What I’m Seeing This Week: More than half the films on my “Movie Year 2025 Cram List” that I haven’t yet seen are playing on local big screens this week! I’m actually going to save the Oscar-nominated shorts programs for later this month when they come to Cornell Cinema, but I’m excited to see My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow there on Sunday and Sound of Falling at Cinemapolis before it closes next Thursday. I’m also hoping to finally check out Dracula at the Regal Ithaca Mall.
Also in Theaters: The new stuff is definitely the star of the show, but if you’re playing catch up Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, which continues its run at Cinemapolis, is very funny and I won’t be surprised one bit if it turns out to be the best-edited film I see all year. I also enjoyed Hamnet, which opened there nearly three months ago, and Send Help, which remains at both Cinemapolis and the Regal.
Special events include a bevy of free screenings at both Cinemapolis and Cornell Cinema. To begin with the former, you can see The Navigator accompanied by local pianist Emmett Scott there on Sunday, Lafayette: A Hero’s Return on Monday, and three shorts by local filmmakers Daniil Lazuka & Logan Perzi on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Cornell alums Frank Dawson and Abby Ginzberg will present their film Agents of Change at Cornell Cinema this evening, and their screenings of Where Are You Taking Me? on Tuesday, 95 and 6 to Go on Wednesday (note: this event will take place in the Film Forum at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts), and Onlookers on Thursday will all be followed by conversations with filmmaker Kime Takesue. Finally, noteworthy repertory options include screenings of The Godfather at Cornell Cinema tomorrow and Saturday, All That Heaven Allows there on Saturday, and Eyes Wide Shut at the Regal on Wednesday.
Home Video Recommendation: Last week in this space I mentioned Downhill Racer, the single greatest depiction of hurtling down a mountainside ever captured on celluloid. This week I’m going with the first of two James Bond movies to star my favorite 007 Timothy Dalton, The Living Daylights, which deserves an honorable mention in the non-Olympics category. I am, of course, referring to the scene in which he navigates a cello over the Austrian border:
This flight of fancy aside, The Living Daylights is noteworthy for anticipating the Daniel Craig era’s efforts to reimagine Bond as a flesh-and-blood secret agent who has to actually work to stay one step ahead of his adversaries. Both this film and its follow-up License to Kill also feature excellent editing in this scene and others such as the latter’s airplane opening which I’m sure is what inspired Letterboxd user Michael Bokan to describe it as “Tom Cruise’s favorite Bond,” an amusing sentiment that I endorse! These two titles and the other 23 in the “Eon Series” plus Never Say Never Again are all now available on Netflix with a subscription.
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 