brea), Dennis Haysbert (Far from Heaven), Xavier Samuel (Elvis), Chris Pang (Crazy Rich Asians), Thaneth Warakulnukroh (Thai Cave Rescue), and Emma Raimi (Happy Pills), and releases in theaters nationwide on January 30, 2026. Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) and Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), two colleagues who find themselves stranded on a deserted island after they are the only survivors of a plane crash. On the island, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, but ultimately, it becomes an unsettling and darkly humorous battle of wills and wits to make it out alive. “I’ve always loved stories where interesting, dynamic characters are pushed to extremes,” says director Sam Raimi. “In our story, the power shifts create an escalating situation that’s brimming with unexpected turns and suspense.” Send Help is produced by Raimi and Zainab Azizi (65), executive produced by JJ Hook (The Amateur), and written by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Friday the 13th, Baywatch), with original music by Danny Elfman (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman).

1916. As war rages on the Western Front, the Choral Society in Ramsden, Yorkshire has lost most of its men to the army. The Choral’s ambitious committee, determined to press ahead, decides to recruit local young males to swell their ranks. They must also engage a new chorus master, and despite their suspicions that he has something to hide, their best bet seems to be Dr. Henry Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes) – driven, uncompromising, and recently returned from a career in Germany. As conscription papers start to arrive, the whole community discovers that the best response to the chaos that is laying waste to their lives is to make music together.

Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival but soon realizes that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting.

From award-winning writer-director Mona Fastvold (The World to Come, The Brutalist) comes the extraordinary true legend of Ann Lee, founder of the devotional sect known as the Shakers. Academy Award nominee Amanda Seyfried stars as the Shaker's irrepressible leader, who preached gender and social equality and was revered by her followers. The Testament of Ann Lee captures the ecstasy and agony of her quest to build a utopia, featuring more than a dozen traditional Shaker hymns reimagined as rapturous movements with choreography by Celia Rowlson-Hall (Vox Lux) and original songs & score by Academy Award winner Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist).

January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A 5-year old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab.

In Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Zootopia 2,” detectives Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman) find themselves on the twisting trail of a mysterious reptile who arrives in Zootopia and turns the animal metropolis upside down. To crack the case, Judy and Nick must go undercover to unexpected new parts of town, where their growing partnership is tested like never before.