Category: Ithaca Film Journal

What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m looking forward to the screening of Orwell 2+2=5 at Cornell Cinema this evening and am also planning to catch Best Animated Feature Film Oscar nominee Arco at Cinemapolis, and Send Help either there or at the Regal Ithaca Mall.

Also in Theaters: You can currently see three films likely to make my Movie Year 2025 top ten list on the big screen locally! I’ve already written about No Other Choice, which continues its run at Cinemapolis, and Marty Supreme, which is there and at the Regal. I was also impressed by The Testament of Ann Lee, a visually and sonically inventive big swing anchored by a powerful lead performance by Amanda Seyfried that succeeds in translating the appeal of the Shaker movement her title character founded into contemporary terms–just switch celibacy out for polyamory and either veganism or temperance and their Niskayuna settlement starts to look like an 18th-century precursor to hippie communes and Silicon Valley. It’s at Cinemapolis, where you have two final chances to see my first favorite film of Movie Year 2026 as well, the surprisingly contemplative follow-up to this week’s home video recommendation (see below) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which is also at the Regal. Noteworthy special events include part two of the Ithaca Underground Music Video Festival at Cinemapolis tonight and free screenings of the films Wisdom of Happiness on Sunday at Cinemapolis and Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat on Monday at Cornell Cinema. Finally, a solid week for repertory fare is highlighted by screenings of Total Recall at Cornell Cinema on Saturday, The Godfather Part II at the Regal on Saturday, and Groundhog Day at the Regal on Monday. The Lego Movie, which recently inspired me to post some musings on film criticism, is there in 3D tomorrow through Wednesday, too.

Home Video Recommendation: Here’s what I said on Letterboxd after I saw 28 Years Later at the Regal in July:

Don’t wanna be a post-zombie apocalypse quarantine British idiot. Curious to see where the Sympathy for the Infected plotline goes. Is this as close as anyone has come yet to making a movie version of A Canticle for Leibowitz?

Sentence #1 was originally intended as a jokey reference to Green Day’s “punk rock opera” American Idiot, but The Bone Temple actually does develop Jack O’Connell’s character into something very much like a evil St. Jimmy and his battle with Ralph Fiennes’ orange-skinned anti-Trump Dr. Ian Kelson for the soul of Alfie Williams’ Spike more or less follows the contours of the album’s plot. But while 28 Years Later arguably shares some of the same flaws that Robert Christgau pointed out two decades ago, “there’s no economics, no race, hardly any compassion” reads more as an inventory of facts than a critique when it’s referring to a story that begins with the end of the world. Which: this trilogy definitely *is* shaping up to be as close to an adaptation of Walter M. Miller Jr.’s classic sci fi novel A Canticle for Liebowitz, one of my favorites, that we may ever get! The first installment also features a terrific score by Young Fathers that like Fiennes’ performance should have been nominated for an Oscar and a number of unforgettably gorgeous-harrowing scenes like a race across a partially-submerged causeway under the aurora borealis. It is now streaming on Netflix and is also available on both Blu-ray and DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here. A running list of all of my “Home Video” recommendations can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: Cornell Cinema is starting off their spring lineup with a bang and I’m exited to see the new 35mm print of 8½ that they’re screening on Friday and Sunday! I’m planning to catch The Testament of Ann Lee at Cinemapolis as well. Finally, while I’m also eager to see Orwell: 2+2=5, which plays Cornell Cinema on Saturday, I’m going to wait until it returns next Thursday.

Also in Theaters: With the unveiling of this year’s Oscar nominees later this morning, four contenders for my Movie Year 2025 list are now playing Ithaca: No Other Choice continues its run at Cinemapolis, One Battle After Another and Sinners have returned to the Regal Ithaca Mall, and Marty Supreme is at both. You can’t go wrong with any of them, but my *top* recommendation is No Other Choice, one of the most thoughtful and darkly hilarious takes on the A.I. revolution we’re living through I’ve seen to date. Meanwhile, Movie Year 2026 is off to a good start with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, part two of a mashup-up between Green Day’s album American Idiot and Walter M. Miller Jr.’s novel A Canticle for Liebowitz that I’m beginning to think MIGHT just be a pop culture near-masterpiece–ask me again after I’ve gotten a chance to rewatch the first 28 Years Later film! I also enjoyed Father Mother Sister Brother, which continues its run at Cinemapolis; ’70s throwback Dead Man’s Wire, which you can see at the Regal; and Hamnet, which is at both. I should probably also mention that It Was Just an Accident is playing Cornell Cinema tonight because I seem to be an outlier in not thinking it is one of the best movies of the year (even though I do agree that it’s an important work and that its very existence represents a monumental achievement considering the circumstances under which it was made and current events). This week’s special events highlight is the return of the Ithaca Underground Music Video Festival to Cinemapolis on Wednesday. Finally, noteworthy repertory options include the etymologically essential Gaslight at Cornell Cinema this evening, The Matrix at the Regal on Sunday, and the “final cut” version of Blade Runner there on Wednesday.

Home Video Recommendation: I often spend much of the last two weeks of each month watching films that are about to disappear from the Criterion Channel. Of the titles that expire on January 31, the clear cream of the crop is The Plot Against Harry. Here’s how I recently described it on Letterboxd:

Beautifully observed dispatch from the amorphous, arbitrary borderlands between disreputable and respected in Jewish New York City at the turn of the 1970s with a central message as relevant today as it was fifty-five years ago: don’t keep your boudoir photos in a ground-level drawer in the living room if you have kids!

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here. A running list of all of my “Home Video” recommendations can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m going with The Housemaid at the Regal Ithaca Mall and Father Mother Sister Brother at Cinemapolis. I intend to see Is This Thing On? at one of these two theaters before it closes as well, but not until next week at the earliest.

Also in Theaters: Resurrection is my favorite new movie playing Ithaca that I’ve already seen RIGHT NOW, but it unfortunately only has one show left at Cinemapolis today at 3pm. Marty Supreme, which continues its run there and at the Regal, is also a strong contender for my Movie Year 2025 top ten list, so at that time it will inherit the title. I enjoyed Hamnet, which soldiers on at Cinemapolis, too. There once again do not appear to be any special events worth noting, but repertory highlights include Labyrinth, which has 40th anniversary screenings at the Regal tonight through Sunday, as well as The Wizard of Oz and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which play there Monday and Wednesday respectively.

Home Video Recommendation: Speaking of my top ten list, The Baltimorons, which is now streaming on Sundance Now, has basically locked up a spot on it. You may need to have lived in its namesake city to pick up *everything* it’s laying down (although then you’re also liable to be annoyed by some of the driving routes the main characters take like My Loving Wife was) but the wounded chemistry and perfect comedy timing of leads Michael Strassner (who is also credited as a screenwriter) and Liz Larsen has universal appeal. It also features excellent original music by Jordan Seigel that riffs on the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s beloved score for A Charlie Brown Christmas and other seasonal classics. After a first viewing The Baltimorons struck me as reminiscent of last year’s The Holdovers, with the main difference being, as I suggested on Letterboxd, “that here the heart is comedy with accents of pathos instead of vice versa.” While I felt much less of an affinity between the two films the second time around, they’re both welcome new additions to my holiday rotation. As is next week’s recommendation, actually, which: cliffhanger!

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here. A running list of all of my “Home Video” recommendations can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: I didn’t go to any movies during my holiday travels after all but am hoping to make up for lost time over the next few days by seeing Resurrection (#1 on my “Cannes 2025 Films That I Am Most Eager to See” list) at Cinemapolis and both Marty Supreme and Song Sung Blue at either there or the Regal Ithaca Mall.

Also in Theaters: The Secret Agent and Hamnet, which continue their respective runs at Cinemapolis, obviously remain my top new movie recommendations. In addition to the titles listed above, I’m also still hoping to catch The Housemaid before it closes at the Regal. It’s another quiet week on the special events front, but noteworthy repertory options include John Wick at the Regal today, Ghostbusters there on Monday, and Mission: Impossible there on Tuesday.

Home Video Recommendation: New Year’s Day is a time for resolutions, but not everyone is actually going to change. The Conformist, which current Cornell faculty, staff, and students can view on Kanopy courtesy a license paid for by the library and which is available for rental on a variety of other platforms, is perhaps therefore not as incongruous a title to mention here as it may first seem. Here’s what I recently said about it on Letterboxd:

All surfaces, often literally–the camera will suddenly rack focus in the middle of a conversation between the occupants of a car to make sure we don’t miss its idle windshield wipers–and noteworthy less for any grand statement you want to read into it than the poetry of its constituent parts, such as a servant sneaking bites of spaghetti out of the bowl she just served her employers from, a low-angle tracking shot toward a car through giant fallen leaves blown by wind nowhere to be found earlier in the scene, and a blue sky baby room wall that says “yes, and . . . ” to the acres of marble which preceded it.

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here. A running list of all of my “Home Video” recommendations can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m excited to finally see The Secret Agent, which I ranked second on my “Cannes 2025 Films That I Am Most Eager to See” list six months ago, at Cinemapolis! I’m also going to try to catch Avatar: Fire and Ash at the Regal Ithaca Mall.

Also in Theaters: Peter Hujar’s Day has one more screening before it closes at Cinemapolis this afternoon and is well worth 76 minutes at your time. I enjoyed Hamnet and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which remain there at least through the end of the week, too. We probably aren’t going to make it to Wicked: For Good (Cinemapolis and the Regal) or Zootopia 2 (Regal) before the end of the year, but they’re on my list as well, and I’m also hearing good things about The Housemaid (Regal). This week’s special events highlight is definitely the free screening of It’s a Wonderful Life at Cinemapolis on Sunday. Finally, on the repertory front, you can catch both my December 2023 and 2024 Drink & a Movie selections National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Elf at the Regal tomorrow and on Wednesday respectively. Those are probably *my* three favorite Christmas movies at all time, but if you’re a Christmas in Connecticut or A Christmas Story partisan, they play the Regal tonight and Saturday respectively as well.

Home Video Recommendation: Highest 2 Lowest currently only ranks 59th on the aggregator website criticstop10.com’s “Best Movies of 2025” list, but I’d put it ahead of all save one (Eephus) of the 33 films ahead of it that I’ve seen so far. Here’s what I said on Letterboxd in August after my first viewing at Cinemapolis:

When I made High and Low a “home video” recommendation on ye olde blog a couple months ago, I mentioned that “I definitely do see the appeal of turning director Akira Kurosawa’s literal and figurative wide-angle lens on today’s America.” This turns out to be one of the notes that director Spike Lee DOESN’T play, though. From his own songbook, a multi-character racist rant is also lacking because after all these years we no longer need anyone to break the fourth wall to know what they’re thinking. Howard Drossin’s lush original score and Matthew Libatique’s camerawork in the scenes it accompanies scream leather-bound books and rich mahogany and create a wonderful contrast with the grittiness of the world outside Denzel Washington’s David King’s penthouse apartment. Looking forward to watching this one again!

I revisited it on Apple TV the other day and am happy to report that it holds up just fine! Of course, between this and Blue Moon, which is likely to also end up on my own top ten list when I publish it in March, I now feel like I need to find 140 minutes to rewatch Oklahoma! before it leaves Watch TCM on January 8. I guess I know what my next Family (née Friday) Movie Night selection will be!

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here. A running list of all of my “Home Video” recommendations can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m going with Peter Hujar’s Day, which is at Cinemapolis for one week only starting tomorrow.

Also in Theaters: One Battle After Another returns to the Regal Ithaca Mall tomorrow and reclaims its title as the best new movie in Ithaca that I’ve already seen. I also enjoyed Hamnet and Sentimental Value, which I won’t begrudge any of their wins this awards season, and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which interestingly uses Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc as more of a structuring device than a main character, not dissimilarly to how director Jacques Tati utilized Monsieur Hulot in last December’s “Drink & a Movie” selection Playtime. All three are at Cinemapolis. Other first run fare I’m hoping to catch before it closes includes Wicked: For Good (Cinemapolis and the Regal), Zootopia 2 (just the Regal), and maybe Eternity (Cinemapolis and the Regal). Special events highlights include a screening of the documentary Eyes on Ukraine at Cinemapolis on Sunday followed by a “talkback” with the filmmakers. Finally, noteworthy repertory options include screenings of The Polar Express at the Regal on Saturday and Tuesday and Scrooged there just on Tuesday. The 2000 remake live-action remake of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which I recently saw for the first time and was surprised to discover actually isn’t half bad, is at the Regal all week as well: as I said on Letterboxd, I think “Bizarro Elf“ is the proper lens to view it through. Speaking of which, there’s a “sing-a-long” screening of Elf (whatever that means) there on Sunday, too.

Home Video Recommendation: As was presumably obvious from this month’s “Drink & a Movie” post, I consider Die Hard to be one of the best movies of the 1980s. Its sequel Die Hard 2 is nowhere near as formally intricate but it is not at all without its charms, including a scene featuring William Sadler doing Tai Chi stark naked, and some spectacular special effects. But the final word on the merits of this film were already written by Kenji Fujishima, who in a 2009 blog post that I absolutely love said the following:

Many argue that Die Hard 2, on the other hand, is a crasser, cruder rehash of the original, emphasizing the action spectacle while downplaying character development, and upping the ante on violence and gore. All of that is indeed true. And yet, in the right mood, I find that Die Hard 2, in its own caveman way, provides more sheer pedal-to-the-metal excitement than the relatively sober-suited original. In fact, I would go so far as to put forth this notion: Die Hard 2 is the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom of the Die Hard series.

Do please read the whole thing to find out why, then go watch Die Hard 2 on Disney+ or Hulu!

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here. A running list of all of my “Home Video” recommendations can be found here.