What I’m Seeing This Week: I am hoping to catch Sketch at the Regal Ithaca Mall and Together either there or at Cinemapolis.
Also in Theaters: My favorite new release now playing Ithaca that I’ve already seen is Sorry, Baby, a strong debut feature by director Eva Victor (who also stars) which does wonderful things with windows, especially its variations on the postcard-perfect cozy yellow glow of lit rooms as seen from outside on a cold night and which continues its run at Cinemapolis. I also enjoyed Eddington, which you can see there as well; The Final Four: First Steps, which is at the Regal; and Superman, which is at both. As someone who was born in 1981 and grew up watching the original The Naked Gun at sleepovers, I’m definitely intrigued by the reboot with the same name which opens at the Regal today, but also kind of terrified. It’s garnering strong reviews, though, so I’m going to try to see it before it closes. This week’s special events highlight is the free Continuum Film Showcase for local filmmakers at Cinemapolis on Sunday, which I unfortunately won’t be able to attend, but you should! There’s also a free screening of the documentary Counted Out there on Saturday. Finally, your best bets for repertory fare are Spirited Away, which I would have included on *my* Best Movies of the 21st Century ballot and which plays Cinemapolis on Wednesday as part of their “Food on Film” August Staff Picks series, and Sunset Boulevard, which celebrates its 75th birthday with screenings at the Regal on Sunday and Monday.
Home Video: I recently observed that My Darling Clementine features Henry Fonda’s Wyatt Earp reacting to a sip of champagne almost exactly the same way Bill Murray’s Phil Connors responds to sweet vermouth in Groundhog Day. As I noted on Letterboxd, the scene in which the scene in which Earp and Victor Mature’s Doc Holliday happen upon Alan Mowbray’s Granville Thorndyke reciting the “To be, or not to be” speech from Hamlet also echoes this description of Hazel from Madeline Miller’s 2022 introduction to the 50th anniversary edition of Watership Down, which I’m currently reading:
His notable traits are his gentleness, his quiet conviction in doing what’s right and his willingness to listen to things others would dismiss, including his strange, mystic friend Fiver. Yet still, the others trust him and choose him to lead. Why? He isn’t the best fighter (Bigwig), the fastest (Dandelion), the best storyteller (Dandelion again), the cleverest (Blackberry), the farthest seeing (Fiver), or the most authoritative (Holly). But he has several tremendous gifts, first and foremost his humility. Like Socrates, he knows what he doesn’t know. When Blackberry figures out how to float the rabbits across the river, Hazel scarcely understands what’s happening, but he has the ability to see that Blackberry understands–and gives the order to go forward.
If those admittedly idiosyncratic resonances aren’t enough to convince you, I submit that you’ll never find a more perfect illustration of the “Rule of Thirds” than the piece of jewelry Linda Darnell’s Chihuahua wears in the scene below, which director John Ford makes sure we spot moments before Earp does:
My Darling Clementine is available on Blu-ray and DVD from the Criterion Collection and can be streamed for a rental fee via Apple TV+ and Prime Video.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here. A running list of all of my “Home Video” recommendations can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 