What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m excited to finally see Megalopolis, which opens at the Regal Ithaca Mall today! Additionally, my youngest is going with The Wild Robot for her Family (née Friday) Movie Night selection, so I’ll be seeing that at the Regal as well.
Also in Theaters: You’ve got one last chance to see Sing Sing, my top new movie recommendation, at Cinemapolis today. This screening will be followed by a talkback session featuring actors and facilitators from Phoenix Players Theatre Group and ReEntry Theatre Program. Other new releases I hope to catch before they close include Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and The Substance, both of which are at both Cinemapolis and the Regal. I’m not able to attend, but there’s a free screening of the very well-reviewed new documentary Sugarcane at Cinemapolis on Sunday. Another new documentary, Film is Dead. Long Live Film!, plays Cornell Cinema on Saturday. There are free screenings of the films Clara Sola and La Pecera at Cinemapolis on Saturday and Sunday respectively as part of the Cine Con Cultura Latin American Film Festival. On the repertory front the highlights are once again Seven Samurai and Whiplash, which continue their runs at Cinemapolis, but additional great options include Howl’s Moving Castle, which is at the Regal all week, and Notorious, which is at Cornell Cinema tomorrow.
Home Video: Raphaël Nieuwjaer, a critic for the legendary French publication Cahiers du Cinéma, recently called Ricky Stanicky “almost […] a masterpiece.” I can’t go quite this far myself, but watching it was gratifyingly like running into a bosom companion from my youth for the first time in decades and discovering that they somehow haven’t changed a bit. Peter Farrelly’s films are to other Hollywood comedies as Sammy Cohen is to the other characters in the Strawbs’ song “How Everyone but Sam Was a Hypocrite,” so this is perhaps not a friend you’d take just anywhere, but anyone who can see past the vulgar exterior to the heart of gold within is A-OK in my book! Be sure to stay through the end credits for the mock mashup of William H. Macy’s Summerhayes. Ricky Stanicky is now streaming on Prime Video.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 