What I’m Seeing This Week: I’ll be glued to my television watching the Mets play the Dodgers tonight and tomorrow, engaging in various seasonal festivities (e.g. my kids are throwing a Halloween party) this weekend, then traveling for work next week, so I’m taking the week off from theatrical screenings.
Also in Theaters: My favorite new movie now playing Ithaca remains Megalopolis, which continues its run at the Regal Ithaca Mall. I also enjoyed The Wild Robot, which is also at the Regal, and My Old Ass, which is at Cinemapolis. Films I’m hoping to see on the big screen before they close include Rumours (Cinemapolis), The Outrun (Cinemapolis), The Substance (Cinemapolis and the Regal), and maybe even Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (the Regal) if it sticks long enough. I’m also very intrigued by Pepe, which screens at Cornell Cinema on Sunday, but its showtime is incompatible with my schedule. This week’s noteworthy special events include a free screening of the film Machuca at Cornell Cinema tonight featuring a “talkback” session with screenwriter Roberto Brodsky, a “Family Classics Picture Show” screening of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein at Cinemapolis on Sunday (tickets = $2 apiece or $10 for groups of five or more), and the free premiere of a new documentary by Ithaca-based filmmaker Thomas Hoebbel called ¿Are We There Yet?: A Compassionate Exploration of Contemporary Immigration at Cinemapolis on Wednesday. Your best bets for repertory fare are Sunset Boulevard and Nostalghia, which are at Cornell Cinema tomorrow and on Saturday respectively. Two of my kids’ favorite Halloween movies, Hocus Pocus and The Nightmare Before Christmas, are also at the Regal all week.
Home Video: I talked about the “Directed by David Cronenberg” collection on the Criterion Channel in this space last week. Anyone who checked it out likely noticed that they’re also currently featuring a bunch of great films about witches, including my October, 2022 Drink & a Movie selection Suspiria. If you’ve already seen that one and are looking for something else to watch, try The Love Witch, which is a fun, subversive update of B-movie tropes that features outstandingly garish colors, including a magnificent purple house that is one of my all-time favorite movie locations! It’s also available on Mubi.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 