In Theaters: I don’t talk much about box office performance on this blog because what’s a hit and what’s flopping isn’t terribly relevant to my particular brand of cinephilia. I am deeply invested in my local theaters making enough money to stay in business, though, so I’m rooting for both the twin horror sensations Backrooms and Obsession to continue making a killing even though I liked one of them much more than the other.
Backrooms traffics in a lot of the same themes as last year’s The Woman in the Yard, but for better or worse it trades clarity for atmosphere. I haven’t dug into the web series it’s based on beyond giving the Wikipedia entry a once over, so the only thing it builds on for me personally is the teaser trailer. While there wasn’t anything in the movie itself that made the production design-driven conceit more interesting than it already was aside from a monster that reminded me of the papier-mâché puppets that are staples of Ithaca’s parade scene, I will give at least one of its inevitable sequels a chance to change my mind.
Obsession is less overtly fascinated by a past its creator and primary audience are too young to have experienced firsthand, but it also revolves around a fictional museum piece. Like the “liminal spaces” of its like-it-or-not companion film, it remains ambiguous what the “One Wish Willow” is meant to tell us about the previous era it supposedly hails from: is the idea that a heart’s desire didn’t yield as much destructive power in simpler times? Or is yet another generation issuing a disclaimer that “we didn’t start the fire”? I think this question represents value-added intrigue rather than a distraction because it’s secondary to the anxiety about what constitutes consent that most of its horror comes from. There are also some vestigial genre mores, to be sure, but just as the audience I saw Hokum with seemed to enjoy its empty jump scares, I’ve got no objections here to giving the people what they obviously want.
Both films continue their runs at both Cinemapolis and the Regal Ithaca Mall this week. Obsession is my top recommendation for both venues, but each is worth seeing if for no other reason than because their wild popularity with young viewers feared to be allergic to movie theaters all but guarantees that they’ll be one of the most important stories of Movie Year 2026. Go see ’em!
I’m planning to spend three of my next seven evenings glued to the television watching my beloved Knickerbockers take on Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs in the NBA Finals myself, but I do intend to make time to see Carolina Caroline at the Regal and Power Ballad there or at Cinemapolis. Although I’m giving the Nitrate Picture Show a miss this year in favor of Capitolfest 2026, I might also sneak up to Rochester on Saturday to try my luck with the rush lines depending on what’s playing. Other new releases I enjoyed include, in approximate order of preference, The Sheep Detectives (Regal), I Love Boosters (Cinemapolis), and Tuner (Cinemapolis). Finally, special events/repertory highlights include the return of Ran to Cinemapolis 40 years after it became the first film they ever screened on Tuesday and a 30th anniversary presentation of Trainspotting at the Regal on Sunday.
Home Video Recommendation: In the spirit of nostalgia, this week’s home video recommendation is News From Home, one of the best documentary portraits of a New York City that exists no more ever committed to celluloid. Here’s what I said about it on Letterboxd the last time I watched it:
The old man in avocado-colored checkered pants who gets on the subway at about the 30-minute mark, stares directly into our eyes for a few beats, then switches cars is the absolute final word on people looking at the camera. Letter-writing is often bemoaned as a lost art, but here it sounds utterly exhausting. If you score this film like a prize fight between home where the art is (was?) and the strange land Akerman is now a stranger in based on whether VO or diegetic audio is dominant, the latter seems en route to victory, but then it ends with 1970s New York sinking into the ocean like the lost city of Atlantis.
You can stream News From Home on both the Criterion Channel and HBO Max with a subscription; it’s also available for rental from a variety of other platforms and as part of the Criterion Collection’s Chantal Akerman Masterpieces, 1968–1978 Blu-ray box set.
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 