05 Feb Halifax screening picks—February 5-11

Carbon Arc programs its first feature-length film of its winter-spring season this Friday with the African sensation Fèlicité, Senegal’s nominee for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Feature, and winner of the Berlinale’s Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, best film at FESPACO 2017 (Africa’s biggest film festival), and six Africa Movie Academy Awards (a new record). Alain Gomis’ cinematic style is “spectacularly multifaceted” (says the New York Times), and its title character’s arc shows a sophisticated understanding of female strength (says TIFF programmer extraordinaire Kiva Reardon).

I haven’t noted any Wolfville screenings for a while, but it is worth singling out this Sunday’s Fundy Cinema screenings of The Other Side of Hope, one of the best reviewed films of 2017, and one that seems to have broadened the appeal of the standout Finnish film director Aki Kaurismäki, a man who in the ongoing crisis of global migration seems to have found his moment. Before that, on Wednesday, Fundy has the Cannes Palme D’Or winner (and a good shout to pick up the Foreign Language Oscar), The Square.

Cineplex’s annual Flashback Film Fest continues through Thursday with more films than I can list here—I’ve included a handful below (nighthawk action fans who haven’t yet checked out the 3D conversion of Terminator 2: Judgment Day—”entirely supervised, frame-by-frame, by [James] Cameron” should definitely consider Tuesday’s late screening). My highest recommendations this week for your trip to the multiplex continue to be Oscar nominees Phantom Thread and Call Me by Your Name.

There is a good crop of free screenings again this week:

• Monday, the successful doc Blackfish, which tells the story of Tilikum, an orca held by SeaWorld, and the controversy over captive killer whales, wraps up a three-part film series with expert-led panel discussions called “Pushing Boundaries: What We Owe Other Animals,” organized by Novel Tech Ethics at the Central Library.
• Yesterday (February 4) was the 100th anniversary of the birth of actress, singer, director, and producer Ida Lupino, and Tuesday the Dal Art Gallery continues its Women Filmmakers 1931-1969 series with The Young Lovers (Never Fear), a “striking social-issue film” in which her directing style brings out “an unusually physical, tactile quality to the way the film’s characters relate to one another.”
• Saturday, the North Memorial Library continues its African History Month screenings with Ava DuVernay’s wide-ranging doc 13th, while the Central Library joins the month’s observance with the well-regarded 2017 film Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary.
• In theatres, seen & recommended:
  • Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson, USA, 2017, 130 minutes [90] — Halifax showtimes
  • Call Me By Your Name, Luca Guadagnino, Italy/USA/Brazil/France, 2017, 132 minutes [93] — Halifax showtimes
  • Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig, USA, 2017, 93 minutes [94] — Halifax showtimes
  • The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro, USA, 2017, 123 minutes [86] — Halifax showtimes
• In theatres, new & notable:
  • The Post, Steven Spielberg, USA, 2017, 116 minutes [83] — Halifax showtimes
  • I, Tonya, Craig Gillespie, USA, 2017, 121 minutes [76] — Halifax showtimes
• Halifax screenings this week:
  • Monday (Feb 5) — Blackfish, Central Library, 6pm, free. Gabriela Cowperthwaite, USA, 2013, 83 minutes.
  • Tuesday (Feb 6) — The Big Lebowski, Cineplex Park Lane, 3:15pm, $8.99. Joel & Ethan Coen, USA, 1998, 117 minutes.
    — Raising Arizona, Cineplex Park Lane, 5:45pm, $8.99. Joel & Ethan Coen, USA, 1987, 94 minutes.
    — The Young Lovers (Never Fear), Dalhousie Art Gallery, 7pm, free. Ida Lupino, USA, 1949, 82 minutes.
    — The Terminator, Cineplex Park Lane, 8pm, $8.99. James Cameron, USA, 1984, 107 minutes.
    — Terminator 2: Judgment Day 3D, Cineplex Park Lane, 10:20pm, $8.99. James Cameron, USA, 1991, 137 minutes
  • Wednesday (Feb 7) — Drunken Master, Cineplex Park Lane, 5:30pm, $8.99. Yuen Woo-ping, Hong Kong, 1978, 110 minutes.
    — Dune, Cineplex Park Lane, 10:20pm, $8.99. David Lynch, USA, 1984, 136 minutes.
  • Thursday (Feb 8) — The Iron Giant, Cineplex Park Lane, 5:50pm, $8.99. Brad Bird, USA, 1999, 87 minutes.
  • Friday (Feb 9) — Félicité, Carbon Arc Cinema @ the Museum of Natural History, 7pm, $8.75. Alain Gomis, France/Senegal, 2017, 123 minutes.
  • Saturday (Feb 10) — 13th, North Memorial Library, 1:30pm, free. Ava DuVernay, USA, 2016, 100 minutes.
    — Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary, Central Library, 2pm, free. John Scheinfeld, USA, 2016, 99 minutes.
• Wolfville screenings this week:
  • Wednesday (Feb 7) — The Square, Acadia Cinema’s Al Whittle Theatre (450 Main Street, Wolfville), 7pm, $9. Ruben Östlund, Sweden/Germany/France/Denmark, 2017, 142 minutes.
  • Sunday (Feb 11) — The Other Side of Hope, Acadia Cinema’s Al Whittle Theatre (450 Main Street, Wolfville), 7pm, $9. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland/Germany, 2017, 98 minutes.