What I’m Seeing This Week: I am going with Good One, which opens at Cinemapolis today.
Also in Theaters: My top recommendation is Between the Temples, which continues its run at both Cinemapolis and the Regal Ithaca Mall. It stars Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane as student/teacher dyad (each plays both roles at different times) and features my favorite sound effect of Movie Year 2024, a defective door which swings open unbidden with an anguished wail reminiscent of someone being tortured on The Machine from Kane’s The Princess Bride, as well as one of the funniest and most original depictions of a drug experience that I’ve ever seen in a film from any era. I also enjoyed Twisters, Inside Out 2, and Trap, all of which are at the Regal Ithaca Mall, and Love Lies Bleeding, which is at Cornell Cinema on Saturday. New movies which I haven’t seen yet, but hope to before they leave theaters, include Sing Sing(Cinemapolis), Blink Twice (Cinemapolis and the Regal), and Dìdi (Cinemapolis). Finally, your best bets for repertory fare are two blasts from my past: Coraline, which is concludes its run at the Regal tonight, and 10 Things I Hate About You, which plays Cornell Cinema tomorrow. It has been a minute since I last watched either of them, but I enjoyed both when they were originally released 25 and 15 years ago respectively.
Home Video: One of my most gratifying cinephile parent experiences to date has been watching my kids grow up with the work of director Hayao Miyazaki, who *I* didn’t discover until college. When my oldest recently selected Howl’s Moving Castle as her Family (née Friday) Movie Night selection, I assumed that I had already seen it, but it quickly became apparent that I was wrong. Between the fact that it’s one of Miyazaki’s least schematic films and the capriciousness of the transformations that afflict so many characters, I suspect it feels like an allegory for whatever you went through most recently. I love the scene where Howl takes the form of a king and announces that they’re abandoning a military tactic because it exposes civilians to too much danger, then the real king comes in and obviously couldn’t care less about such things, and as someone who continues to enjoy each new stage of life as much as the ones which preceded it, I also dig the depiction of old age as a “curse” that also comes with plenty of benefits. Howl’s Moving Castle, like all Studio Ghibli titles, is exclusively available for streaming on Max with a subscription, but you can also easily find it on DVD and Blu-ray for not much money at all.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts canbe found here.
Thanks to Raquel Stecher’s Out of the Past blog, I recently became aware of two books published by Turner Classic Movies based on the same premise as my Drink & a Movie series: that cocktails and movies are natural partners! The first, Eddie Muller’s Noir Bar by TCM personality Eddie Muller aka “The Czar of Noir,” came out last fall and features a selection of movies from the titular genre paired with a combination of classic and modern cocktails as well as a handful created by the author, a former bartender turned “professional drinker,” which he defines in the introduction as “somebody who imbibes every day but never gets drunk. Well, almost never.” This is a pretty good label for me, too, and I appreciate Muller’s emphasis on accessible ingredients and recipes which can be easily adapted to a variety of circumstances over obscure spirits and elaborate techniques. It lends itself to smart pairings, too, as in the case of The Breaking Point, which he calls “the finest film ever made from a Hemingway book” and matches with the famous novelist’s “personal spin on a Caribbean classic,” the Hemingway Daiquiri. Although it may seem like an obvious choice, Muller justifies it with a suggestion to either substitute mezcal as the base spirit to better connect with the film’s Baja California setting or use Captain Morgan white rum as an homage to the character played by John Garfield.
Other thoughtful combinations include pairing The Big Sleep with a Gimlet because they feature prominently in another work by Raymond Chandler, the author of the novel that the film is based on; Force of Evil with a drink by Los Angeles bartender Paul Sanguinetti called The Blacklisted by way of acknowledging the “political imbroglio” that impacted key noir figures like the movie’s screenwriter Abraham Polonsky; and Side Street with San Francisco bartender Todd Smith’s Black Manhattan for the poetic reason that it’s a worthy companion to the film that Muller lauds as “the best New York noir.” I love the decision to use director Luis Buñuel’s personal Martini recipe in the pairing with Sweet Smell of Success, and I enjoyed both of Muller’s inventions that I tried, the Sailor Beware paired with The Lady from Shanghai and the Hammett Martini paired with The Maltese Falcon, which features a split-base spirit combination of vodka and rum that was new to me.
Noir Bar is organized alphabetically by movie title, which makes sense, and features ephemera from Muller’s personal collection like a prop “Wanted” poster from The Hitch-Hiker that reminds me of Ted Haigh’s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, which I intend as a high compliment! It also contains some of the most stylish (the black backgrounds were a great choice) and creative drink photography I’ve ever seen. I don’t endorse *every* aspect of Muller’s philosophy: I tend to agree with Toby Maloney’s statement in The Bartender’s Manifesto that “it’s gauche, it’s gross” to rub expressed citrus peels over the rim of a glass, for instance. All of them reflect Muller’s years of experience behind the stick, though, and represent a definite point of view, and I’d love to come over to the “full-scale cocktail lounge” in his garage for happy hour sometime!
André Darlington’s Forbidden Cocktails, which features “libations inspired by the world of pre-Code Hollywood,” unfortunately doesn’t stand up well to a side-by-side comparison. To lead with the positives, many of the film descriptions are quite good, such as the analysis of which “paradise cocktail” exactly we’re watching someone prepare in One Way Passage, and I like how it consists entirely of original creations made from ingredients from that period of film history, which stretched from roughly 1930 when the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America adopted the Hays Code to 1934 when they actually began enforcing it. But I wish it would have gone further in this direction by telling you in detail how to set up and stock an early 1930s bar and then offering a curated library of drinks that could be made with those ingredients which includes both classics and original creations along with the movie pairings. The main problem with going all-in on the latter is that Darlington’s recipes are mostly just slight variations on existing drinks, which would be fine were it not for the fact that they don’t always represent an improvement over the original. The My Pal Rye which accompanies Night Nurse, for instance, is a perfectly credible riff on an Old Pal, only it isn’t at all clear to me why this rather edgy film calls for a variation which “takes things in a softer direction” by switching out dry vermouth for Lillet Blanc. A more successful example is the Rose-Colored Glasses paired with 42nd Street, which replaces the creme de cacao in an Alexander cocktail with raspberry syrup to give it an attractive pink hue that evokes a line from the movie, but even this seems like only half an idea: why not add a floral component as well? The book also isn’t organized in any logical fashion, contains far less appealing pictures, and seems impersonal next to Muller’s guided tour of his sometimes delightfully idiosyncratic noir canon.
I applaud the fact that both books are available in spiral-bound editions and feature indexes organized around ingredients to make it easier to find and flip to a recipe you can make with the bottles you have on hand, and I’m going to enjoy having each of them in my collection–there are still a number of recipes in Forbidden Cocktails that I want to try! But Noir Bar is clearly my top recommendation. It would make a fabulous gift for lovers of that genre who also enjoy an occasional drink, drinkers who also like movies, or anyone who throws parties for people from either of the aforementioned groups who might enjoy picking it up off a coffee table and flipping through it.
What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m going with either Between the Temples or Didi at Cinemapolis, but that’s only because I’ll be in Pennsylvania this weekend, which means I’m going to miss the free “Silent Movie Under the Stars” screening of The Mark of Zorro at Upper Robert Treman State Park on Saturday. Blast! More details can be found here on the Wharton Studio Museum’s website.
Also in Theaters: Honestly, my favorite new film now playing Ithaca is probably still Twisters, which continues its run at the Regal Ithaca Mall this week, but repeating that each week is starting to get boring, so I’m going to talk about something else there instead. Trap is, like director M. Night Shyamalan’s last outing Knock at the Cabin, a story about the battle of good vs. evil, but this time it’s the latter that’s under siege. It also shares a surprising affinity with Inside Out 2 (which is also at the Regal) in that both posit that it’s not healthy to be happy all the time because that isn’t sustainable for normal people. Shyamalan further suggests that we should be deeply suspicious of anyone who is able to maintain the facade for a lengthy period of time, which I totally get: Josh Hartnett’s Cooper Adams is way creepier to me than either Nicholas Cage’s titular character in Longlegs or Simon Prast’s obviously insane preacher in MaXXXine. My other new movie recommendation is Love Lives Bleeding, which announces the triumphant return of Cornell Cinema on Saturday. This is your annual reminder that at the crazy low prices of $25 for graduate students, $30 for undergraduate students, $36 for staff, and $40 for everyone else, their year-long All-Access Passes are the best arts and culture value in Ithaca! I’m also hoping to see Blink Twice at either Cinemapolis or the Regal before it closes. Your best bet for repertory fare is obviously Rear Window, which is at the Regal on Sunday and Wednesday, but I have a story about Wet Hot American Summer, which is at Cinemapolis on Sunday! In late August 2001 I was an entering sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh and me and many of my friends bonded over our mutual love of MTV’s sketch comedy television series The State. When we learned that a film by alum David Wain and starring many other cast members was screening theatrically in New York we drove through the night to see it, only to discover that it wasn’t playing the day we arrived. So we went to the Twin Towers instead with the intention of riding the elevator to the top. It cost more than we expected, though, so we bailed when one of my companions noted that “it’s not like they’re going anywhere.” Anyway: fun movie!
Home Video: My friend Scott and I have a two-person movie club whereby each month one of us selects a film which we both watch at least twice, then we talk about it. This has proven to be a great opportunity for me to catch up on titles that have been lingering on my watch list for far too long and sometimes, in the case of his choices, things which I didn’t even know I was missing out on! Last month, for instance, he chose the very solid spaghetti western Death Rides a Horse, which is available on Prime Video. I love the introduction to John Phillip Law’s laconic hero Bill as an adult in which he shows off his prowess with a gun, the bevy of great one-liners that Luciano Vincenzoni’s screenplay give shim and Lee Van Cleef’s Ryan, and Ennio Morricone’s top-notch score. In case you care about such things, though: boy howdy does this film fail the Bechdel test with flying colors!
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts canbe found here.
What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m going with director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest Trap at the Regal Ithaca Mall.
Also in Theaters: My top recommendation *right now* is The Widow Clicquot, my favorite period piece of Movie Year 2024 so far which features an excellent seduction scene between Haley Bennett, who is terrific in the lead role, and a very entertaining Sam Riley; a brief look at an ancestor of the modern French courtrooms we’ve lately learned to love from films like Saint Omer and Anatomy of a Fall; and first-rate costumes by Marie Frémont. Alas, it closes at Cinemapolis tonight, so Twisters will reclaim the title of Best New Movie Now Playing In Ithaca That I’ve Already Seen tomorrow, with Inside Out 2 once again close behind in second. Both are screening at the Regal. Other new titles that I hope to see in theaters before they close include Cuckoo, Didi, and Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger, all of which are at Cinemapolis; Cuckoo is at the Regal as well. Your best bet for repertory fare is definitely Stray Dog, which is at Cinemapolis on Sunday.
Home Video: The other night I mixed up a My Pal Rye from the book Forbidden Cocktails as part of my research for a review I’m writing of it for ye olde blog. When I saw that Night Nurse, the movie author André Darlington pairs is with, is on WatchTCM until August 28, I figured I had to watch it. I actually didn’t love the drink, but the film is magnificent! It embodies everything that is appealing about the Hollywood’s “pre-code” period between the adoption of the Hays Code in 1930 and the beginning of its actual enforcement in 1934: you’ve got Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell stripping down to their underwear every few minutes and climbing into bed together at one point, a Depression-era socialite party depicted as a veritable circle of hell, and the very clear suggestion that some crimes (here bootlegging) pay very nicely, thank you. It also includes a sinister Clark Gable, entertainingly naturalistic working class dialogue, and a runtime of just 72 minutes, plus its bookended by delightful POV shots from inside an ambulance. There is absolutely no reason not to watch this sometime during the next fortnight if you have access!
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts canbe found here.
As I have mentioned previously, after I publish my last “Drink & a Movie” post in early 2026 I plan to edit all of them into a book. My chief model for this endeavor will be Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by “Dr. Cocktail” Ted Haigh, which features a blend of images, drink lore, and practical advice in perfect proportions and which is spiral-bound for ease of use as all recipe books should be! Haigh’s version of the classic East India Cocktail has been in heavy rotation at our house since the end of raspberry season, so it seemed like a logical choice for this month’s drink. Here’s how we make it:
Make the raspberry syrup by simmering two cups of fresh raspberries with eight ounces of water in a medium saucepan for five to ten minutes until everything is approximately the same color, then strain. Add one cup of sugar while the mixture is still hot, stir until dissolved, let cool, then bottle and refrigerate. Make the cocktail by stirring all ingredients with ice and straining into a chilled glass. Garnish with a cherry.
The East India Cocktail is an elegant beverage. Haigh explains that it “was named not for the eastern part of India but for all of it and more: India, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, and the entirety of the British colonies.” This therefore struck me as a perfect opportunity to break out the bottle of yuzu Curaçao I picked up at The Wine Source in Baltimore last winter since I associate it with that corner of the world more than its West Indian cousin. The dominant flavor is of course cognac (there are three ounces of it, after all), but the other ingredients serve the same function as the atmosphere at the palace of Mopu, where most of this month’s movie Black Narcissus takes place: they exaggerate everything. So it’s fruitier, sweeter, more mysterious cognac. Speaking of which: considering how much of it you’re going to use, it’s definitely worth splurging on a good bottle! Frapin VSOP was a recommendation by someone at Ithaca’s always reliable Cellar d’Or and we like it here and to sip on its own quite a bit.
Black Narcissus is set in the part of the British Empire that the East India Cocktail is named after, and it has been on my mind ever since I was fortunate enough to see it at last year’s Nitrate Picture Show, so it was an obvious way to complete the pairing. Here’s a picture of my Criterion Collection DVD release:
It can also be streamed via The Criterion Channel and a number of other commercial platforms for free, with a subscription, or for a rental fee. Some people (including current Cornell University faculty, staff, and students) may have access to it through Kanopy via a license paid for by their local academic or public library as well.
Thanks to brilliant Oscar-winning art direction by Alfred Junge and cinematography by Jack Cardiff, along with stunning matte paintings by W. Percy Day, Black Narcissus is one of the most transportative films ever shot entirely in a studio. It begins with a series of shots that establish the setting:
This is followed by an introduction to Mopu, which the Order of the Servants of Mary plans to convert into a convent, that Priya Jaikumar notes “is filtered through three people, all of whom are less than objective about the place and the nuns’ mission.” We see it first through the eyes of Reverend Mother Dorothea (Nancy Roberts), who ponders an illustration in a book:
Then Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), who is being sent there as the order’s youngest Sister Superior, imagines it as she reads a letter from Mr. Dean (David Farrar), the British agent of The Old General Toda Raj (Esmond Knight) who has given it to them:
Mr. Dean’s letter reveals that the General’s father previously housed his concubines in Mopu:
And introduces us to the local holy man who sits motionless day in and day out with his face to the mountains:
Before seamlessly transitioning into a depiction of the General giving instructions to Mopu’s housekeeper Angu Ayah (May Hallatt) and Mr. Dean, who we see for the first time riding a pony that is absurdly small for a man of his height:
The rest of the nuns who will occupy Mopu, or Saint Faith as it is now to be called, are introduced in the next scene, which per Roderick Heath is reminiscent of “the kind of war movies where a team of talents is assembled for a dangerous mission in enemy territory.” There’s Sister Briony (Judith Furse), the strong one; Sister Philippa (Flora Robson) for the garden; and Sister Blanche or “Honey” (Jenny Laird), because Sister Clodagh will need to be popular:
As well as Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron) because “she’s a problem,” but “with a smaller community, she may be better.” Sister Ruth is initially represented as an empty place at the convent’s dinner table:
But she appears very soon afterward in corporeal form at Mopu ringing a bell perched at the end of a dizzying abyss which Bertrand Tavernier calls “absolutely breathtaking” in the DVD extra The Audacious Adventurer and an example of special effects that are more impressive than those of the digital era because “these seem to have a soul: they are not just the product of technology but are infused with emotion.”
Dave Kehr observes that “despite the great wit and character of [Emeric] Pressburger’s dialogue, BlackNarcissus is a film that develops almost entirely through formal rather than dramatic means.” One of my favorite examples of this is the way the past elbows its way into the sisters’ present the longer they remain at Mopu. Early on, Sister Clodagh’s flashbacks are signaled by dissolves, like this one:
Which is followed by a medium shot of Clodagh fishing amidst a shimmering disco ball of sunlight glistening on the waves that Martin Scorsese accurately lauds in his DVD commentary track as “overwhelming” for those lucky enough to see the film on the big screen in a good print:
As the film progresses and her memories become as real as whatever she’s experiencing live, though, this is replaced by straight cuts, for instance from Sister Honey’s description of a jacket worn by the Old General’s heir (Sabu) as “just like my grandmother’s footstool” to this one from Sister Clodagh’s youth:
This sequence also ends with an astonishing moment which Ryland Walker Knight describes as transitioning “in one shot from technicolor beauty to the void, the loss of grounding becoming as powerful an edit as imaginable”:
Sister Philippa’s own struggles to combat the return of the repressed are similarly conveyed more by this image of her staring off into space:
And this close-up of her blistered and calloused hands:
Than anything in the screenplay. But Kehr is right that this tendency is best exemplified in the incredible final sequence, where it’s “enough to see the bright, red lipstick that Sister Ruth has put on to know that the apocalypse is near.” He’s referring to the scene which follows her sudden appearance in a red dress to announce to put an exclamation point on her decision to not renew her vows (the Servants of Mary are only bound to their order for one year at a time):
Which was foreshadowed much earlier by a shot of her watching Sister Clodagh speak to Mr. Dean while the convent’s young translator Joseph Anthony (Eddie Whaley Jr.) teaches students how to say the names of various weapons in English:
And set up by first a fatal act of attention and kindness by Mr. Dean, who thanks her for her misguided efforts to treat a woman bleeding to death in the convent’s hospital instead of immediately fetching the much more experienced Sister Briony:
And then a fatal decision by Sister Clodagh to ask Joseph Anthony to bring her a glass of milk:
Sister Ruth dumps it out, assuming that it’s poisoned:
And spots Sister Clodagh talking to Mr. Dean once again:
She rushes downstairs past a dramatic streak of sunlight on the floor that Kristin Thompson says in her video essay “Color Motifs in Black Narcissus“ Technicolor technicians lobbied Cardiff to remove from the film after they misidentified it as a lens flare:
And takes up position behind a window so that she can eavesdrop on them:
Hearing Mr. Dean console Sister Clodagh leads directly to Sister Ruth donning her red dress. Sister Clodagh implores her to at least wait until morning before departing Saint Faith. And so they settle in for a long night, Sister Ruth with her lipstick and compact and Sister Clodagh with her bible:
The camera tilts from Sister Ruth’s lips to her red eyes and a forehead dotted with beads of sweat:
She outlasts Sister Clodagh in a staring contest of sorts in which the passage of time is indicated by cutting back and forth between a shrinking candle and the wall art in Mopu:
And makes her escape when Sister Clodagh finally succumbs to fatigue:
Sister Ruth treks through the jungle in a sequence which contains a shot that reminds me of one in Suspiria that I wrote about in my October, 2022 Drink & a Movie post:
And finally arrives at Mr. Dean’s bungalow, where she tells him she loves him. He rejects her, and she literally sees red and passes out:
In his autobiography A Life in Movies, director Michael Powell describes the climax of Black Narcissus, which ensues after she comes to and returns to Mopu, as an experiment with “composed film” whereby the blocking and editing were timed to composer Brian Easdale’s music, as opposed to him creating this part of the score based on rushes. Reminiscent of a horror film, it begins with a two shot sequence of Sister Ruth watching Sister Clodagh intently in the predawn hours:
Sister Ruth stalks Sister Clodagh, her presence felt but never seen, as the latter woman attempts to go about a semblance of her morning routine:
Finally, checking her watch and realizing what time it is, Sister Clodagh steps outside to ring the convent’s bell. This is followed by perhaps the film’s single most famous image:
Sister Ruth attempts to push Sister Clodagh over Mopu’s cliffs:
But Sister Clodagh maintains her grip on the bell’s rope:
And in the ensuing struggle it is Sister Ruth who ultimately falls to her death:
Kehr notes that India achieved independence mere months after Black Narcissus‘s premiere on April 24, 1947 and suggests that the final images of a procession down from Mopu can be read as anticipating Britain’s departure.
“For Powell and Pressburger,” Kehr writes, “these are not images of defeat, but of a respectful, rational retreat from something that England never owned and never understood. It is the tribute paid by west to east, full of fear and gratitude.” This reading is complicated for me by the fact that the film doesn’t end with Sister Clodagh looking back at Mopu as it’s covered by mist:
But rather with Mr. Dean bidding a tender farewell to her:
The rains beginning to fall, proving his prediction that the sisters wouldn’t last this long correct:
And finally him looking on as they ride away:
So, yes, the last image is of a British retreat, but it’s a POV shot from the perspective of an Englishman who will remain behind and who promises to take care of Sister Ruth’s grave. It therefore doesn’t play as a farewell to Empire for me so much as an elegy for a certain idea of Britishness, one caught impossibly between the two ways of living in a colonized land previously articulated by Sister Philippa: “either you must live like Mr. Dean, or . . . or like the holy man. Either ignore it or give yourself up to it.” Sister Clodagh intuits that there must be a third way, but cannot articulate what it is, which is why she and the surviving sisters must leave. It’s also why, for all of Black Narcissus‘s gorgeous and inspired cinematography, my favorite moment of all might be the simple scene in which Sister Philippa places the flowers she planted instead of vegetables like she was supposed to on Sister Ruth’s grave:
Here, more than the film’s actual final images, is the respect, fear, and gratitude that Kehr speaks of, as well as, appropriately, sadness. Which is too somber of a note to end a post in this particular series on, so here’s a shot of a shirtless Mr. Dean:
Cheers!
All original photographs in this post are by Marion Penning, aka My Loving Wife.Links to all of the entries in this series can be found here.
Also in Theaters: I haven’t seen been to a movie theater since last week’s post, so Twisters remains my favorite new movie in Ithaca that I’ve already seen and I once again also recommend Inside Out 2. Both films are at the Regal. Among new releases not already mentioned which I haven’t seen, the ones which intrigue me the most are Kneecap and Touch, which are both at Cinemapolis, and Cuckoo, which is there and at the Regal. “Ithaca-raised” filmmaker Nicholas Geisler will present three short films at Cinemapolis tonight as part of a program called “An Evening with Salt Cellar Films” that I unfortunately won’t yet be back in town for (I’m writing this from Ontario). There’s a free community screening of a short film called Restoring Joy at Cinemapolis on Monday. Your best bet for repertory fare is the 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia, which all movie lovers should see on the big screen at least once, and which plays the Regal on Sunday and Monday. You can also catch Cool Hand Luke at Cinemapolis on Sunday.
Home Video: I recently worked my way through the “The Dirty Stories of Jean Eustache” collection on The Criterion Channel. Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore has lived large in my imagination as potentially one of the greatest films I’d never seen for many years and while I *respect* it immensely after two viewings–especially the acting by leads Jean-Pierre Léaud, Françoise Lebrun, and Bernadette Lafont–and agree that it’s an essential watch for anyone who presumes to understand the French New Wave, I confess to feeling a bit underwhelmed. I seem to be in the minority here, and if you find yourself disagreeing with me you’ll definitely want to check out Eustache’s follow-up My Little Loves, which stars Martin Loeb as a boy who could plausibly grow up to be Léaud’s character in Mother, as well. I much prefer The Pig, which I recommended in this space last month, though. I was also impressed by Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes, a short featuring Léaud as a handsy Père Noël who is right up there with Percy Helton’s drunk in Miracle on 34th Street and Artie Lange’s guy who smells like beef and cheese in Elf as my favorite cinematic “bad Santas,” and The Virgin of Pessac, a fascinating “meanwhile, in a nearby small town . . . ” documentary about the May, 1968 protests in France. The other titles I definitely recommend are A Dirty Story, a reenactment of a man (Michael Lonsdale) telling a Peeping Tom story shot in 35mm followed by a documentary depiction of the person (Jean-Noël Picq, who appeared in both Mother and Little Loves) who supposedly actually lived the event recounting the same tale shot in 16mm which is greater than its two constituent parts, and the 1982 César Award-winning short Alix’s Pictures.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts canbe found here.
REVEREND MOTHER MOHIAM: Like sifting sand through a screen. We sift people. If you were unable to control your impulses–like an animal–we could not let you live. You inherit too much power.
MOTHER'S VOICE: I'm not going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching. They'll see . . . they'll see . . . and they'll know . . . and they'll say, 'why, she wouldn't even harm a fly.'"
What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m heading to the family cottage in Ontario tomorrow, so there are no theatrical screenings in my immediate future.
Also in Theaters: It looks like Twisters, which continues its run at the Regal Ithaca Mall, will reign as my favorite new movie in local theaters that I’ve already seen for at least three weeks! I also recommend Inside Out 2, which is there as well. If I *was* able to see something this week, it would probably be one of the films opening at Cinemapolis: Kneecap, Widow Clicquot, or Touch in that order. Other noteworthy new movies include Trap, director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest, and Harold and the Purple Crayon, which is based on the beloved children’s book. Your best bet for repertory fare is legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo, which is at the Regal in a dubbed version on Sunday and Tuesday and with subtitles on Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday. Finally, the tenth edition of Movies in the Park kicks off tomorrow with a free screening of Wonka at Stewart Park.
Home Video:As reported by the Ithaca Voice last month, Fancy Dance is the first widely-distributed film to prominently feature the Gayogohó:nǫˀ or Cayuga language spoken by members of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation. It is now available for streaming on Apple TV+ and is definitely worth checking out if you missed it during its run at Cinemapolis. I liked Lily Gladstone’s performance as inveterate con artist Jax, a scene in which she plays a siren while her young niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson, who is also very good) steals a mark’s car keys, and the movie’s treatment of Roki’s first period. I wasn’t as keen on the ending, but this is nonetheless a very solid debut feature by Ithaca resident Erica Tremblay.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts canbe found here.
Also in Theaters: It’s close, but Twisters has usurped Inside Out 2 as my favorite new movie now playing in Ithaca that I’ve already seen on the strength of its outstanding soundtrack. If 103.7 QCountry is your go-to local radio station too, you’re probably already familiar with “Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma” by Luke Combs; I also really like “Song While You’re Away” by Tyler Childers, “Ain’t In Kansas Anymore” by Miranda Lambert, and “The Cards I’ve Been Dealt” by Warren Zeiders. Both of these films are at the Regal. And, jeez, that’s kinda it. If you’re a horror movie fan, I recommend MaXXXine (Cinemapolis) over Longlegs (both Cinemapolis and the Regal).
The Prodigal Cinephile 