What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m excited to finally see One Battle After Another at either Cinemapolis or the Regal Ithaca Mall and to watch a 35mm print of Bringing Up Baby on the big screen at Cornell Cinema on Saturday!
Also in Theaters: I’m also intrigued by actress Scarlett Johansson’s feature-length directorial debut Eleanor the Great, which opens at Cinemapolis tomorrow, but I’m not sure I’m going to get to it before it closes. My favorite new movie now playing Ithaca that I’ve already seen is The Baltimorons, a love letter to the city I moved here from with The Holdovers vibes that won me over with its earnestness and persistence. It continues its run at Cinemapolis this week. This week’s special events highlights include the presentation of a 35mm print of The Lady Eve at Cornell Cinema on Sunday and free screenings of La Soledad (which I reviewed a few years back), The Fisherman’s Daughter, and Framing Agnes there on Thursday, Monday, and Tuesday respectively. Finally, other noteworthy repertory options include a screening of The Natural at Cinemapolis on Sunday to “celebrate the life and legacy Robert Redford,” Sisters at Cornell Cinema on Saturday, and three classics at the Regal that every cinephile should see on the big screen at least once: Vertigo (tonight), 2001: A Space Odyssey (tomorrow), and Lawrence of Arabia (Sunday).
Home Video: I mentioned The Happening on this blog in August when I noticed that it has basically the same exact beginning as Groundhog Day, then again last month when I suggested you can read its ending as saying something very similar to the final shots of The Exterminating Angel. Now my oldest daughter’s fifth grade class is working on a version of the number doubling exercise John Leguizamo’s math teacher Julian gives his carmates to distract them from their imminent demise. *This* is obviously just a coincidence, but the multiple recent comparisons to other films aren’t–I think about The Happening, which I consider to be one of the great modern “B movies” and director M. Night Shyamalan’s masterpiece, all the time! Its budget may have been bigger than Val Lewton-produced fare like my October ’24 Drink & a Movie selection The Leopard Man, but the way a quotidian phenomenon like wind rustling leaves is imbued with menace is straight out of his playbook. Reviewers killed it on release and half the folks I follow on Letterboxd who have rated it are still going with scores of one-and-a-half stars or less, but I’m gratified by how many of the people whose opinions I respect the most are at the whole other end of the spectrum, which suggests to me that a critical reappraisal is already in the works. The Happening is currently available on YouTubeTV with a subscription and Prime Video for a rental fee–check it out and join us in the vanguard!
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 