I saw Carol at a preview screening on Monday where they announced it would be opening this week, but the gods of distribution are fickle.

No sign of it in cinemas this week, and my investigations suggest it will now open on Christmas Day. For a very advance review, you can go here.

So, after what feels like an eternity of hype, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens— has it been sleeping all this time, I wonder—finally shows up in cinemas across the country, looking to take all the money, everywhere. I was reasonably excited to see the movie—I’ve been a fan of the series since I was a kid—but especially because I saw it with the first audience in Halifax. Nothing like a genuine cinema event. For my thoughts on the movie, go here.

Sliding into theatres in the shadow of that huge movie with the thumping explosions pounding through the wall from the next screening room is Sisters, reuniting Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on the big screen for the first time since their smash (?) comedy Baby Mama. I sense a bawdy gross-out comedy about adults behaving like kids in that patented Seth Rogen style, except for the ladies. And why not? Worked with Bridesmaids.

Somehow I missed this picture, which actually opened last week: Don Verdean is a comedy from Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess I’ve read described as a “bible belt satire” starring the always interesting Sam Rockwell, not one for ever making a safe choice in roles or films.

Also opening in town are two Indian pictures, romantic drama Bajirao Mastani and action comedy Dilwali, as well as, in the short term, Christmas Vacation, Die Hard, and It’s A Wonderful Life, cuz that won’t be on TV every night between now and the 25th, will it?