Get out of the cold through film
“A White, White Day" is a noir-tinged dramatic film out of Iceland.
SUNDAY
Homeland
Watch this if: You want to see how it ends for Carrie Mathison. One of television’s most troubled heroines reaches her denouement in the eighth and final season of this counterterrorism drama. Carrie (Claire Danes) has faced psychotic breaks, hospitalization, imprisonment, violence and the loss of people she loves while doing her job as a CIA officer. As the season begins, Carrie heads back into the field in Afghanistan — but under a cloud of suspicion that she might be a Russian spy. (Crave at 9 p.m.)
—Debra Yeo
TUESDAY
House Mix
Watch this if: You think House is where the heart (of Toronto dance) is. Christopher House is retiring as artistic director of the influential Toronto Dance Theatre this year, after an impressive 25 years in the position (he joined as a dancer even longer ago, in 1979). The company is celebrating his tenure with one of the last productions in its season: “House Mix,” a collection of works choreographed by House over the quartercentury, showing his evolution as a dance maker. House will take to the stage himself in the solo piece “I’ll Crane For You” for four performances in May. (Fleck Dance Theatre, 207 Queens Quay W., 8 p.m., through Saturday)
—Carly Maga
A White, White Day
Watch this if: You know Icelandic cinema is simply the coolest. A recent noir-tinged drama by director Hlynur Palmason about a small-town police officer who develops a dangerous obsession in the wake of his wife’s accidental death, “A White, White Day” is another demonstration of the disproportionate strength of one of Europe’s smallest nations when it comes to movies. It screens for free in a special event celebrating “A History of Icelandic Cinema,” TIFF programmer Steve Gravestock’s new book on the most remarkable films and filmmakers to hail from the country otherwise best known as the birthplace of Bjork and very thick yogurt. (Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave., 7 p.m.)
—Jason Anderson
WEDNESDAY
The Rhubarb Festival Watch this if: You want Rhubarb so fresh, it might as well have been grown in your backyard. The Rhubarb Festival is the longestrunning festival of new works in Canada, hosted every year at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and has a reputation for being two weeks of no-holds-barred experimental performance pieces. But the 2020 edition is even fresher as the first with Clayton Lee as festival director, and features a roster of exciting new names in theatre, music, dance and drag as well as some more established ones, like the drag artist Yovska. (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander St., 5:30 p.m., through Feb. 20) —CM
THURSDAY
Wavelength Winter Festival
Watch this if: At 20 years old and still resolutely outside the mainstream, they gotta be doing something right. Originally conceived as a first birthday weekend for Wavelength’s long-gone weekly new music series, say hello to the 20th renewal of that same Wavelength’s enduring cure for the mid-winter blahs — four nights worth. Owen Pallett’s trio Les Mouches reunites for a throwback Thursday bill at Sneaky Dee’s to start it off before two nights at Longboat Hall (sandwiched around a Saturday afternoon in-store at Sonic Boom), and it all finishes up Sunday at the Garrison. Of the bunch, Saturday’s bill with reigning Polaris Prize holder Haviah Mighty and Montreal electrorapper Lou Phelps looks like the pick, but front to back it’s really a case of seek and ye shall find. (Sneaky Dee’s, 431 College St., other shows at Longboat Hall and the Garrison, 7 p.m. doors each night, through Sunday) —Chris Young
FRIDAY
Hey Lady!
Watch this if: You wonder what “Fleabag” might be like as a 70-something. Veteran comic actor Jayne Eastwood (familiar from everything from the big screen’s “Goin’ Down to the Road” to TV’s “Haven”) stars in this web comedy as an incorrigible senior citizen. She blithely breaks rules and laws, and does and says whatever she wants, sometimes in Phoebe Waller-Bridge-like asides to the camera, while blaming it all on her advanced years. The supporting cast includes a who’s who of Canadian actors, with Zachary Bennett, Christine Horne and Matt Watts as her longsuffering kids (whom she named after dogs), and Jackie Richardson as her pal and enabler. (CBC Gem) —DY
SATURDAY
Bunuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles
Watch this if: You need a tour of the wide world of animation. Toons reign supreme all weekend long thanks to the bounty of new animated shorts and features playing this year’s edition of the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International. Among the highlights is this widely acclaimed Spanish feature based on the story of how director Luis Bunuel came to make “Land Without Bread,” the 1933 film whose brazen mix of fiction and documentary would prove highly influential. The TAAFI slate at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema also includes a showcase of new work from Sheridan College, the Japanese anime hit “Okko’s Inn” and plenty of kid-friendly fare. (Hot Docs, 506 Bloor St. W., 12:15 p.m., fest on until Sunday) —JA
U.S. Girls
Watch this for: Some of the angriest, grooviest agitpop you’ve ever shaken a hip to. From one-woman-band beginnings to — well, let’s see, because you never quite know ahead of time with Meg Remy’s U.S. Girls project, well into its second decade and, as of March 6, seven albums old with the release of “Heavy Light.” Last time around, in the wake of 2018’s acclaimed “In A Poem Unlimited,” she dropped herself in the middle of an eight-piece storm, including T.O.’s hot Cosmic Range ensemble, for an “ABBAesque disco party” according to Star music critic Ben Rayner. The promotionals here promise seven singers onstage at this recently reopened house of film and culture. She’ll be back in May for a Great Hall date that will be a similarly hot ticket, but why wait? (Paradise Theatre, 1006 Bloor St. W., 8 p.m.) —CY