The original summer blockbuster Jaws is back at Cineplex Park Lane for at least one screening this Friday.

There’s a local annual film festival, and it might be ok to call it the Atlantic International Film Festival, though you probably can’t call it AIFF, and it is presenting an outdoor free screening of The Grand Seduction this Friday evening at the Public Gardens.

• In theatres, seen and recommended:
  •  Jaws, Steven Spielberg, USA, 1975, 124 minutes — Halifax showtimes
• In theatres, notable:
  • Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan, UK/USA/France/Netherlands, 2017, 106 minutes [94] — Halifax showtimes: IMAX Digital
  • The Big Sick, Michael Showalter, USA, 2017, 124 minutes [87] — Halifax showtimes
  • Baby Driver, Edgar Wright, UK/USA, 2017, 113 minutes [86] — Halifax showtimes
  • The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola, USA, 2017, 94 minutes [76] — Halifax showtimes
  • Maudie, Aisling Walsh, Ireland/Canada, 2016, 115 minutes [63] — Halifax showtimes
• Halifax screenings this week:
  • Monday (Jul 17) — Some Like It Hot, Cineplex Park Lane, 9:20pm, $6.99. Billy Wilder, USA, 1959, 121 minutes.
  • Tuesday (Jul 18) — Some Like It Hot, Cineplex Park Lane, 4:15pm, $6.99. Billy Wilder, USA, 1959, 121 minutes.
  • Wednesday (Jul 19) — Some Like It Hot, Cineplex Park Lane & Dartmouth Crossing, 7pm, $6.99. Billy Wilder, USA, 1959, 121 minutes.
  • Friday (Jul 21) — The Grand Seduction, Public Gardens, 9pm, free—please bring food donation for Feed NS. Don McKellar, Canada, 2013, 115 minutes.

This Sunday, Cineplex’s Classic Films series brings you maybe the greatest performance of Marilyn Monroe on film—Some Like It Hot. “You may prefer things classical or like them hot; Wilder’s film achieves both,” wrote Peter Bradshaw when the restored edition of this cheekily gender-playful comedy of cross-dressed errors returned to screens in 2014.

The much buzzed-about convention-busting rom-com The Big Sick, “which tells a great story with waves of deep feeling and questions of identity and makes the whole thing feel like a breeze,” has moved in at the Oxford.

The Central Library’s Featured Director series of free screenings of Richard Linklater films wraps up on Tuesday with the drawn-from-real life dark comedy Bernie, which features Jack Black forgoing his usual schtick for a “satirical creation of considerable substance.” Carbon Arc programmer Zack Miller introduces this screening.

The local film festival, whatever it’s called now, has an outdoor family-friendly free screening of Moana lined up for this Saturday evening.

• In theatres, notable:
  • The Big Sick, Michael Showalter, USA, 2017, 124 minutes [87] — Halifax showtimes
  • Baby Driver, Edgar Wright, UK/USA, 2017, 113 minutes [86] — Halifax showtimes
  • The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola, USA, 2017, 94 minutes [76] — Halifax showtimes
  • Maudie, Aisling Walsh, Ireland/Canada, 2016, 115 minutes [63] — Halifax showtimes
• Halifax screenings this week:
  • Tuesday (Jul 11) — Bernie, Central Library, 6:30pm, free, introduced by Zack Miller. Richard Linklater, USA, 2011, 99 minutes.
  • Saturday (Jul 15) — Moana, Dartmouth Crossing Pondside Amphitheatre, 9pm, free—please bring food donation for Feed NS. Ron Clements & John Musker, USA, 2016, 107 minutes.
  • Sunday (Jul 16) — Some Like It Hot, Cineplex Park Lane & Dartmouth Crossing, 12:55pm, $6.99. Billy Wilder, USA, 1959, 121 minutes.

This weekend saw a couple of very notable films open on Cineplex screens. The new remake of The Beguiled, which won Sofia Coppola the best director prize at Cannes, has moved in at Park Lane, and the new non-sequel yet box-office-successful comic actioner from Edgar Wright, Baby Driver, is at theatres all over.

The Central Library’s Featured Director series of free screenings of Richard Linklater films continues this week with Before Sunrise, the first of an unplanned trilogy of films famously driven by the undeniable chemistry of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, a film with a series of closing shots that are maybe Linklater’s best film-school flourish—a touching homage to the legendary finale of Antonioni’s masterpiece L’Eclisse. Local journalist Tara Thorne introduces this screening.

On Wednesday, Cineplex continues its monthly screenings of six of anime giant Hayao Miyazaki’s films with a Japanese audio (English subtitled) screening of My Neighbour Totoro at Park Lane and Dartmouth Crossing.

Saturday afternoon the North Memorial Library offers you a change to see this year’s most essential film, so far, for free—Get Out screens at 1:30pm.

• In theatres, notable:
  • Baby Driver, Edgar Wright, UK/USA, 2017, 113 minutes [86] — Halifax showtimes
  • The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola, USA, 2017, 94 minutes [76] — Halifax showtimes
  • Maudie, Aisling Walsh, Ireland/Canada, 2016, 115 minutes [63] — Halifax showtimes
• Halifax screenings this week:
  • Tuesday (Jul 4) — Before Sunrise, Central Library, 6:30pm, free, introduced by Tara Thorne. Richard Linklater, USA/Austria/Switzerland, 1995, 101 minutes.
  • Wednesday (Jul 5) — My Neighbour Totoro, Cineplex Park Lane & Dartmouth Crossing, 7pm, $12.95. Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 1988, 86 minutes.
  • Saturday (Jul 9) — Get Out, North Memorial Library, 1:30pm, free. Jordan Peele, USA, 2017, 103 minutes.

The Atlantic (International!) Film Festival launched its absurd rebrand as “FIN” last week (in an act of sublime self-parody, launching the rebrand on the Harbour Hopper, and telling journalists that the festival damages itself by using the word “film”), and now moves into summer outdoor movies season with a Friday screening of Strange Brew, the most Canadian adaptation of Hamlet you will ever see.

Over the rest of this year, Cineplex will be showing six of anime giant Hayao Miyazaki’s films in one-off event screenings. The screenings will be offered in both English and Japanese audio, kicking off this Sunday with the “recommended gateway drug” of the Studio Ghibli universe, My Neighbour Totoro in English (the Japanese-audio version will screen the subsequent Wednesday).

The Featured Director series of free screenings of Richard Linklater films continues this week with School of Rock, which I’m pretty sure is the only Linklater film to spawn a Broadway adaptation. The screening will be introduced by local arts and entertainment journalist Tara Thorne.

This Sunday, Fundy Cinema in Wolfville has Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, the latest from the brilliant New-York-born Israeli director Joseph Cedar, who is in familiar edgy territory here—”It’s less that Mr. Cedar blends realism with absurdity than that he refuses to acknowledge any distinction between them.”

• In theatres, notable:
  • Maudie, Aisling Walsh, Ireland/Canada, 2016, 115 minutes [63] — Halifax showtimes
• Halifax screenings this week:
  • Tuesday (Jun 27) — School of Rock, Central Library, 6:30pm, free, introduced by Tara Thorne. Richard Linklater, USA, 2003, 109 minutes.
  • Friday (Jun 30) — Strange Brew, Halifax Public Gardens, 9pm, free, please bring food donations  for Feed NS. Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas, Canada, 1983, 90 minutes.
  • Sunday (Jul 2) — My Neighbour Totoro, Cineplex Park Lane & Dartmouth Crossing, 12:55pm, $12.95. Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 1988, 86 minutes.
• Annapolis Valley screenings this week:
  • Sunday (Jul 2) — Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, Acadia Cinema’s Al Whittle Theatre (450 Main Street, Wolfville), 7pm, $9. Joseph Cedar, USA/Israel, 2017, 117 minutes.

There are exactly three film screenings of note in Halifax this week—and they are all happening Tuesday evening.

The Featured Director series of free screenings of Richard Linklater films continues this week with Slacker, the generation-defining effective debut of the Texan director. The screening will be introduced by local film blogger Chris Campbell.

Tuesday is World Refugee Day and the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 has a screening of Welcome to Refugeestan, the documentary film by award-winning French journalist and director Anne Poiret.

Last but not least, The Thrillema returns with “the movie that started it all—the one Whedon probably wishes you wouldn’t, the one that Buffy fans generally ignore, the one that only really gets discussed today as a footnote on what it ended up improbably inspiring.” That’s right, it’s the original, now 25-year-old, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with Kristy Swanson—not Sarah Michelle Gellar—in the starring role.

Maudie was released in the USA on Friday, resulting in a fresh batch of reviews, including this admiring notice from Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, resulting in the film’s critical Metascore ticking upward.

This Sunday, Fundy Cinema in Wolfville has Tommy’s Honour, “a movie for golf enthusiasts, pure and simple.”

• In theatres, notable:
  • Maudie, Aisling Walsh, Ireland/Canada, 2016, 115 minutes [63] — Halifax showtimes
• Halifax screenings this week:
  • Tuesday (Jun 20) — Slacker, Central Library, 6:30pm, free, introduced by Chris Campbell. Richard Linklater, USA, 1991, 100 minutes.
    — Welcome to Refugeestan, Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, 7pm, free (please RSVP). Anne Poiret, France, 2016, 70 minutes.
    — Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Thrillema @ Natural History Museum, 8pm, very limited free seats available starting 7:55pm. Fran Rubel Kuzui, USA, 1992, 86 minutes.
• Annapolis Valley screenings this week:
  • Sunday (Jun 25) — Tommy’s Honour, Acadia Cinema’s Al Whittle Theatre (450 Main Street, Wolfville), 7pm, $9. Jason Connery, USA/UK, 2016, 117 minutes.

The OUTeast Film Festival kicks off on Thursday and has some excellent films on its slate this year. I’ve picked what I think is the outstanding film on each day, but do check the program as there are many more screenings than what I’ve listed here:

• The opening night gala is The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, an extremely well-reviewed doc that, in the course of unfolding an investigation into the still-unsolved death of the trans icon, “argues that, with regards to the LGBT movement of the past few decades, the most ostracized and demonized faction continues to be transgender people.”
• Friday night the later screening is Tom of Finland, a biopic with a “lightly sanitized tone that feels oddly ill-suited to its protagonist’s own supercharged porno-fascistic reveries,” but which is “handsome, smoothly executed and eager to entertain.”
• Saturday’s highlight may well be A Date for Mad Mary, an Irish coming-of-age dramedy not directed by John Carney, which is “perhaps not the most original film you’ll see all year, but very possibly the most instantly lovable.”
• Sunday’s after-party free screening at Good Robot is a 20th-anniversary quote-along showing of Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.
• In theatres, seen and recommended:
  • I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach, UK/France/Belgium, 2016, 100 minutes — Halifax showtimes
• In theatres, notable:
  • Maudie, Aisling Walsh, Ireland/Canada, 2016, 115 minutes [60] — Halifax showtimes

• Halifax screenings this week:
  • Thursday (Jun 15) — The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, Central Library, 8pm, $15. David France, USA, 2017, 105 minutes.
  • Friday (Jun 16) — Tom of Finland, Museum of Natural History, 9pm, $12. Dome Karukoski, Finland/Sweden/Denmark/Germany/USA, 2017, 115 minutes.
  • Saturday (Jun 17) — A Date for Mad Mary, Museum of Natural History, 7pm, $12. Darren Thornton, Ireland, 2016, 82 minutes.
  • Sunday (Jun 18) — Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (quote-along screening), Good Robot Brewing Company, 8:30pm, free. David Mirkin, USA, 1997, 97 minutes.

It’s been a week since the 2017 Cannes Film Festival wrapped and declared its surprise Palme d’Or winner—so that must mean it’s time for the 2016 winner to arrive in Halifax? Hey, better late than never. I, Daniel Blake, the latest blast of social realism from Ken Loach, is at Cineplex Park Lane (at least through Thursday). It’s Loach at his most Loach and, yeah, bring your Kleenex, folks.

This Tuesday another Featured Director series of free weekly screenings kicks off at the Central Library, this time focusing on Dazed and Confused, a film that has always seemed to me to be loved by many who understand it the least.

This week the 11th edition of the Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival takes place, with screenings happening again at the Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage. As usual, there are strong showcases of short films, a number of which get the Sure Thing checkmark from The Coast. But there are also some notable feature-length film screenings:

• Wednesday you can see Never Eat Alone, the film that won director Sofia Bohdanowicz the Emerging Canadian Director award at the 2016 Vancouver Film Festival, and showed that Chantal Akerman’s films still have the power to inspire new filmmakers. The feature will be preceded by her three short films, as with a recent TIFF screening.
• By the Time It Gets Dark, by Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong, screens Thursday. “A demanding but ultimately rewarding piece” that uses a film-within-the-film structure, it casts back to the 1977 government-sanctioned massacre of student demonstrators in Bangkok.
• Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves, screening Saturday (the second Halifax screening in the past month) “unfurls with a bravado as outsized as its title.” A “stunning fusion of fiction and documentary about a radical Quebec leftist cell seeking to sow mayhem in Montreal,” it won the Best Canadian Feature prize at TIFF in September.

This Sunday, Fundy Cinema in Wolfville has Neruda, the “stunningly inventive” by Pablo Larraín (No, The Club, Jackie) that has been called “not a biopic but a bio-fic.”

• In theatres, seen and recommended:
  • I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach, UK/France/Belgium, 2016, 100 minutes — Halifax showtimes
• In theatres, notable:
  • Your Name (Japanese version w English subtitles), Makoto Shinkai, Japan, 2016, 107 minutes [79] — Halifax showtimes
  • Maudie, Aisling Walsh, Ireland/Canada, 2016, 115 minutes [60] — Halifax showtimes
• Halifax screenings this week:
  • Tuesday (Jun 6) — Dazed and Confused, Central Library, 6:30pm, free, introduced by Mark Palermo. Richard Linklater, USA, 1993, 102 minutes.
  • Wednesday (Jun 7) — The Godfather, Cineplex Park Lane & Dartmouth Crossing, 7pm, $6.99. Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1972, 175 minutes.
    — Never Eat Alone, Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage, 9pm, $10/$8, Q&A with director. Sofia Bohdanowicz, Canada, 2016, 68 minutes, preceded by 3 short films (30 minutes).
  • Thursday (Jun 8) — By the Time It Gets Dark (Dao Khanong), Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage, 7pm, $10/$8, Q&A with director. Anocha Suwichakornpong, Thailand/Netherlands/France/Qatar, 2016, 105 minutes.
  • Saturday (Jun 10) — Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves, Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Stage, 3pm, $10/$8, Q&A with co-director Simon Lavoie. Mathieu Denis & Simon Lavoie, Canada, 2016, 183 minutes.
• Annapolis Valley screenings this week:
  • Sunday (Jun 11) — Neruda, Acadia Cinema’s Al Whittle Theatre (450 Main Street, Wolfville), 7pm, $9. Pablo Larraín, Chile/Argentina/France/Spain, 2016, 107 minutes.

The First Features series of free Wednesday screenings at the Dal Art Gallery wraps up this week with A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the “weirdly exhilarating” Persian-language California-shot vampire spaghetti western.

This Sunday, Cineplex Park Lane and Dartmouth Crossing have a Classic Films screening of The Godfather, and 45 years on from its initial release, it’s worth revisiting this initial Hollywood Reporter review, which, like the film, holds up. But the story of how it came to be made is an epic tale itself.

• In theatres, notable:
  • Your Name (Japanese version w English subtitles), Makoto Shinkai, Japan, 2016, 107 minutes [79] — Halifax showtimes
  • Maudie, Aisling Walsh, Ireland/Canada, 2016, 115 minutes [60] — Halifax showtimes
• Halifax screenings this week:
  • Wednesday (May 31) — A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Dalhousie Art Gallery, 8pm, free. Ana Lily Amirpour, USA, 2014, 100 minutes.
  • Friday (Jun 2) — The Graduate, Cineplex Park Lane, 4:20pm, $6.99. Mike Nichols, USA, 1967, 105 minutes.
  • Sunday (Jun 4) — The Godfather, Cineplex Park Lane & Dartmouth Crossing, 12:55pm, $6.99. Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1972, 175 minutes.

The Thrillema is back on Tuesday with the 1959 Vincent Price vehicle and certified classic, House on Haunted Hill—a film that failed to impress older viewers at its first preview screening, but found a “wildly enthusiastic” reception when screened instead for young people.

The First Features series of free Wednesday screenings at the Dal Art Gallery continues this week with Fruitvale Station, the unforgettable first teaming of actor Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan Coogler, who successfully re-teamed for Creed.

Fundy Cinema in Wolfville this Sunday has The Zookeeper’s Wife, the latest from Whale Rider director Niki Caro, who takes on a plot that you would think would be overdetermined by the likes of Schindler’s List, and instead delivers “a singular, thrilling portrait, filled with surprises and moving performances.”

• In theatres, notable:
  • A Quiet Passion, Terence Davies, UK, 2016, 126 minutes [77] — Halifax showtimes
  • Maudie, Aisling Walsh, Ireland/Canada, 2016, 115 minutes [60] — Halifax showtimes
• Halifax screenings this week:
  • Monday (May 22) — Your Name (Japanese version w English subtitles), Cineplex Park Lane, 4pm, regular pricing. Makoto Shinkai, Japan, 2016, 107 minutes.
  • Tuesday (May 23) — David Lynch: The Art Life, Cineplex Park Lane, 7pm, regular pricing. Jon Nguyen, Olivia Neergaard-Holm & Rick Barnes, USA, 2017, 90 minutes.
    — House on Haunted Hill, The Thrillema @ Natural History Museum, 8pm, free tickets in advance and at the door. William Castle, USA, 1959, 75 minutes.
  • Wednesday (May 24) — Fruitvale Station, Dalhousie Art Gallery, 8pm, free. Ryan Coogler, USA, 2013, 87 minutes.
• Annapolis Valley screenings this week:
  • Tuesday (May 23) — The Red Turtle, King’s Theatre (209 St. George St., Annapolis Royal), 7:30pm, $10. Michaël Dudok de Wit, France/Belgium/Japan, 2016, 80 minutes.
  • Friday (May 26) — Maudie, King’s Theatre (209 St. George St., Annapolis Royal), 7pm, $10. Aisling Walsh, Ireland/Canada, 2016, 115 minutes.
  • Saturday (May 27) — Maudie, King’s Theatre (209 St. George St., Annapolis Royal), 7pm, $10. Aisling Walsh, Ireland/Canada, 2016, 115 minutes.
  • Sunday (May 28) — Maudie, King’s Theatre (209 St. George St., Annapolis Royal), 2pm & 7pm, $10. Aisling Walsh, Ireland/Canada, 2016, 115 minutes.
    — The Zookeeper’s Wife, Acadia Cinema’s Al Whittle Theatre (450 Main Street, Wolfville), 7pm, $9. Niki Caro, USA/UK, 2017, 126 minutes.