What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m going with Eleanor the Great at Cinemapolis and The Smashing Machine either there or at the Regal Ithaca Mall.
Also in Theaters: I’m also hoping to see Anemone, which opens at Cinemapolis tomorrow, before it closes. My favorite new movie now playing Ithaca that I’ve already seen is One Battle After Another, which continues its runs at Cinemapolis and the Regal. As I noted on Letterboxd, my loving wife and I are currently working our way through the cinematic adventures of Jack Ryan, and this movie struck me as an improved version of Patriot Games during moments like a rooftop shadow play with the moral that revolution is a young man’s game and a high-speed car chase through ember waves of asphalt, which I think might make it a “Democrat dad movie”? This week’s special events highlights include a free screening of the film Simshar followed by a discussion with director Rebecca Crimona at Cornell Cinema on Wednesday, a free screening of Yanuni there tonight, a free screening of Border Dwellers at Cinemapolis on Sunday, and the return of Cat Video Fest to Cornell Cinema this weekend. Finally, noteworthy repertory options include A Nightmare on Elm Street at Cornell Cinema and the Regal on Saturday, His Girl Friday at Cornell Cinema on Sunday, and The General at Cinemapolis on Wednesday.
Home Video: Most of my Family (née Friday) Movie Night selections are old favorites that the girls haven’t yet seen, but every now and again I like to mix things up by choosing something new to me as well. In this spirit I recently went with Dangerous When Wet, which is streaming on Watch TCM until October 16, and am glad I did because we all loved it and have been singing the song “I Got Out Of Bed on the Right Side” ever since! Here’s what I said on Letterboxd:
Esther Williams plays future farmer of America Katie Higgins, who first allows herself to get sweet-talked into swimming the English Channel and then nearly dies in the attempt all because her father (William Demarest) has no idea how to run a business. Positively European in its attitude toward sex, highlights include a sort of color-by-number invitation to imagine Williams in a skimpy bikini, Charlotte Greenwood as Higgin’s mother contorting her body into Slender Man proportions in a solo dance number, and a great group reaction shot to a man answering a knock on a door thought to belong to a single woman.
I also note that because Tom and Jerry appear in an animated/live-action dream sequence, we paired it with the Merrie Melodies short Speedy Gonzales, which features the eponymous mouse squaring off against the Sylvester the Cat and would go well with One Battle After Another, too, for reasons of surprising relevance to current events. We watched it on DVD, but you can also rent it from 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 