Weekend Picks: 'The Kid' And 'The Cabin In The Woods'

Jim Sullivan, editor of Jim Sullivan Ink, joins Radio Boston to round up some ideas for the weekend ahead.

What: "The Cabin in the Woods”

Where: Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge

When: July 5 - July 8 9:30 p.m. — additional 11:30 p.m. showing on Friday and Saturday

Price: $6.75-$9.75, tickets can be purchased here.

More:  The Brattle doesn’t usually show Hollywood films — it’s noted for art films, off-beat indies and cult movies. But the theater’s programmer Ned Hinkle wanted to bring back “The Cabin in the Woods” — what you might call a "smart slasher" film.

He said,"When we play Hollywood movies, it’s because we think they should be seen in a different context — not to over-intellectualize it." And Hinkle says that this film "digs really deeply into mythology of philosophy of the slasher movie."

What: "The Kid" reading

Where: Porter Square Books, Cambridge

When: July 5, 7:00 p.m.

Price: Free

More: You may remember the movie "Precious" from a few years ago, and that film was based on a book called "Push" by Sapphire. Sapphire, a.k.a Romona Lofton, has now written a sequel called "The Kid."

"The Kid" takes place 15 years after "Push," and the title refers to Precious' second son, who was fathered by her own father. The book is the son's first-person narrative as he moves from one wreck of a home to another. It's grim — so much so that New York Times reviewer Danielle Evans raised the question that it might even be "tragedy porn," where the reader derives pleasure by witnessing a narrative of extreme suffering.

What: The Baseball Project

Where: House of Blues Foundation Room

When: July 7, 5:00 p.m.

Price: Free, 21+

More: As you may know, the Red Sox have a double-header against the Yankees on Saturday, and in between games, a group called The Baseball Project is going to be performing a free show at the House of Blues Foundation Room.

The band consists of Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate, his wife Linda Pitmon, Scott McCaughey of the Minus 5 and their most famous members, who go in and out of the group, are former REM guitarist Peter Buck and bassist Mike Mills. Mills will be there on Saturday, and they’ll be joined by Fenway organist Josh Kantor. I talked to Wynn recently and he said “We’re full-on baseball geeks. We talk the talk and walk the walk,” and they have a handful of songs about the Red Sox, despite the fact that Wynn is actually a Yankees fan.