What I’m Seeing This Week: I am absolutely thrilled that Cinemapolis is bringing Magellan to Ithaca tomorrow! It clocked in at ninth on my “Cannes 2025 Films That I Am Most Eager to See” list and was the highest-ranked title that I didn’t think would ever open here, so even though they only expect to have it for one week, that’s more than I expected. Best International Film Oscar nominee The Voice of Hind Rajab begins a limited engagement there tomorrow as well. As a Luc Besson loyalist, I intend to eventually see Dracula at the Regal Ithaca Mall, too, but probably not until next week.
Also in Theaters: As was the case last week, you can currently see three films likely to make my Movie Year 2025 top ten list on the big screen locally. The mix is slightly different, though: Marty Supreme remains at the Regal and No Other Choice (which repeats as my TOP recommendation) continues its run at Cinemapolis, as does Arco, which as I recently noted on Letterboxd “features one of the most surprising and convincing, and thus extremely moving, depictions of an authentic gesture of love by a robot capable of genuine emotions toward its human ward that I’ve ever encountered in a movie.” Meanwhile, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which is down to one screening per day at the Regal, is my first favorite film of Movie Year 2026, and I also enjoyed Hamnet and Send Help, which both continue their respective runs at both Cinemapolis and the Regal.
Special events highlights include a bevy of free events at Cornell Cinema starting tomorrow with a screening of The Conversation, which Cornell professor Dr. Karen Levy will use as the basis for a discussion on “the social and ethical aspects of data-intensive technologies.” A four-part film series called “Exploring Ethnographic Filmmaking” then begins on Monday with a “Scientific Cinema” program featuring Four Families, Trance and Dance in Bali, and Groh Groh (Rehearsal for Rangda). Cornell professor Michell Chresfield will introduce the documentary In My Blood It Runs on Tuesday. Last but not least, a filmmaker Q&A will follow a screening of Rule Breakers on Wednesday. Finally, noteworthy repertory options include screenings of Total Recall, Letter from an Unknown Woman, and Ran at Cornell Cinema tonight, Saturday, and Sunday respectively, and Lost in Translation at the Regal on Monday.
Home Video Recommendation: My Loving Wife’s last Family (née Friday) Movie Night selection was The Cutting Edge, a childhood VHS staple for both of us. Although stylistically very much a product of the early ’90s, it held up way better than I expected and the girls liked it, too, although they were both frustrated by the fact that it ends with a kiss before we learn what scores Moira Kelly’s Kate Moseley and D.B. Sweeney’s Doug Dorsey received for their climactic pairs figure skating long program at the 1992 Winter Olympics:
I don’t remember this bothering *me* when I was a kid, but there’s a lot of fuss about an empty medal case, so I get it. Except! Here’s one thing that definitely did not ever occur to me before: the Albertville Games were the last ones held before the IOC split the Winter and Summer Olympics into separate four-year cycles, so this is the exact moment in history where it’s maximally plausible that Terry O’Quinn’s overbearing father Jack Moseley would be perfectly satisfied with a high score that set his daughter up to be one of the favorites at the Lillehammer Games just two years down the road! Anyway, The Cutting Edge is easy to find on DVD and is also available for rental and purchase on a variety of streaming video platforms.
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 