Friday night at Carbon Arc you can see the new Hirokazu Kore-eda picture After The Storm, a Japanese family drama. On Saturday night, April 1, are two documentaries; Kedi, the super-popular story of cats in Istanbul (it sold out two screenings last month and the advance tickets for this screening are sold out too, so get there VERY early for any of the remaining tickets at the door)…

…and A Matter of Time, about The New Pornographers’ Kathryn Calder and her mother’s battle with ALS. For more details on these and the rest of the Carbon Arc season of films (which runs into May) go here.

The live action adaptation of the manga/anime Ghost In The Shell has arrived, and it looks spectacular. Unfortunately, the super-dense original story has been shifted to make room for an origin tale, and it’s a little too predictably familiar. Go see it for the visuals. My full review is here.

The sequel to Trainspotting is here 20 years later, and even though I’m generally opposed to sequels arriving so late I can’t deny my excitement that the original creative team and cast reunited for this project, that even Danny Boyle and Ewan McGregor put aside their The Beach-related animosity for this.  T2: Trainspotting is in at The Oxford.

Jessica Chastain is reliably excellent in The Zookeeper’s Wife, a worthy tale of efforts to save the innocent in the Warsaw Ghetto, but with a too-romantic sheen. My full review is here.

Another animated picture for the kids, The Boss Baby is in cinemas. But are kids really interested in a movie about a maniacal toddler? Or is it secretly a Donald Trump biopic (with the baby voiced by Alec Baldwin)? Apparently.

A new thriller in Mandarin has opened in Bayer’s Lake, The Devotion of Suspect X, and it looks pretty good based solely on this trailer:

And the Event Screen is showing Woody Allen’s most beautiful-looking film, Manhattan. now in a 4K digital version. Lensed by the great Gordon Wills, the picture’s story of a 42 year-old man in a relationship with a teenager has a creepier overtone these days than it did back in 1979, but the cinematography, writing and performances, including Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep, are as good as ever.

….and finally, here’s a heads up about some changes going on behind the scenes at Flaw In The Iris.

A professional opportunity has come up for me that’s going to be taking much of my time in the coming months. I’ll still be watching movies and I’ll review everything I see on this blog, but I won’t be offering the Friday list of what’s opening in Halifax going forward. If you want to find out what’s new that I’m excited about, I’m happy to tell you: Follow me on Twitter @FlawInTheIris or comment here on FITI and I’ll respond.

If you’re looking for reliable suggestions for what’s new, follow @HalifaxCinema. You’ll get tweets about all the new releases (and what’s reduced and closing) every week. I also recommend James Covey’s blog  for thoughtful and relevant commentary on films screening in the province. He tends to focus on the art house, but his field of view in that department is comprehensive even beyond the HRM. Every serious cineaste in town should be checking him out. He can also be found @coveyonfilm.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the popcorn line.