In Theaters: There are a lot of intriguing new titles popping up on local marquees today and tomorrow, but I’ve got a lot going on this week and thus only have time to see two. I think I’m going with the one the internet has been buzzing about, The Blue Heron, and Obsession largely on the strength of its teaser trailer. They’re both opening at Cinemapolis, and the latter is at the Regal Ithaca Mall as well. I also have varying degrees of interest in The Wizard of the Kremlin (Regal), Steal This Story, Please! (Cinemapolis), Is God Is (Regal), and In the Grey (Regal), but they’ll all have to wait. Hokum, which continues its runs at both Cinemapolis and the Regal, remains my favorite holdover.
It’s mostly all quiet on the special events front, but there is a free “Family Classics Picture Show” presentation of the Aardman Animations classic Chicken Run at Cinemapolis on Sunday. Other noteworthy repertory fare includes a staff picks screening of the good (Cronenberg) Crash at Cinemapolis on Tuesday and an eclectic mix of musicals and sci fi movies at the Regal highlighted by Close Encounters of the Third Kind on Sunday, An American in Paris on Monday, Singin’ in the Rain on Tuesday, and Annihilation on Wednesday.
Home Video Recommendation: Jordan Ruimy reports that 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple has not been doing well on Netflix and speculates that as a result the trilogy will never be completed, which is a real shame because the first 28 Years Later made my Movie Year 2025 top ten (percent) list and this one is my second-favorite film of 2026 so far, trailing only Alpha. Matt Patches recently published an article on Polygon called “It stinks that we may never see the end of the decade’s best trilogy” that ends with a series of suggestions to save it. Serious question: what about an Oscar campaign for Ralph Fiennes? After all, as I said on Letterboxd in January after revisiting part one:
Nominating and then finally awarding Ralph Fiennes an Oscar for his supporting turn as an orange-skinned anti-Trump in this film would have been not only delightfully ironic (considering how many oh so serious roles he was passed over for) and richly deserved, but also a perfectly timed middle finger to You-Know-Who and his thugs. Missed opportunity! Let’s not do it again next year, eh?
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 