What I’m Seeing This Week: I think I’m going with The Outrun at Cinemapolis.
Also in Theaters: The best new movie playing in Ithaca *right now* that I’ve already seen is My Old Ass, but it closes at Cinemapolis today. My whole family also enjoyed The Wild Robot, which is at the Regal Ithaca Mall, although not as much as we were hoping to. Other 2024 releases that I’d like to see in theaters include Conclave (Cinemapolis and the Regal), Rumours (Cinemapolis), and maybe Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (the Regal) if it runs long enough. This week’s special events include two performances of the Rocky Horror Picture Drag Show at Cinemapolis tomorrow and Saturday and a pairing of the silent short The Pill Pounder and feature It (on 35mm) both accompanied by musician Philip Carli at Cornell Cinema on Saturday. Your best bets for repertory fare are Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which is at Cornell Cinema on Saturday; Kiki’s Delivery Service, which is at the Regal Saturday through Wednesday; and The Shining, which is at Cornell Cinema on Sunday.
Home Video: My favorite horror movie of Movie Year 2023 was When Evil Lurks, which is now available on Hulu with a subscription. I recently revisited it after La Ciénaga, which I talked about in this space a few weeks ago, reminded me of it. Two scenes in particular really stuck with me, one involving a little girl and her pet dog and another featuring a boy and his grandmother’s necklace. Like the film as a whole, each is predictably less surprising on a second viewing, but even more disturbing, I think because director-writer Demián Rugna and company have indulged in just the right amount of world building: everything which transpires has a logic too it, but we never dwell on the details. Ezequiel Rodríguez’s Pedro’s doomed efforts to do right by people he no longer has any credibility with is also frustratingly relatable.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 