What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m going with Familiar Touch at Cornell Cinema tonight and Splitsville at either Cinemapolis or the Regal Ithaca Mall on Tuesday.
Also in Theaters: Highest 2 Lowest closes at Cinemapolis today, at which time its reign as the best new movie now playing Ithaca that I’ve already seen will end. After that the title belt will pass to, hmm . . . let’s go with Caught Stealing, an entertaining “feature-length proof purporting to demonstrate that actually two wrongs *can* make a right set in 1998 that could be director Darren Aronofsky’s follow-up to Pi which he put in a time capsule for some reason” (as I recently said on Letterboxd) that continues its runs at Cinemapolis and the Regal. I also enjoyed Sorry, Baby, which plays Cornell Cinema on Saturday; The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which is still going strong at the Regal; and Weapons, which remains there and at Cinemapolis. This week’s special events highlights are the encore presentation of a 35mm restoration print of Donnie Darko at Cornell Cinema tonight and a single screening of local favorite My First Film at Cinemapolis tomorrow to help launch The History Center‘s “Tompkins Treasure Hunt” event. Finally, the next seven days feature an embarrassment of repertory riches at all three Ithaca theaters, including 50th anniversary presentations of Jaws at Cinemapolis and the Regal all week, a new 4K restoration of Paris, Texas at Cornell Cinema on Saturday, and a screening of Citizen Kane at the Regal on Sunday. You can also see The Godfather there on Saturday, Goodfellas there on Tuesday, and It Happened One Night at Cornell Cinema on Sunday, among other things.
Home Video: We finally checked out KPop Demon Hunters on Netflix after my youngest daughter got invited to a “KPop Demon Hunters Meets Unicorns and Rainbows”-themed birthday party, which: if you need any additional proof that this is a bona fide phenomenon, there you go! Anyway, this is now the girls’ favorite movie of the year and while it isn’t breaking any narrative or stylistic ground, my loving wife and I were pleasantly surprised to find that it’s a sturdy piece of work elevated by clever touches like an OCD demon tiger and catchy musical numbers, including my new clubhouse leader for the Best Original Song Oscar, “Golden.” Now I suppose we’ll find out how many sequels my goodwill can survive. . . .
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 