What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m going with either Between the Temples or Didi at Cinemapolis, but that’s only because I’ll be in Pennsylvania this weekend, which means I’m going to miss the free “Silent Movie Under the Stars” screening of The Mark of Zorro at Upper Robert Treman State Park on Saturday. Blast! More details can be found here on the Wharton Studio Museum’s website.
Also in Theaters: Honestly, my favorite new film now playing Ithaca is probably still Twisters, which continues its run at the Regal Ithaca Mall this week, but repeating that each week is starting to get boring, so I’m going to talk about something else there instead. Trap is, like director M. Night Shyamalan’s last outing Knock at the Cabin, a story about the battle of good vs. evil, but this time it’s the latter that’s under siege. It also shares a surprising affinity with Inside Out 2 (which is also at the Regal) in that both posit that it’s not healthy to be happy all the time because that isn’t sustainable for normal people. Shyamalan further suggests that we should be deeply suspicious of anyone who is able to maintain the facade for a lengthy period of time, which I totally get: Josh Hartnett’s Cooper Adams is way creepier to me than either Nicholas Cage’s titular character in Longlegs or Simon Prast’s obviously insane preacher in MaXXXine. My other new movie recommendation is Love Lives Bleeding, which announces the triumphant return of Cornell Cinema on Saturday. This is your annual reminder that at the crazy low prices of $25 for graduate students, $30 for undergraduate students, $36 for staff, and $40 for everyone else, their year-long All-Access Passes are the best arts and culture value in Ithaca! I’m also hoping to see Blink Twice at either Cinemapolis or the Regal before it closes. Your best bet for repertory fare is obviously Rear Window, which is at the Regal on Sunday and Wednesday, but I have a story about Wet Hot American Summer, which is at Cinemapolis on Sunday! In late August 2001 I was an entering sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh and me and many of my friends bonded over our mutual love of MTV’s sketch comedy television series The State. When we learned that a film by alum David Wain and starring many other cast members was screening theatrically in New York we drove through the night to see it, only to discover that it wasn’t playing the day we arrived. So we went to the Twin Towers instead with the intention of riding the elevator to the top. It cost more than we expected, though, so we bailed when one of my companions noted that “it’s not like they’re going anywhere.” Anyway: fun movie!
Home Video: My friend Scott and I have a two-person movie club whereby each month one of us selects a film which we both watch at least twice, then we talk about it. This has proven to be a great opportunity for me to catch up on titles that have been lingering on my watch list for far too long and sometimes, in the case of his choices, things which I didn’t even know I was missing out on! Last month, for instance, he chose the very solid spaghetti western Death Rides a Horse, which is available on Prime Video. I love the introduction to John Phillip Law’s laconic hero Bill as an adult in which he shows off his prowess with a gun, the bevy of great one-liners that Luciano Vincenzoni’s screenplay give shim and Lee Van Cleef’s Ryan, and Ennio Morricone’s top-notch score. In case you care about such things, though: boy howdy does this film fail the Bechdel test with flying colors!
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 