What I’m Seeing This Week: It’s basically a coin flip for me between American Fiction and All of Us Strangers, both of which open at Cinemapolis today. At the moment I’m leaning toward the former because the showtimes are slightly more compatible with my schedule, but I definitely reserve the right to change my mind and I’m almost certainly going to see the other one next week, so it doesn’t really matter anyway.
Also in Theaters: For the third week in a row, The Boy and the Heron and Poor Things rule the roost as the best new films I’ve seen currently screening in Ithaca. You can see the former at Cinemapolis in both its dubbed and subtitled versions and at the Regal Ithaca Mall with subtitles only; the latter is also now playing at both locations. I haven’t mentioned Wonka, which continues its run at the Regal this week, in this space previously because I almost certainly won’t end up seeing it in theaters, but it’s probably the next-best-reviewed option after these two and American Fiction/All of Us Strangers. Unless, that is, you count Pixar’s Soul, which is also now playing at the Regal once a day. You can see Cowboy Bebop: The Movie there as well with subtitles on Sunday and Tuesday and dubbed on Monday.
Home Video: I’m extremely late to this party, but the four shorts directed by Wes Anderson based on Roald Dahal stories that Netflix released a few months ago are pretty great! However, while I liked The Swan, The Rat Catcher, and most especially The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, my favorite is definitely Poison. Not necessarily because it represents the purest expression of Anderson’s style or a spur track into previously uncharted territory (which it may or may not), but simply because it’s a nearly flawless adaptation and one of the best films I’ve seen in Movie Year 2023, full stop. One fine moment is when Ben Kingsley’s Dr. Ganderbai administers serum to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Harry Pope, who supposedly has a highly venomous krait sleeping on his stomach. He holds up to the camera in turn a piece of rubber tubing, a bottle of alcohol, and a syringe as Dev Patel’s Timber Woods narrates in rapid-fire staccato on from the other half of a split-screen composition. The effect is neither specifically theatrical or cinematic, but something else. In a play we probably wouldn’t be able to see these objects, and in a more traditional filmic presentation they’d be expected to speak for themselves, but in this movie they function to draw attention to Dahl’s choice of words. Ditto Benoît Herlin’s stagehand spritzing water on Dr. Ganderbai’s forehead to simulate sweat. There are also a number of places where Poison departs from its source material to salutary effect, such as by giving Woods an implied backstory involving a hospital stay as a child, his memories of which are triggered by the smell of chloroform, or by manipulating the beats of everything from the moment he and Ganderbai begin the pull down the sheet covering Pope to the original final line: “you can’t be.” Another highlight is the lighting in the scene in which Pope bares his fangs. Outstanding across the board.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 