This week, Cineplex Park Lane has a handful of screenings of Ali, the 2001 Muhammad Ali biopic much noted for Michael Mann’s direction and Will Smith’s acting, but also criticized (despite its length) as a reductive take on a complex persona. (For a more focused view of a key period of Ali’s life, you might want to check out Bill Siegel’s excellent—and much shorter—documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali, which I see is on Mubi for another 15 days.)

I finally caught up with Whit Stillman’s Love & Friendship, and I’m recommending it, despite some reservations. Kate Beckinsale is excellent, Chloe Sevigny maybe not so much, Tom Bennett is simply absurd, and there are perhaps a few too many moments when characters are mere tokens for their essential qualities rather than responding humanly to their situations. But it’s all a good laugh and at 92 minutes never has a chance to get boring.

There’s just one screening this week in the Cineplex Classic Films series of the David Lean/Noel Coward classic Brief Encounter, and it’s this Wednesday, 7pm, at Dartmouth Crossing.

• In theatres, seen & recommended:
  • Love & Friendship, Whit Stillman, Ireland/USA, 2016, 92 minutes — Halifax screening times

• Halifax area screening picks for this week:
  • Monday (June 20) — Ali, Cineplex Park Lane, 6:30pm & 9:40pm, $6.99. Michael Mann, USA, 2001, 157 minutes.
  • Tuesday (June 21) — Ali, Cineplex Park Lane, 3:45pm, $6.99. Michael Mann, USA, 2001, 157 minutes.
    — The Boy and the Beast, Cineplex Park Lane, 9:40pm, regular pricing. Mamoru Hosoda, Japan, 2015, 120 minutes.
  • Wednesday (June 22) — Brief Encounter, Dartmouth Crossing, 7pm, $6.99. David Lean, UK, 1945, 86 minutes.
  • Thursday (June 23) — Ali, Cineplex Park Lane, 6:30pm, $6.99. Michael Mann, USA, 2001, 157 minutes.
• Annapolis Valley screening pick for this week:
  • Sunday (June 19) — The Meddler, Acadia Cinema’s Al Whittle Theatre (450 Main Street, Wolfville), 8pm, $9. Lorene Scafaria, USA, 2015, 100 minutes.