What I’m Seeing This Week: We are taking the whole family to see Flow at either Cinemapolis or the Regal Ithaca Mall!
Also in Theaters: All We Imagine as Light is appearing on all sorts of year-end Best lists, so I’ll definitely make sure to see it at Cinemapolis before we start our holiday travels next week! Queer–director Luca Guadagnino’s second film of Movie Year 2024 after Challengers, which I enjoyed–opens there tomorrow as well. My favorite new films now playing Ithaca that I’ve already seen remain Anora and A Real Pain, both of which are also at Cinemapolis. Moana 2 is “fun for the whole family,” as the fella says, and Gladiator II and Wicked deliver more or less what they promise, too. All three movies are at the Regal, and Wicked is at Cinemapolis as well. Finally, your best bets for repertory fare are holiday favorites A Christmas Story, which screens at Cinemapolis on Sunday, and White Christmas, which plays the Regal Sunday-Tuesday.
Home Video: With Anora still going strong in theaters, now is a fine time to check out Tangerine, the film that put director Sean Baker on the map, on Netflix. Especially since it takes place on December 24! To be sure, it’s even less of a “Christmas movie” than (in)famous debate cases like Die Hard, but it does feature a centerpiece performance of the song “Toyland” by protagonist Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) that calls to mind Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in Meet Me in St. Lous . With no disrespect to his latest effort, this remains my favorite one of Baker’s features.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 