In Theaters: I was lucky enough to catch Rose of Nevada on 35mm at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre last month, and it blew me away. Here’s what I said on Letterboxd after that screening:
Rose of Nevada looks and sounds like a lo-fi The Fog, has at its heart a moral conundrum not dissimilar to the choice facing the loving fathers in Knock at the Cabin, and is evocative of Groundhog Day for reasons obvious (let’s do the time warp again!) and less so (the reckless truck driving sequence reminded me of unfilmed scenes where Phil Connors tries to get as far away from Punxsutawney as he can in 24 hours using a variety of means of transportation). This sort of thing is my bag, baby! But while I definitely see how it’s about community as director Mark Jenkins said in the Q&A with critic Isaac Feldberg that followed the 35mm screening at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre where I saw it, the movie works best for me when I think of George MacKay and Callum Turner’s leading men as representing a spectrum of exile/refugee experiences: how do you react when you can’t go home again?
It’s only playing Cinemapolis for one week starting today, so don’t miss it! I’m less certain just how into The Odyssey I am exactly, but I had lots of thoughts on it as well:
Interesting first movie for My Loving Wife and I to see after finishing our remedial binge-watching of the Final Destination franchise! Which is also about what happens when you piss off one of the gods, but whereas it’s already too late for the characters in those Computer Age tales by the time they learn how to believe in them again, there’s still enough “apparent magic” left in the rituals of the Bronze Age world Matt Damon’s Odysseus inhabits for him to play them against each other even while he’s still faking it until he makes it.
The scenes in the belly of the Trojan Horse are a Baroque chiaroscuro canvas, Anne Hathaway’s “Oscar Clip” slays, and Samantha Morton’s Circe makes me think that the live-action Hayao Miyazaki remakes I joked about in February wouldn’t NECESSARILY be ALL bad in the hands of the right people. Another random thought: the part where Odysseus’s dog dies (spoiler alert?) is basically the exact opposite of the dead cat from Obsession: he’s genuinely moved by a moment that on the surface wouldn’t seem to matter much in the great scheme of things, whereas Michael Johnston’s Bear struggles to conjure up real emotions in response to actual events that pale in comparison to the imaginary How I Met Your Mother story he’s been starring in since high school.
I love Matt Damon, but to me this is a movie about the performances around him: not just Hathaway, but also Tom Holland, who never once made me think of Spider-Man, and Elliot Page’s scene-stealing Sinon, and John Leguizamo’s steadfast swineherd, and Benny Safdie nailing both the David Prowse and Sebastian Shaw aspects of his depiction of Agamemnon as a classical Darth Vader. To cite yet another cinematic contemporary, I think this works if you think of Odysseus as a weary sun from Project Hail Mary and them as the ragtag band that has to rally together to reignite his flame, yeah? But, forgive me for one more, I still prefer The Northman, which hits many, if not all, the same beats! And was one of my favorite films of Movie Year 2022, so: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It’s definitely worth the drive to Rochester if you have business there anyway like we did (I can now tell you how a 1/10 size bass, which isn’t available anywhere locally, is NOT the same thing as a cello, but that’s a story for another day) to experience it on 70mm at the Cinemark Tinseltown Rochester and IMAX, but there’s a lot to be said for seeing this particular movie in Ithaca at Cinemapolis or the Regal Ithaca Mall as well. Other holdovers worth checking out include comedian John Early’s affectionate homage to Lifetime “movies of the week” Maddie’s Secret at Cinemapolis, The Invite there or at the Regal, and Disclosure Day and Toy Story 5 at the Regal.
I’m going with Her Private Hell at the Regal this week myself despite the fact that it got bad reviews at Cannes because so did my clubhouse leader for best film of 2026 Alpha. Special events include a presentation of Jacked at Cinemapolis this evening followed by a Q&A with director John Fucile and a free screening of Life After there on Sunday. Finally, repertory highlights include sci fi romp The Fifth Element at the Regal on Sunday and Monday and director Wes Anderson’s debut feature Bottle Rocket at Cinemapolis on Tuesday.
Home Video Recommendation: I mentioned the Final Destination franchise in my Letterboxd review of The Odyssey, and now’s a great time to watch it because the first four movies leave HBO Max at the end of the month! All six are available on that platform, but you really only need to see three: the original Final Destination so that you know what’s going on, its sequel Final Destination 2 so that you can enjoy Gina Telaroli’s great writing about it, and Final Destination 5, which I strongly suspect will remain the high point of the series no matter how many more installments they might make.
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 