Also in Theaters:Inside Out 2, which continues it’s run at the Regal Ithaca Mall, remains the best new movie in Ithaca that I’ve already seen. I enjoyed Thelma, a crowd pleaser starring June Squibb as a nonagenarian vigilante at Cinemapolis which also features the late Richard Roundtree in his final role, as well. In addition to everything I’m seeing this week, I’m hoping to catch Twisters at the Regal before it closes or maybe at Cornell Cinema this fall. Your best bets for repertory fare are two family-friendly films at the Regal: The NeverEnding Story, which has screenings on Sunday and Monday, and The Lion King, which is there all week.
Home Video: Like many people I’m shaken by current events. I found solace in two films I watched a few nights ago and am therefore recommending them as a double feature. The first is The Pig, a cinéma vérité-style short (50 minutes) documentary directed by Jean Eustache which is available on The Criterion Channel. Like his previous film The Virgin of Pessac, this one (which was made in 1970) seems to cry out to be read as commentary on the events of May 1968 given its proximity to them. If you’re a chef you might disagree–after all, it’s a fairly straightforward depiction of the butchering of the titular animal: we watch as it’s bled, scalded, and broken down into primal cuts, then witness the preparation of casings and stuffing of sausages. Introductory text explains that because the subjects are speaking in a local dialect, there are no subtitles, and although even non-French speakers will catch a few words they recognize like “coeur,” for the most part we’re left to our own devices to make sense of what we see. If you eat meat, you might reach for words like “timeless,” “humane,” or even “beautiful”; however, if you’re a vegetarian, it probably strikes you as barbaric. What I’m certain of is that both camps can benefit from this clear-eyed look at what exactly happens when a hog becomes “pork” which depicts an event that took place at a specific time and place, but also has happened every day around the world for generations.
I followed The Pig up with House of Usher, which was directed by the recently deceased B-movie legend Roger Corman, stars Vincent Price as Roderick Usher with a Draco Malfoy haircut, and is available on Turner Classic Movies On Demand and WatchTCM until July 25. It’s highly enjoyable for its lurid colors, overwrought performances, and nervous breakdown soundscape. Watching it when I did, I was also struck by the terms Usher uses to describe the curse which he believes afflicts his family:
This house is centuries old. It was brought here from England. And with it every evil rooted in its stones. Evil is not just a word. It is reality. Like any living thing it can be created and was created by these people. The history of the Ushers is a history of savage degradations. First in England, and then in New England. And always in this house. Always in this house. Born of evil which feels, it is no illusion. For hundreds of years, foul thoughts and foul deeds have been committed within its walls. The house itself is evil now.
Poe’s story already was a tale about original sin become self-fulfilling prophecy, but in the hands of Corman and screenwriter Richard Matheson it takes on practically geopolitical dimensions! I don’t mean to suggest that either House of Usher or The Pig offers *answers* for our current moment, but they’re both full of great questions that it would behoove ourselves to ask, most notably who are we (however you define that): pig or butcher? Roderick Usher or Mark Damon’s Philip Winthrop? Philip Winthrop or Myrna Fahey’s Madeline Usher? Or Harry Ellerbe’s Bristol, perhaps? And then, of course, what now?
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts canbe found here.
What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m dropping My Loving Wife and our dog Sally off at the family cottage in Ontario–our kids are there already with their grandmother–this weekend, then returning home alone to spend the rest of the month by myself before I join them all again in early August. During this time I’ll be at liberty to see as many movies as I want, and I plan to kick things off with screenings of both Thelma and Kinds of Kindness at Cinemapolis.
Also in Theaters:Inside Out 2, which I started writing about last weekend, is the best new movie in local theaters that I’ve already seen, but the quietly intense coming of age (sort of) story Janet Planet isn’t far behind. The former is at the Regal Ithaca Mall, the latter is at Cinemapolis. In addition to the films I’m seeing this week, I’m also hoping to catch the horror movies MaXXXine and Longlegs at one of those two theaters before it closes. Can You Still Love Me, the directorial debut by local filmmaker Adam Howard, screens at Cinemapolis on Sunday. Finally, your best bet for repertory fare is either Princess Mononoke, which is at the Regal Sunday through Wednesday, or The Lion King, which is there all week, depending on whether you’re more of a Studio Ghibli or Disney kind of person.
Home Video:Last week I promised a list of my five favorite films directed by Asghar Farhadi. Here it is!
5. A Hero (available on Prime Video). Not just a return to form after the relative disappointment of Everybody Knows–I could justify ranking this as high as third! I’ve been trying to avoid reflexively using auteurist terminology like “Farhadi’s A Hero,” etc. out of respect for the complexity of filmmaking, but I do still tend to organize my movie watching around individual artists (i.e. not just directors) in large part because I enjoy encountering the same techniques, ideas, and faces appear again and again and watching them accrue ever more complex and subtle meanings. Here the opening shots of Naqsh-e Rostam are some of my favorites in Farhadi’s entire oeuvre: it’s his signature house in a state of disrepair, except the house is the nation of Iran! Similarly, Amir Jadidi isn’t just playing Rahim, he’s also playing the side of Shahab Hosseini’s Hojjat that we don’t get to see in A Separation. Speaking of which:
4.A Separation (available on Prime Video). Farhadi’s first Oscar winner (for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year–it was also nominated for Best Writing, Original Screenplay) and considered by many to be his best film. Payman Maadi’s Nader is perhaps Farhadi’s best unlikeable protagonist, but what stands out most in my mind is Shahab Hosseini’s terrifyingly wild physicality in the role of Hodjat, which is even more striking because he plays one of the most sympathetic characters in Farhadi’s previous film About Elly, which I’ll discuss further in just a minute.
3.The Past (available for rental from Apple TV+ and Prime Video). Easily the most underrated film on this list. I think it can sometimes be challenging to encounter a familiar director working in another language or setting because it forces you to reconsider what exactly you like about them. In the case of Farhadi, I suspect that his movies introduced many Americans to an Iranian U.H.B. that they didn’t know existed; transplant them to France, and what previously felt like a bridge between the citizens of countries two whose leaders are antagonistic toward one another becomes a case of “yeah, well of course *they’re* just like us.” Farhadi is hardly the first filmmaker who had to learn from experience that a little flash goes a long way, and A Separation is his first movie after he truly got all of the “art school” out of his system, but it advances almost too far in the direction of neorealism. The Past has all of that movie’s virtues, but with more three-dimensional characters and a successful return to stylistic flourishes like shots of people talking who we can’t hear because we’re separated from them by soundproof glass which he didn’t yet know hot to utilize fully effectively in films like Beautiful City: in other words, it’s his most “mature” work to this point.
2. About Elly (current Cornell University faculty, staff, and students have access through Kanopy via a license paid for by the Library; it is also available for rental from Apple TV+).There’s also a lot to be said for youthful exuberance, though! I had never heard of Asghar Farhadi when I saw this movie at the Silk Screen Film Festival (RIP) in Pittsburgh, PA in 2010 and it absolutely knocked my socks off. Had I been making year-end top ten lists at the time, I’m nearly certain it would have come in at number one. So this could be a sentimental pick, but I also think that it’s a masterful portrait of people who spend so much time and energy trying to convince themselves and others that they’re living their best lives that there’s none left over for genuine empathy, which is of course also a recipe for political complacency, and Taraneh Alidoosti’s Elly flying a kite is pure joy.
1.The Salesman (available on Prime Video). Not just number one on this list, one of the best movies of the 21st century so far. From the House of Usher opening to the subtle intertwining of its plot and themes with the play-within-a-movie Death of a Salesman to lead performances by Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoosti, my favorite Farhadi regulars, that draw power from the other roles they’ve played for him, The Salesman represents his richest and most original treatment of his main themes.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts canbe found here.
Are all the personified emotions that scurry around inside the head of the movie’s young heroine supposed to be an allegory for her developing consciousness? Or is Riley actually being controlled by whatever adorable cartoon has seized the console at the moment, like she’s a mecha in the shape of a 13-year-old girl?
She notes that after the first Inside Out movie she would have said the former, but isn’t so sure now that she has seen its sequel. This was my initial impression as well, and I thought that it marked Inside Out 2 as being inferior. Then I read Maya Phillips’ New York Times article about how its depiction of anxiety is true to her own experience, specifically the way the emotion with that name voiced by Maya Hawke banishes Joy (Amy Poehler) and the other feelings which constituted the original film’s main characters from the helm of Riley’s mind. She proposes that this is one of its chief virtues:
Perhaps ‘Inside Out 2’ is providing children with a peek into the future, not as a prophecy of doom but as a route to understanding an emotion that has become more recognizable and prevalent in people of all ages.
Maybe the upshot is that when young ‘Inside Out’ fans inevitably become caught in one of those brutal storms of anxious thoughts, they can then summon a clear image of the chaos of their mind, as though it’s a bright, colorful Pixar film. Maybe then they can recognize that orange bearer of dreadful tidings and gently guide her to a seat.
Phillips’ reading lends itself to either answer to Willmore’s questions, but thinking through which one is a better fit drew my attention to something intriguing. Joy is pretty clearly the leader of Riley’s emotions until Anxiety supplants her. She’s the first one to appear, minutes after Riley is born:
At first the console has but one button, and when Joy pushes it, baby Riley laughs:
33 seconds later, she starts to cry, which is when Joy realizes she has company:
Joy and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) are soon joined by the other OG emotions, Fear (Bill Hader in the first movie, Tony Hale in the second), Disgust (Mindy Kaling/Liza Lapira), and Anger (Lewis Black). Each has the ability to take control, and as Phillips notes the console changes to purple, green, or red respectively when they do:
Joy spends the most time in the driver’s seat, though, and the other emotions also look to her for direction. What’s interesting about this situation is that it appears to have parallels in the control centers of most of the other humans we get glimpses of. Sadness (Lori Alan) occupies the center position both times we see Riley’s mother’s mind, for instance:
And her father’s emotions go so far as to address Anger (director Pete Docter) as “sir”:
This does not seem to be explained by the fact that her mom and dad are feeling sadness or anger in these scenes because they aren’t, really. Although the one other human mind we see during the movie proper is completely unhelpful because the emotions in the mind of the adolescent boy Riley talks to are in a state of panic at being addressed by a girl:
The minds of Riley’s teacher, a barista, and a clown that we see during the end credits do seem to support this interpretation:
There’s even a provocative suggestion that these are healthy, adult minds where the chief emotion has learned to listen to the others in the form of a contrasting peek inside the brain of a “cool girl” where Fear gets pushed out of the way by Anger in a manner reminiscent of the way Joy initially treats Sadness:
I can’t help but wonder what determines which emotion is ascendent. Is it just whichever one appears first? If so, this would justify Phillips’ support for the fact that in the Inside Out universe controlling your anxiety looks like “sitting her down in a cozy recliner with a cup of tea.” But could a person who isn’t anxious all the time have a mind where Anxiety is in the driver’s seat but takes advice from other emotions in much the same way that Sadness and Anger do in the case of her parents? Suddenly I find myself eager to spend some time with Inside Out 2 after it comes out on DVD (hence the “Part One” in the title of this post) to see if it offers any hints! In the meantime, I’ve found a satisfactory explanation for what had been my least favorite moment in the first film because I couldn’t make sense of it, the way Riley’s control panel starts to go dark and become unresponsive when she decides to run away from home:
As fun as all of this detective work is, Inside Out cautions us not to take it *too* literally. Take, for instance, this joke about what the mind of a school bus driver looks like:
Or these depictions of the brains of a dog and cat:
I like the idea of a generation of young people growing up with more mastery of their potentially destructive feelings thanks to these movies, but where they resonate with me most is as a representation of the experience of being a parent: the films’ personified emotions, whichever one is “driving,” all want to be part of their person’s life so that they can help them grow up into a strong, independent adult. The lesson of the runaway scene is that this requires balance, care, and maybe a bit of luck: if you’re either too preoccupied with your own life or too pushy, you risk losing them forever.
Also in Theaters: The best new movie in local theaters *right now* that I’ve already seen is Fancy Dance, which was directed by Ithaca resident Erica Tremblay, but it closes at Cinemapolis today. After that the title will pass to Inside Out 2, which continues its run at the Regal Ithaca Mall and which I think I’m planning to write about. The other films I thought about seeing this week were The Bikeriders, Kinds of Kindness, and MaXXXine, all of which are at both Cinemapolis and the Regal. A Quiet Place: Day One and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes are the latest editions in franchises that don’t interest me much which are at the Regal and seem to be getting decent reviews? I’m much more likely to eventually see Sundance darling Thelma (Cinemapolis), which features a pretty incredible cast, or Kill (Regal), an Indian action movie. Your best bets for repertory fare are Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which is at the Regal on Sunday and Wednesday, and Altered States, which is at Cinemapolis on Wednesday.
Home Video: In preparation for my recent Beautiful City review for Educational Media Reviews Online, I watched or rewatched every film directed by Asghar Farhadi. I’ll be back next week with my five favorites, but in honor of Independence Day, my recommendation this week is his third feature Fireworks Wednesday, which current Cornell University faculty, staff, and students and New York state residents can watch online for free via Projectr. This is a must-see for all Farhadi fans, as like Beautiful City it contains many of his trademark techniques and themes in a not-yet-fully-developed state as well as a great lead performance by Taraneh Alidoosti. It’s a great “observer effect movie,” too, in that her character Roohi’s constantly shifting understanding of the truth of the situation she has landed in is very much affected by the reactions of others to her well-intentioned but impulsive interventions, and it may also change the way you look at About Elly, as it uses the sound of firecrackers in a very similar way as that movie uses of the sound of the ocean.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts canbe found here.
July is always the month of Bastille Day and the Tour de France and this year it also ushers in the Paris Summer Olympics, so I knew I was going to choose a French film to write about, but which one? I’ve long been meaning to highlight the Employees Only Martinez from Jason Kosmas and Dushan Zaric’s Speakeasy book, which has a dominant absinthe flavor that makes me think of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the Moulin Rouge, so that seemed like a good starting point. From there it was a short hop, high kick, and cartwheel to my final destination, since with all due respect to John Huston, Baz Luhrmann, and the other filmmakers who have made it their subject, one film set in that famous establishment towers above the rest: French Cancan. But first, the drink! Here’s how you make it:
Make the absinthe bitters by combining 3/4 cup absinthe (Kosmas and Zaric call for Pernod 68, but I used St. George Absinthe Verte because that’s what we currently have in our bar), 1/8 cup Green Chartreuse, 1 1/2 teaspoons Fee Brothers mint bitters, 1/4 teaspoon Peychaud’s bitters, and 1/4 teaspoon Angostura bitters in a small jar. Stir the amount of bitters that the recipe calls for and all of the rest of the ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Speakeasy calls for Beefeater 24 gin, but I wasn’t able to find it in Ithaca so I went with Drumshanbo (which I had not previously tried) because the website The Gin is In described it as having a similar flavor profile, including the green tea notes which Kosmas and Dushan Zaric made a point of listing as a key aspect of their cocktail’s finish. We agree with them that the “super velvetiness” of Dolin Blanc is essential to creating a texture that makes the Employees Only Martinez a pleasure to sip. It also contributes floral and vanilla notes that play well with the anise and matcha that come from the other ingredients. This is a bigger drink at four ounces and a potent one, so handle with care, but it was the perfect accompaniment to the Greek salad with feta-brined grilled chicken that we had for dinner the other night, and I look forward to trying it with briny oysters sometime soon per Speakeasy‘s recommendation that it goes great with “raw bar of any kind.”
On to the movie! Here’s a picture of my Criterion Collection DVD release:
It can also be streamed via The Criterion Channel with a subscription, and 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.
Although French Cancan begins with a notice that “this story and its characters are imaginary” and should therefore “not be seen to represent real people or events,” it’s transparently a fictionalized account of the Moulin Rouge’s founding. One night while slumming in Montmarte with rich patrons of his night club The Chinese Screen and his mistress/biggest star Lola de Castro de la Fuente de Extremadura aka “La Belle Abbesse” (María Félix), Jean Gabin’s Henri Danglard is struck by inspiration. As he explains later to his M.C. Casimir “le Serpentin” (Philippe Clay), “do you know what I’ll give them? A taste of the low life for millionaires. Adventure in comfort. Garden tables, the best champagne, great numbers by the finest artistes. The bourgeois will be thrilled to mix with our girls without fear of disease or getting knifed.”
He buys a dance hall called The White Queen with “drafts, promises, a lot of hot air,” and with the help of an investor named Baron Walter (Jean-Roger Caussimon) who knowingly shares Lola with him (“the precarious modern world judges by appearance only–respect them, and I’ll remain your supporter,” he tells Danglard) sets about transforming it. First, though, he returns to Montmarte, orders an absinthe, and waits for a young lady named Nini (Françoise Arnoul) who caught his eye on that fateful night out to wander by.
When she finally appears he follows her home and negotiates with her mother to secure her services in a scene which Janet Bergstrom has described as her “virtually sell[ing]” her daughter to Danglard:
He then recruits an old friend named Madame Guibole (Lydia Johnson) to teach Nini and a number of other girls a now-passé dance that she was famous for back in the day called the cancan, which he has the bright idea to revive as the “French Cancan” to tap into a fad for English names. The plan is almost torpedoed when a Russian prince (Giani Esposito) infatuated with Nini draws Lola’s attention to her presence at a government official’s visit to the Moulin Rouge construction site by conspicuously kissing her hand as the “Marseillaise” plays, making Lola jealous because she immediately realizes that Danglard has brought her there:
Lola kicks Nini in the shin, causing a brawl to break out. As Danglard attends to her, a troublemaker eggs Nini’s lover Paulo (Franco Pastorino) on by observing that “the boss is lifting your girl’s skirts,” which ultimately results in him pushing Danglard into a pit:
Baron Walter, enraged at the breach of Danglard’s verbal contract with him, withdraws his backing, but the prince steps in. Alas, he promptly tries to commit suicide when Lola makes him aware of the fact that Nini is love with Danglard following a remarkable scene in which he appears to sit motionless in a chair for many hours to confirm that they are indeed an item:
Luckily he bungles the attempt. He asks Nini for a “make-believe memory” that he can dazzle the younger generations with upon his return to Russia and they spend the evening touring all the Parisian hot spots in a sequence that features contemporary actors playing the biggest stars of the Belle Epoque, including Édith Piaf as Eugénie Buffet:
Afterward he presents Nini with the deeds to the Moulin Rouge in Danglard’s name (“it’s simplest”), but there’s one more rapids to navigate before the show can go on: Nini spies Danglard kissing his newest discovery Esther Georges (Anna Amendola) backstage on opening night and refuses to dance unless she can have him all to herself. A fiery speech by Danglard takes care of that, though:
And per David Cairns a contrite Nini wearing a “camouflaged dress” is finally “absorbed into the theatre”:
Bergstrom can’t forgive Renoir for what she calls French Cancan‘s “retrograde representation of male-female relationships,” a criticism which admittedly rings true when he and editor Borys Lewis place shots of Guibole leading Nini and her fellow dancers through a rehearsal next to one of pianist Oscar (Gaston Gabaroche) watering flowers:
But the film also contains multiple floods of women, which feels very much like an explicit acknowledgement that this is just a conceit–after all, dams break and, in the immortal words of Poison, “every rose has its thorns.” Here’s the first:
With the second being the nine-minute-long cancan that concludes the film which begins with dancers dropping from the ceiling, bursting through a poster on the wall, and leaping off a balcony:
And then explodes into a celebration of color and motion which is not merely the best thing about this film, but one of the most joyously spectacular sequences in all of cinema:
André Bazin writes beautifully about two other moments in his monograph on the director, which he offers in support of the statement that “Renoir’s is the only film I have ever seen which is as successful as the painting which inspired it in evoking the internal density of the visual universe and the necessity of appearances that are the foundation of any pictorial masterpiece.” First is the moment Danglard spots Esther from across an alleyway. “The decor, the colors, the subject, the actress, everything suggests a rather free evocation of Auguste Renoir, or perhaps even more of Degas. The woman bustles about in the half shadow of the room, then turning about, leans out the window to shake out her dustcloth. The cloth is bright yellow. It flutters an instant and disappears. Clearly this shot, which is essentially pictorial, was conceived and composed around the brief appearance of this splash of yellow.”
Next is this description of the young woman bathing in the background of the scene when Danglard takes Nini to Guibole’s for the first time. “She appears in the background through a half-open door, which she finally closes with a rather nonchalant modesty. This could well have been a subject dear to Auguste Renoir or to Degas. But the real affinity with the painters does not lie in this specific reference. It is a much more startling phenomenon: the fact that for the first time in the cinema the nude is not erotic but aesthetic.”
For Bazin moments like these combine to create the impression of “a painting which exists in time and has an interior development,” a sentiment echoed by his contemporary Pierre Leprohon, who says in his book Jean Renoir: An Investigation into His Films and Philosophy that “Renoir was not composing color canvases on the screen; he never forgot the essence of cinema, which is motion” and adds, “that is why French Cancan can be considered a major step in color films. It develops painting further without imitating it.”
Dave Kehr observes in his book When Movies Mattered: Reviews from a Transformative Decade that while Renoir frequently took actors as his subject, thisis the first and only time he decided to make a film about a director, and that he shared more in common with his protagonist than just their common profession:
There is, obviously, a lot of Renoir in Danglard–Danglard’s work in creating his show exactly parallels Renoir’s work in creating his film, and Danglard’s revisionist cancan finds its aesthetic equivalent in the artificial Paris Renoir has fashioned to contain it. And we can assume that there is a lot of Danglard in Renoir, particularly his fashion of handling his performers, accepting their eccentricities along with their talents, and trying to bring out their most profoundly individual abilities. But direction is the most mysterious of creative processes, and Renoir knows to respect the mystery. What does Danglard do, exactly? Not much that we can really see. For the most part, he is simply there, observing intently and saying nothing. And yet the vision that emerges is Danglard’s vision, developed through an almost imperceptible series of choices and in flections. It is Danglard’s sublime passivity that makes French Cancan Renoir’s most direct and penetrating statement of the art of the movies. The director is the medium between the world and the image: he takes from people the reality that belongs to them and then sells it back in heightened form.
Cairns sees another statement about cinema in the parade of shots of people watching the climactic cancan which is positioned near the end of it.
“These are curtain calls for all the bit-players and leads in the film,” he argues, “and also a kind of farewell to an era, and also something else — a celebration of the audience’s role in the entertainment, and therefore a warm tip of the hat to us, watching on a TV or computer sixty years after Renoir made the film, a hundred and twenty seven years after the events depicted in the film failed to happen in as elegant and colourful a manner in reality.” This would, of course, make the stumbling drunk’s bow in French Cancan‘s final image ours:
Which as the author of a series called “Drink & a Movie” I very much appreciate. So here’s to you and here’s to me!
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.
What I’m Seeing This Week: I’ll be in San Diego for the American Library Association’s annual conference until Tuesday. I always try to make space on my schedule for a visit to a local arthouse theater, and although it feels a bit odd to travel to the whole other end of the country to watch a movie directed by someone (Erica Tremblay) who lives in Ithaca, the most appealing option playing at the Digital Gym Cinema while I’m there is Fancy Dance, and I’m just gonna roll with it. I also intend to see The Cinema Within at the conference itself when it screens as part of the Now Showing @ ALA Film Program.
Also in Theaters:Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga holds on to the title of Best New Movie in Ithaca That I’ve Already Seen for one more week, but it’s down to one screening per day at the Regal Ithaca Mall, so its reign is probably coming to an end. Inside Out 2, which is there as well, unsurprisingly doesn’t live up to its predecessor, but none the less makes for a good time out with the whole family. The reviews for Janet Planet, which opens at Cinemapolis today, are absolutely glowing, so that’s the new release I’m most looking forward to seeing; as a devotee of Top Chef I’m instinctively wary of “trios,” but I’m hoping to catch director Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest Kinds of Kindness there before it closes as well. This may mean I’m waiting for The Bikeriders (Cinemapolis and the Regal), Ghostlight (just Cinemapolis), and Thelma (ditto) to arrive on a streaming video platform, but they’re all on my list as well. On the repertory front your best bet is definitely 2001: A Space Odyssey, which kicks off a “Staff Picks” series at Cinemapolis on Wednesday. You can also see the imaginative 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse at the Regal on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Home Video: I’m apprehensive about Jury Prize recipient Emilia Pérez based on what I’ve heard about it, but I’m going to close out my series on 2024 Cannes award winners with director Jacques Audiard anyway because his 2005 film The Beat That My Heart Skipped, a brilliant riff on writer-director James Toback’s Fingers, was one of my very favorites of that movie year. It doesn’t appear to be available on any streaming video platforms, but you can pick up a DVD copy on Amazon for barely more than the price of a rental like I just did upon realizing that it wasn’t already part of my physical media collection. Audiard is probably best known for his follow-up effort A Prophet, which is available for rental from Apple TV+ and Prime Video. Finally, his three most recent films are all available to stream for free with subscriptions or on ad-supported platforms. In reverse order: Paris, 13th District is on Hulu; The Sisters Brothers is on Tubi; and Dheepan is on The Criterion Channel.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts canbe found here.
Last month I exported all of my tweets from my rewatch of seasons 1-18 of Top Chef between 2020-21 and the ones I posted following each episode of seasons 19 and 20. To complete this project here are my tweets from season 21, which just ended last Wednesday. Because this installment is more or less current, I’m not going to bury it after a jump. Without further ado:
I’m counting down the hours to @BravoTopChef S211E2, which means it’s time for impressions of E1! This season is all about Kristen, obvs, and the initial returns = positive! We’ll see how much we miss Padma’s puckishness, but experience as a competitor is an interesting tradeoff.
I’m down with the new rules. No feel for this year’s TC kitchen yet because they didn’t spend any time in it. I love Milwaukee + it looked good here! Great transition from a bridge at night to the same one in the morning. Thumbs up to the JUDICIOUS use of split screens.
The Tom’s “hat game” montage could have been twice as long IMO! I think soup is the task you wanted for the elimination challenge, followed by filled pasta–if you didn’t bring a surefire dough recipe, what are you doing here? Roast chicken = last because there’s nowhere to hide.
I watched E1 twice, once live w/ @mepkat, then again w/ our girls. My youngest was super bummed out that David went home, but my oldest shouted out “stop saying ‘sexy,’ it’s annoying!” Watching him pour salt into his poaching liquid during the climactic cook made me wince.
Speaking of which: it was basically a bonus episode of LAST CHANCE KITCHEN, yeah? Hopefully these three chefs now know exactly what to expect if they end up competing in it. It’s too early to actually know anything, but FWIW here’s how I have the chefs ranked as we head into E2:
1) Manny (natch), 2) Danny, 3) Michelle, 4) Dan, 5) Rasika, 6) Kévin, 7) Alisha, 8) Charly, 9) Savannah, 10), Laura, 11) Amanda, 12) Valentine, 13) Kaleena, 14) Kenny. If you read this far, you’re clearly also a TC fan. Here’s to a second episode even better than the first!
I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S211E3, which means it’s time for tweets about E2! Good challenges this week! I like that the Quickfire, Elimination Challenge, and LCK had a through-line, but didn’t beat you over the head with it. To start at the very beginning:
Hops are an ingredient I’d expect anyone cast in TC: WISCONSIN to have practiced w/. Laura learned exactly the right lesson from Manny’s E1 win. That said, Michelle’s flank steak is the dish I’d most want to try. Elevated beer snacks progressive menu = great team elim challenge!
10 minutes didn’t seem like nearly enough time for menu planning, but the chefs coped just fine. Whenever the judges describe a dish as “too salty,” I think “I’d probably like that!” Kévin’s trio of olive canapés = no exception.
The exchange w/ Joe Flamm about “traps” vs. “opportunities” + @tomcolicchio‘s enthusiasm for Rasika’s dessert tells you everything you need to know about why he’s still doing this after 21 seasons: he clearly believes the format yields dishes which might never otherwise exist!
Danny didn’t shine this week, but he thinks about food the way the judges want him to, which makes him a contender. Manny’s mixed nut mole = dish I’d most like to try. Kenny’s pave looked good, too, but how much credit goes to his teammates? Unclear, so his stock holds steady.
Dan was brave to disclose his Kennedy’s disease diagnosis so early, and probably strategically wise. His is one of the most compelling story lines of the past few seasons. But my favorite thing about E2 was the sequence at ~25:00 where Kenny + Rasika narrate Team Yellow’s menu:
Go back + rewatch! I maybe only noticed because I recently saw DAYBREAK EXPRESS, but it’s color-coordinated: they found the yellowest part of everyone’s dish! Finally, not addressing David’s absence from LCK = an unforced error. Tom’s contradictory explanations here don’t count.
Anyway, two good dishes there, too! I’d have gone PA Dutch: pot pie w/ the saffron + one of the proteins, probably lobster. Rankings: 1) Rasika, 2) Manny, 3) Michelle, 4) Danny, 5) Dan, 6) Kévin, 7) Laura, 8) Amanda, 9) Savannah, 10) Alisha, 11) Charly, 12) Kaleena, 13) Kenny.
I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E4, which means it’s time for thoughts on E3! Nothing much to say about the Quickfire–cherries + a “mystery door” ingredient is a solid idea for a challenge and all the food looked good, even if nothing stood out.
A cheese-based Elimination challenge was inevitable + I wonder if that’s the reason for the impromptu fritter fest? Everyone came prepared w/ the dish they would make + didn’t want to deviate too far from it even when they realized eight other people were doing something similar.
I see why the judges would be annoyed by this, but as a guest I think I would have enjoyed comparing all of them! This is a perilously easy challenge to “Monday morning QB” since what exactly you make depends on WHICH cheese you get, hence fritters: they work w/ nearly anything!
But I felt validated by LCK since the first places my mind went were buldak + eggplant parm. Also blue cheese and watermelon. Anyway: Michelle’s dish was far + away the best sounding/looking one! Danny’s also struck me as a smart use of aged cheddar in a (croquette) vacuum.
I wasn’t surprised that Kenny went home because it sounds like the judges tasted a flawed (not enough relish) version of an unsuccessful (bottom three for the guests) dish vs. two variations on boring (use of cheese curds and bland).
As my favorite (for Vulture) recapper @roxana_hadadi observed last week, S21 has hit its stride + is very much what we’ve come to expect from TC. Kristen isn’t just an ersatz Padma (yay!), but nor has she significantly altered the dynamic of the Quickfire or Judges’ Table.
The rule changes haven’t upended things either. In fact, to bring back my “eras of TC” from 2021, I see very little which distinguishes S21 from S16-19 Modern/”Nice” TC. Exempting S20 (all-stars), this makes the era five seasons old, which is as long as any other one lasted.
This is both good + bad: on the one hand, I’m definitely down for 11 more episodes of the same! On the other, as I said after S19, this will *eventually* start to get boring, right? But maybe a double elimination is just what the doctor ordered!
Here are my “power rankings” as we head into E4: 1) Michelle, 2) Rasika, 3) Danny, 4) Manny, 5) Dan, 6) Savannah, 7) Laura, 8) Amanda, 9) Kévin, 10) Alisha, 11) Charly, 12) Kaleena. Have fun watching it, y’all!
I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E5, which means it’s time for thoughts on E4! Awarding immunity to people who Elimination challenges instead of Quickfires makes sense to me, but the latter remain important + I’m disappointed there wasn’t one again this week.
They provide insight into how the chefs think about food + more than double the number of dishes we get to see most weeks, which is why many of us watch! Oh well. No issues here w/ extending Michelle’s immunity to Charly–volunteering to be her teammate was risky, after all.
But @roxana_hadadi is right that it = a missed opportunity to reward someone. Partnering the winner of the absent Quickfire w/ Michelle = one way to do it. Immunity for Dan/Kaleena as last week’s runner-up = another. There’s also precedent for giving Michelle the challenge off.
Otherwise, good challenge! I was surprised there wasn’t more talk about local/”site-specific” ingredients. Cutting room floor, maybe? Rasika + Danny’s dish looked great and sounded delicious–I’m intrigued by the use of green Chartreuse! Alisha + Kaleena had a very bad day.
I liked shortening Judges’ Table better than manufactured drama: I suspect there was no way to tell this story honestly where it wasn’t obvious who was going to win/who was going home. But they also could have called EVERYONE back, which I’d have preferred to Kristen’s pep talk.
My “power rankings” have been spot on so far this year–I’m winning the TC Pick’Em game I run! Of course I just jinxed myself, so handle w/ care! Here they are for E5: 1) Rasika, 2) Michelle, 3) Danny, 4) Dan, 5) Manny, 6) Laura, 7) Savannah, 8) Amanda, 9) Kévin, 10) Charly
I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E6, which means it’s time for thoughts on episode five! Both challenges had everything I’m looking for: strong connections to the host city, hard but not impossible, conducive to food being created that looks + sounds delicious.
I liked the “shop before you know what you’re cooking” Quickfire twist because it seems like it would be fun to get $100 to spend strategically at a great farmer’s market. Providing all the ingredients for a Carson Gulley sauce to go w/ what the chefs bought = eminently fair.
W. Kamau Bell + Tory Miller were excellent guest judges–fun + fair–and the Harvey House was a beautiful venue for the Elimination Challenge. I like it when the chefs are served a meal to draw inspiration from because it’s a whole set of bonus dishes to ogle. In this case . . .
The prime rib that Joe + Shaina Papach = what I’d eat if I could have *anything* from this episode. If restricted to just competition dishes, I’d probably go w/ Savannah’s chicken because even though it didn’t win, the judges did like it, and I love the idea of tonkatsu + caviar.
Both relish trays looked terrific, too! I love chicken liver mousse + well-executed crudités, so cheers to Dan! I coincidentally made black garlic tahini last weekend + it was delicious, so Danny’s intrigued me, too. As previously noted this season, “too salty” ≠ a problem here.
I really have just one complaint: the chefs should have had more than $1000 to shop w/ considering that they each had to feed almost 50 people w/ their share–$1500 would have been better. But looking at how much more successful Team Purple was than Green, I concede the point.
It will be fun to see how everyone reacts when Soo joins the competition this week. W/out further ado, here are my power rankings: 1) Michelle, 2) Rasika, 3) Danny, 4) Dan, 5) Manny, 6) Savannah, 7) Soo, 8) Laura, 9) Amanda, 10) Kaleena, 11) Kévin. Enjoy tonight’s episode, y’all!
I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E7, so it’s time for thoughts on episode six! This one was a shocker. I had Michelle + Rasika pegged as top contenders, so it was jarring to see them stare down a double elimination together. Michelle was clearly stumped by the brief.
This isn’t a *great* sign for her, but it wasn’t clear to me what the judges were looking for either, so it may not be predictive of future struggles. Meanwhile, Rasika will be a tough out in LCK, so I absolutely wouldn’t assume that this is the last we’ve heard from her.
ating okonomiyaki in Kyoto was one of the great culinary experiences of my life and funnel cake was my go-to fair food in my youth, so Dan’s elimination challenge dish is the one I’d most like to try. Danny’s = more evidence that he’s on the same wavelength as the judges.
I worried that Soo’s LCK success wouldn’t translate, but the initial returns couldn’t be much more positive! I thought last week’s preview tipped Savannah’s success + this week’s editing foreshadowed Danny’s win, but these things can go either way, so it’s probably nothing.
Despite having Rasika at number two last week, I’m still winning my TCS21 Pick’Em game! Without further ado, here are my new power rankings: 1) Danny, 2) Michelle, 3) Dan, 4) Soo, 5) Manny, 6) Amanda, 7) Laura, 8) Savannah, 9) Kaleena, 10) Kévin. Enjoy tonight’s episode, y’all!
I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E8, so it’s time for thoughts on episode seven! The flambé Quickfire was fine + it’s always nice to see Bryan Voltaggio! The team Elimination challenge was a solid rendition of the standard tie-in to the local sports franchise.
None of the food really stood out: if I could pick one dish to try, I’d be tempted by Soo’s corn dog, but would probably go w/ Michelle’s winning étouffée + creamy grits on the recommendation of the judges. Where things really got interesting this week was in LAST CHANCE KITCHEN!
I love “cook as many dishes as you want” formats + this one reminded me of an evolved version TCS2 winner Ilan Hall’s old Esquire Network cooking show KNIFE FIGHT, which I liked more than any of the *actual* TOP CHEF spinoffs. The outcome was a surprise, but seemed fair.
Next up = Restaurant Wars! Springing this on everyone when there are an odd number of chefs left was a nice touch. Hopefully it will otherwise be as old school as the preview suggests, though–if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Speaking of the preview, I don’t usually watch them…
But I do before RW because that one contains valuable clues for the TC Pick’Em game I run. My strategy assumes that this will be a double elimination + that Channel will win because losing Danny (exec chef) + Michelle (front of house) now would be the biggest shock in TC history.
Without further ado, here are my power rankings as we head into this pivotal episode: 1) Danny, 2) Michelle, 3) Dan, 4) Amanda, 5) Savannah, 6) Soo, 7) Manny, 8) Laura, 9) Kaleena. Enjoy Restaurant Wars, y’all!
I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E9, so it’s time for thoughts on episode eight! Another Restaurant Wars is in the books! True to their word, the judges + producers refrained from additional twists after they let Michelle pick her own team. Speaking of which:
This was an extra set of hands for Channel, but also meant each chef got $2k less for winning, so you can literally put a dollar figure on how valuable it was. I say Dos by Deul came out ahead! Anyway, if the episode lacked drama, that’s a testament to how well both teams did:
Either could have won many previous editions of RW, although I think some past winners also would have beat Channel. The pivotal moments seemed to be: 1) Dan redesigning his dish to better fit his team’s theme, and 2) too many crispy components that sat too long for Dos by Deul.
Both teams’ service issues canceled each other out, and Michelle was hardly a front-of-house disaster, plus she seemed to adjust her approach between the first + judges seatings. I always want to try the winning dish, but I’m even more intrigued by Danny’s carrot-clam chowder:
Dishes that feature carrots are some of my favorites to order out because you can do so much with them, but many techniques represent a time/equipment stretch for home cooks, especially those of us who have to feed children! I’m bummed that both teams’ cocktails got short shrift.
Tonight’s episode has enormous potential + many previous seasons of TC only really took off after RW: here’s hoping that’s the case here! “Power rankings”: 1) Danny, 2) Michelle, 3) Dan, 4) Soo, 5) Laura, 6) Manny, 7) Savannah, 8) Amanda. Have fun, y’all!
I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E10, so it’s time for thoughts on episode nine! Best one of the season so far. @roxana_hadadi points out in her Vulture recap that it repeats both the Quickfire *and* Elimination from S12E6, but I find this interesting, not problematic:
Those challenges were kinda gimmicky: the latter not only limited the chefs’ pantry, but also restricted them to just cookware available during the Plymouth Colony’s “First Thanksgiving.” Here the point seems to be more purely honoring indigenous foodways, not tripping people up.
So you could say, look how far we’ve come in ten years! Anyway, if I could conjure up a Michelin-starred restaurant in Ithaca, it would serve food like what we saw on this episode. I do agree with Hadadi that S21 is having an identity crisis. We’re clearly in a new “era” . . .
But at this point I doubt we’ll know what to call it even after the finale. Which: I think I dig it? Uncertainty > stagnation! Most intriguing food = Savannah’s squash + maple jelly, natch, but also Dan’s sunflower chokes. I want to see those in the freezer aisle at Wegman’s!
Speaking of Savannah: I’m kicking myself for ranking her as low as seventh, my first big misstep of the season. Lesson = learned! I’m also still in first place in my TC Pick’Em game. We are now officially in “anyone can win it territory,” which is always an exciting moment.
Here are my new “power rankings”: 1) Danny, 2) Michelle, 3) Dan, 4) Savannah, 5) Soo, 6) Manny. I would consider most of these folks to be either the favorite to win LAST CHANCE KITCHEN or second to Laura, although that too is anybody’s game really. Enjoy episode 10, y’all!
I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E11, so it’s time for thoughts on E10! I don’t have a ton to say about this one, but not because there was anything wrong w/ it: challenges w/ strong ties to the host city/state have always been my favorite + the chefs did well overall!
That said, none of the food jumped off the screen. Danny made another great carrot (side) dish, and that’s what I would try if I was watching via Wonka Vision. My favorite moment was the close-up of a lonely ear of corn lying in the sand at around the 30 minute mark.
The Elimination Challenge verdicts seemed just, and for the first time in awhile there was some genuine suspense: it seemed like the win might have almost gone to Michelle, and that either Manny or Savannah could legitimately have been told to pack their knives and go to LCK.
Speaking of which: this wasn’t my favorite season! Too wonky, what with the mystery surrounding David’s non-participation + the weirdly unscripted pivot after Kaleena declined to try her luck a second time. Aside from some cool techniques by Soo, the food wasn’t memorable either.
But it’s over now + S21 is entering the home stretch. Laura is a true contender, so it remains anyone’s game, but Danny has clearly established himself as the favorite. Don’t sleep on Dan, though! “Power rankings”: 1) Danny, 2) Dan, 3) Michelle, 4) Savannah, 5) Laura, 6) Manny.
I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E12, so it’s time for thoughts on E11! Just as not all movies need to be thrillers, it’s 100% fine if there’s very little suspense heading into Judges’ Table. The most important question is always: was the story of the episode told well?
I loved how this one cut back + forth between Laura serenely listening to her muse + Savannah desperately trying to get food on the plate (er, table) before time expired. I also thought the complicated Quickfire came across crystal clear, which couldn’t have been easy to achieve!
I was impressed by how well *all* the chefs did in the latter, which proves my point that we have truly entered the point of the season where anyone can win. @mepkat and I both wanted more details about how Laura made her baklava rings + hers is the dish we would try if we could.
I don’t have much else to say about E11 except: poor Michelle! This = a classic “bad day in the kitchen” elimination. Looking forward to saying “Goodbye Wisconsin”–it was a better host than I expected! Power rankings: 1) Danny, 2) Dan, 3) Savannah, 4) Laura, 5) Manny. Enjoy E12!
I’m counting down the hours to #TopChef S21E13, so it’s time for thoughts on E12! This week featured two great achievements in TC history: first, Manny getting 23/26 in the blind taste test is right up there w/ Hung’s prep relay exploits. It’s too bad he couldn’t capitalize!
Second, I was blown away by Savannah’s storytelling in the Elimination Challenge. Ask @mepkat: every rave comment by the judges was something I had just said while Savannah presented her dish! Then ask her how she feels about me always talking while she’s trying to watch. Anyway:
Savannah’s pave looked delicious, but if I had Wonkavision I’d use it for the Quickfire: I love a good Caesar, so I’m very intrigued by version w/ cheddar, and I also wish I could experience Dan’s “train wreck” steak + eggs for myself, because how could anything be THAT bad?
As we head into the final two episodes, let’s take a look at the stats! Danny has three Elimination Challenge + two Quickfire wins, Savannah has two of the former + three of the latter, Laura has one of each, and Dan has won two Elimination Challenges but no Quickfires.
Meanwhile, Danny was on top in six Elimination Challenges total but only on the bottom once, for Savannah it was five and two, for Laura it was two and two, and for Dan it was seven and two. Add it all up and I think I’m ranking everyone in the same order I had them last week:
1. Danny, 2. Dan, 3. Savannah, 4. Laura. But as I’ve been saying every since Laura returned to the competition from LCK, this anybody’s game and there’s no outcome that would surprise or disappoint me! Enjoy E13, y’all, and see you next week w/ my penultimate set of tweets!
Happy Juneteenth! No work today, so here are early thoughts on #TopChef S21E13 as we count down the hours to the finale. That was disappointing, huh? It wasn’t the fault of the challenges: kissing up to sponsors (a TC tradition) aside, I loved the fish-centric Elimination.
The Quickfire was good, too: the idea surely was that everyone would come ready to put their own spin on keshi yena since it’s only, you know, the national dish of Curaçao. Only Savannah really did this but she still lost, proving that better food > nailing the brief every time.
Anyway, none of the chefs’ food jumped off the screen, which is too bad. If I had Wonkavision I would have used it on Masaharu Morimoto’s dinner for them: I’ve had the pleasure of ordering omakase @ his Philly restaurant twice, but wasn’t served his famous tuna pizza either time!
The judges blamed stress, but @mepkat + I couldn’t help but wonder if swimming with stingrays maybe wasn’t the best way to get yourself ready to cook, but hopefully everyone just needed to shake off some rust after six weeks off and is now ready to cook some killer finale food!
I’m in first place in my TC Pick’Em game by 46 points, which means I’ve already won since the finale is only worth 20. I could therefore indulge myself by ranking the chefs according to my rooting interests, but I’ve had them in the same order all season so why mix things up now?
1. Danny, 2. Dan, 3. Savannah. But it really is anyone’s game! I’ll be back next week w/ a final set of tweets + I do mean ever: now that I’ve migrated all of my thoughts on previous seasons of TC over to ye olde blog, that’s where I’ll post anything I write about S22. Till then!
#TopChef S21 is in the books, so it’s time for one last set of tweets about the finale! I was absolutely convinced that Dan was the winner after Judges’ Table, so @tomcolicchio‘s pique that the edit doesn’t support the outcome is very much justified–I’d be miffed, too!
That said, @mepkat *wasn’t* surprised, so I was eager to watch it again. IMO they definitely do make it seem like Dan has it, but on closer inspection it at least has the looks of a razor-thin margin that could go either way. Per Tom on X, Dan’s first dish was a bit of a clunker.
The evidence is kinda there, but it’s implied that Danny under seasoning his scallops is nearly as bad as the weird texture of Dan’s tuna. Still: Danny’s dish *looked* stunning. So whether by a wide margin or not, he clearly took that course. Nos. 2 + 3 on the other hand . . .
Both appear to go to Dan, correctly or not. There’s no criticism of his snapper at all, so case closed there. Meanwhile the raw pumpkin + cook of the lobster in Danny’s third course get a *lot* more attention than Dan’s oxtail being maybe too sweet + rustic. On to dessert:
Danny clearly is the winner, but the comments selected for the episode suggest that it was very close. So it’s 2-2 with Dan appearing to win on goal differential. This is what I think must have been inaccurate–if it’s clear Danny dominated courses one + four we feel differently!
Ditto if Danny’s sauce work in course three was enough to make up for its flaws + the judges were in agreement that his degree of difficulty was higher. Oh well! I actually thought Savannah’s menu *sounded* the best, but she was out after less than flawless pasta + “mofong-no!”
Back to the edit: I think there are just a few key shots missing, so it’s not a disaster. I also liked the cut from Danny troubleshooting running out of melon to Dan saying “we have a fire on deck four!” Other nice moments = chefs losing their partners in the grocery store . . .
And Tom razzing Savannah about Duke/UNC (@mepkat is a Dukie). I was impressed w/ how Danny conducted himself in the kitchen: he PUSHES Manny w/out seeming PUSHY. The dishes I most want to try are, in order: 1) Danny’s dessert, 2) Danny’s scallops, 3) Savannah’s saltfish fritters.
Finally, the fact that I’m talking about the edit + not Kristen is a huge compliment to her! She had big shoes to fill but made the host role her own. While that handoff was impressively smooth, this was still a transition year + I hope S22 has a better sense what it wants to be.
I’ll definitely be watching + will no doubt have thoughts! But I’m planning to share them on ye olde blog, not here–maybe a post at the start of the season, another around Restaurant Wars, and a third after the finale? And perhaps one more just before it? We’ll see. Till then!
Links to previous posts about Top Chef can be found here.
Although about a week remains in the first six months of 2024, I’ve already found 80 minutes worth of new music that I like enough to finalize my 2024: The Mixtape, Vol. 1 Spotify mix. Here’s the track listing with brief notes on why I picked each of these songs:
14. Sloppy Jane feat. Phoebe Bridgers – “Claw Machine”
I have no idea what the eligibility requirements are for the Best Original Song Oscar, but if this one can win an award for I Saw the TV Glow, I’ll be rooting for it.
15. The Decemberists – “Don’t Go to the Woods” 16. Eiko Ishibashi – “Evil Does Not Exist”
I think of this as the end to a song cycle which begins with track 13 and ends with this one–it’s something like the story of “Little Red Riding Hood.”
18. Cloud Nothings – “Final Summer”
Cloud Nothings might be my favorite band, because I’m in awe of the way they keep reinventing themselves without ever losing touch with who they are. . . .
19. Waxahathcee – “365”
. . . but this is my favorite song of the year so far.
20. Heems feat. Lapgan – “Bukayo Saka”
Name drops Slavoj Žižek and the Mahabarata and includes multiple food references. Yes please!
What I’m Seeing This Week: We’re celebrating the end of the school year on Tuesday with hibachi at Sumo and Inside Out 2 at the Regal Ithaca Mall!
Also in Theaters: The best film now playing in Ithaca (at the Regal) that I’ve already seen is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which is a worthy prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road and quite possibly the best action movie we’re going to get this whole year. Of the new titles opening this week which I haven’t yet seen, the one I’m most interested in on the strength of the previews I’ve been watching at Cinemapolis this month and director Jeff Nichols’ previous work is The Bikeriders, which is both there and the Regal. Thelma, Fancy Dance, and Ghostlight (all of which open at Cinemapolis tonight or tomorrow) don’t necessarily *look* like my bag, but they each attracted positive reviews out of Sundance by critics I like, so I’d be happy to give all of them a chance, probably in that order. There’s not much happening locally on the repertory front, but South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut might scratch an itch for you that nothing from this year can.
Home Video: All this month I’ve been highlighting films by 2024 Cannes award winners in this space. I made up my mind to focus on Best Director honorees and am going to stick with this plan despite the fact that the pickings are lamentably slim for Miguel Gomes, who took home the top prize for Grand Tour. You can, however, watch his 2012 film Tabu on Mubi. Meanwhile, you can watch I Am Not a Witch, the first feature by co-winner (for On Becoming a Guinea Fowl) of the Un Certain Regard section’s Best Director award Rungano Nyoni, free with ads on Prime Video. Movies by The Damned director Roberto Minervini, who she shared this award with, are unfortunately as hard to come by as Gomes’s, but The Other Side is at least available on ad-supported free streaming video platform Tubi.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts canbe found here.
What I’m Seeing This Week: My Loving Wife and I are shipping our kids off to a sleepover and indulging ourselves in a date night! The agenda includes dinner at Gola Osteria, drinks at Bar Argos, and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga at Cinemapolis. I don’t usually read reviews of movies I’ve already made up my mind to see, but I did hear a few critics say good things about this one on podcasts following its premiere at Cannes and we loved Mad Max: Fury Road, so I’m confident we’re in for a good time!
Also in Theaters: There’s quite a bit of turnover at Cinemapolis this week, but my favorite film of Movie Year 2024 so far remains. I Saw the TV Glow is a groundbreaking representation of the trans experience which doubles as a exploration of the disorienting feeling that any cinephile can relate to of not always confidently knowing where in the mélange of movies you’ve seen and imagined, half-remembered dreams, and things you’re pretty sure you remember actually experiencing the “real world” lies. The only other new movie on Ithaca screens that I’ve already seen is The Fall Guy, a crowd-pleaser like they supposedly don’t make any more which continues its run at the Regal Ithaca Mall. If I was selecting what to see this week only from the titles arriving in town today, my top choices would probably be The People’s Joker (Cinemapolis) and Inside Out 2 (Regal) in that order, since I anticipate that the latter will stick around for awhile. I’m also intrigued by Flipside, which is at Cinemapolis–descriptions of it remind me of the concept of “golden handcuffs,” which I learned about from the director of a commercial I interned on while I was in college. On the repertory front your best bet is the special screening of the horror film X at Cinemapolis on Wednesday which includes a sneak preview of its sequel MaXXXine, which opens next month next month.
Home Video:Last week I highlighted films directed by newly-minted Palme d’Or laureate Sean Baker which are available on streaming video platforms. I definitely am excited to see Anora, but I’m looking forward to another 2024 Cannes award winner even more: Grand Prix recipient All We Imagine as Light, a sophomore feature-length effort by director Payal Kapadia which was the first Indian film to be selected for the main competition in thirty years. While we wait for it to debut stateside, subscribers can watch Kapadia’s previous film A Night of Knowing Nothing, which won the L’Oeil d’or award for best documentary at the 2021 edition of Cannes, on The Criterion Channel.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts canbe found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 