What I’m Seeing This Week: There are a ton of great events to choose from, but I think I’m *most* excited to finally catch up with Wings, the first movie ever to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, at the Regal Ithaca Mall on Monday! I also intend to be in the audience for at least 1/3 of the free “The Anti-Films of Guy Debord” screenings at Cinemapolis Friday-Sunday, and I’m hoping to make it to Project Hail Mary there or at the Regal as well. Finally, if my oldest daughter’s basketball tournament ends on time, there’s a program of six works by the late experimental filmmaker and Binghamton University professor Tomonari Nishikawa at Cornell Cinema on Sunday that I don’t want to miss which features 16mm prints of four of them: Apollo, 45 7 Broadway, Amusement Ride, and Ten Mornings Ten Evenings and One Horizon.
Also in Theaters: Sirât, which continues its run at Cinemapolis, clocked in at sixth on my Movie Year 2025 Top “Ten” list, so that’s my highest new movie recommendation. I haven’t yet seen Hoppers because I’m planning to take the girls *next* weekend, but I hear good things! It’s at the Regal. Special events include a free screening of Seeds at Cornell Cinema that features free concessions and a Zoom Q&A with director Brittany Shyne this evening and a free screening of Madrid, Ext. followed by a conversation with filmmaker Juan Cavestany on Wednesday. You can also see Mário and 2001: A Space Odyssey there gratis on Monday and Tuesday respectively, and there’s a free “Family Classics Picture Show” screening of The Adventures of Robin Hood at Cinemapolis on Sunday. Finally, additional repertory highlights include A Woman is a Woman at Cornell Cinema tomorrow, Imitation of Life there on Saturday, and Rififi at Cinemapolis on Tuesday.
Home Video Recommendation: Speaking of Best Picture Oscar winners, the most recent film to join this club, One Battle After Another, is streaming on HBO Max with a subscription and available for rental or purchase on a number of other platforms. As the only nominee to make my aforementioned Top Ten (Percent) list, I was glad to see it win! Here’s the blurb from that post:
Contains many of my favorite individual sights and sounds of the year, including the climactic car chase over hills that, because I saw it for the first time five days after watching Patriot Games, will always remind me of waves and Jonny Greenwood’s pitch-perfect use of Shepard Tone in the theme he wrote for Teyana Taylor’s Perfidia Beverly Hills.
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 