Category: Ithaca Film Journal

What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m going to watch Napoleon on Apple TV+ tomorrow and then start working on my top ten list for Movie Year 2023 this weekend, which means my annual pre-Oscars binge session is over! My original plan was to usher in Movie Year 2024 with a screening of Dune: Part Two at Cinemapolis or the Regal Ithaca Mall, but My Loving Wife wants to see it, too, so we’re going to save it for a date night in a couple of weeks. As such my choice is Drive-Away Dolls at one of those same two theaters.

Also in Theaters: I liked but didn’t love director Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, which is currently playing Cinemapolis, but am super intrigued by his fellow 2023 Cannes selection Anselm, which screens at Cornell Cinema in 3D (“glasses provided upon arrival,” says their website) tomorrow and on Saturday. I can’t go, but would love to hear how it is, so leave a comment if you do! My favorite new movie now playing locally is The Taste of Things, but as a foodie (I actually hate this term, but if the shoe fits . . . ) flick starring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel it’s basically catnip for me, so take that recommendation with a grain of fleur de sel. On the repertory front, it’s a great week for family-friendly fare with one of my favorite animated films of all time, The Iron Giant, playing the Regal on Saturday; Labyrinth, which stars David Bowie and a bunch of Muppets (and Jennifer Connelly), there on Wednesday; and the last installment in director Tomm Moore’s stunning Irish Trilogy Wolfwalkers at Cornell Cinema on Sunday

Home Video: Whether or not you are planning to see Timothée Chalamet on the big screen this weekend, you should definitely save 90 minutes to watch him in Lady Bird before it leaves Netflix on Sunday. In addition to being probably the best directorial debut (by Greta Gerwig, whose most recent film you may have heard about) of the past decade, it’s the middle installment in the three-text perfect representation of my youth which begins with seasons one through eight of The Simpsons (elementary and middle school) and ends with Funny Ha Ha (college).

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: I *still* haven’t succeeded in getting to a screening of The Zone of Interest at Cinemapolis, but I think I may be running out of chances, so I’m finally going to make it happen this week! I’d also like to see The Taste of Things and Best International Feature Film Oscar nominee Perfect Days before I start working on my top ten list for Movie Year 2023 on March 2. Which: if you are thinking to yourself, “what is Movie Year 2023 and why are you doing this in March and not January?” then stay tuned to this blog!

Also in Theaters: I’m still focused on 2024 Oscar contenders, so the other films I’d highlight in addition to the ones mentioned above are Best Picture nominees Poor Things, which continues its run at Cinemapolis this week, and American Fiction, which is there and at the Regal Ithaca Mall. You can also see all the Oscar-nominated short films at Cinemapolis all throughout the week and the documentary shorts at Cornell Cinema tonight. Your best bets for repertory fare are The Godfather Part II at the Regal tonight or The Watermelon Woman at Cinemapolis on Wednesday.

Home Video: I was wrong about Dune: Part One playing at the Regal all the way up until when Dune: Part Two opens there next Thursday, but you can still watch it on Netflix until next Friday, which is when I’m planning to revisit it. Many thanks to Jason Bailey in the New York Times for the tip!

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m planning to attend two screenings this week. First, I’m going to catch the Oscar-nominated animated shorts at Cornell Cinema on Saturday since none of them are available online. Then, I’m finally going to see The Zone of Interest at Cinemapolis on Wednesday.

Also in Theaters: I’m waiting a week to watch The Taste of Things, which opens at Cinemapolis today, but only because I’m behind on new releases–an arthouse film about food starring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel sounds right up my alley! Of the new movies in town which I’ve already seen, my top recommendation is Poor Things, which continues its run at Cinemapolis, but Priscilla, which is at Cornell Cinema on Friday and Saturday, isn’t far behind. The Oscar-nominated animated shorts are at Cinemapolis all week, too, as are the documentary and live action shorts. I’m currently planning on giving the latter two programs a miss because I’ve already seen 8/10 of the films up for awards, but would consider checking out the latter if Invincible and Red, White and Blue are worth it, so leave a comment if they are! The live action shorts are also at Cornell Cinema tomorrow. On the repertory front, Dune and Turning Red continue their runs at the Regal Ithaca Mall this week. You can also see Amélie there starting tomorrow, which: a friend of mine once told me she’d sleep with anyone who took her to see that film on a first date, so maybe they messed up by not making it their Valentine’s Day selection! The Wizard of Oz is playing Cinemapolis on Sunday as part of their “Family Classics Picture Show” series for just $2 per ticket or $10 for a “family group” of five or more. Last but not least, the Regal is also screening the David Lynch-directed version of Dune starring Kyle MacLachlan on Sunday and Monday in honor of its 40th anniversary.

Home Video: There’s a new season of the MUBI Podcast out called “Tailor Made” which is devoted to film and fashion. The first episode reminded me that it has been a minute since I last watched Breathless, so I revisited it on The Criterion Channel the other day. Unlike Rico Gagliano, I never had the experience of having my mind blown by this one because I encountered it as undergraduate film studies major when I was still forming notions about what a masterpiece looks like. As such what jumps out at me now is what a great job it does of capturing the feeling of being young and in love and invincible. The best example of this might be the scene in which Jean-Paul Belmondo’s Michel Poiccard runs up behind some poor young lady and lifts up her dress just because he can. Recommended, of course, no matter when the last time you saw it was!

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: I only made it to one movie (Four Daughters) last week, which means I still haven’t seen The Zone of Interest. I’m going to gamble that it will still stick around for awhile longer, though, and go with Best International Feature Film Oscar nominee The Teachers’ Lounge since it’s playing Cinemapolis for one week only.

Also in Theaters: My favorite new movie now playing in Ithaca is Poor Things, which continues its run at both Cinemapolis and the Regal Ithaca Mall. Other 2024 Oscar nominees you can see this week which I haven’t already mentioned include American Fiction, which is also at both Cinemapolis and the Regal, and Oppenheimer, which is just at the Regal. There’s a lot of kid-friendly repertory fare to choose from right now, including The Sound of Music at Cornell Cinema on Saturday and Sunday, Pixar’s Turning Red at the Regal all week, and one of my family’s favorites How To Train Your Dragon (which features an excellent score by John Powell) at the Regal on Saturday. I don’t know why you’d want to revisit Dune: Part One *this* far ahead of its sequel’s opening on February 29, but it is now playing at the Regal and will presumably stay there until then. Finally, you could do far worse for a Valentine’s Day date night than When Harry Met Sally…, which has a 35th anniversary screening at the Regal on Wednesday.

Home Video: Four Daughters just ended a one-week run at Cinemapolis and Bobi Wine: The People’s President is now streaming on Disney+. Did you know that current Cornell University faculty, staff, and students have access to the remaining three 2024 Oscar nominees for Best Documentary Feature Film via licenses and subscriptions paid for by the Library? To Kill a Tiger, a pointedly didactic dispatch from the front lines of the battle against systemic misogyny in rural India that counts Mindy Kaling and Dev Patel among its executive producers and which I suspect will be many people’s rooting interest in this category if enough of them see it, is available via Docuseek. Less immediate in its goals is The Eternal Memory, which chronicles married couple Augusto Góngora and Paulina Urrutia’s private and public rearguard actions against forgetting as victims of Alzheimer’s Disease and key media figures during and after Chile’s Pinochet era. It’s also a great movie about the COVID-19 pandemic in that it is strongly influenced artistically by the limitations it imposed and depicts what must have been one of the most challenging lockdown situations to contend with. I would not be disappointed if this film, which is available via Projectr, wins. My favorite, though, has got to be 20 Days in Mariupol, although that really isn’t the right word for a devastatingly unflinching depiction of life during wartime for civilians with the misfortune to live in the combat zone. Anyway, it will be on the top ten list for Movie Year 2023 I publish next month and is available via both Academic Video Online and Kanopy. Best Documentary Short Film nominee The ABCs of Book Banning is available from Projectr (which the New York Public Library subscribes to as well, by the way, if you’re a cardholder there) too, but I can’t recommend it for any reason other than completism.

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: It’s another double movie week for me since 2024 Oscar nominee for Best Documentary Feature Film Four Daughters will close at Cinemapolis next Thursday and I don’t want to wait on Best Picture (among other categories) nominee The Zone of Interest, which opens there today as well, and risk a hard choice down the line.

Also in Theaters: I saw a preview for Mami Wata at Cornell Cinema last weekend and it looks interesting! Unfortunately, neither of the two screenings there tomorrow and on Saturday works with my schedule. Director Davy Chou will be at Cornell Cinema with his film Return to Seoul on Wednesday, but I can’t make it to that either. All of Us Strangers, which continues its run at Cinemapolis, is my favorite new film now playing locally. Additional 2024 Oscar nominees that you can see in Ithaca this week include the “Minus Color” version of Godzilla Minus One at Cinemapolis and the Regal Ithaca Mall today only; American Fiction and Poor Things at the same two theaters all week; the dubbed version of The Boy and the Heron just at Cinemapolis all week; and Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse at just the Regal all week. Last but definitely not least, A Thousand and One, which is at Cornell Cinema tomorrow, features the best film music I heard all year.

Home Video: I created a playlist of the four shorts up for Oscars on YouTube to make it easier to access them! All three Best Documentary Short Film nominees are good. Island in Between is a first-person essay film about a fascinating place I didn’t even know existed: the Taiwanese islands of Kinmen, which are located within sight of mainland China. It contains some terrific imagery like a rusted-out tank aiming at the setting sun. The Barber of Little Rock is an inspiring profile of a real-life George Bailey named Arlo Washington. Finally, The Last Repair Shop is an ambitious story about the interesting lives of the dedicated people who repair maintain the musical instruments freely given to students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. That one, which is co-directed by 2022’s winner in this category Ben Proudfoot (for The Queen of Basketball) and Kris Bowers, is probably my favorite so far (I haven’t seen Nai Nai & Wài Pó yet). Meanwhile, Knight of Fortune is thematically similar to fellow Best Live Action Short Film nominee The After, which is now available on Netflix, in that they’re both about grief, but the two films couldn’t be more different in tone. This one’s more my speed: director Lasse Lyskjær Noer has cited one of my favorite filmmakers Alexander Payne as an influence and I can totally see it.

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: Normally I restrict myself to just one movie in theaters per week so that I don’t miss out on too many bath and dinner times, but I occasionally make exceptions. The lead-up to the Oscars is one such time, and I’m planning to see both the “minus color” version of Best Visual Effects nominee Godzilla Minus One at either Cinemapolis or the Regal Ithaca Mall and Best Picture nominee American Fiction at Cinemapolis, plus we’re taking the girls to see the dubbed version of Best Animated Feature The Boy and the Heron at Cornell Cinema on Sunday.

Also in Theaters: A whopping seven additional Oscar nominees are playing the Regal this week in “reissue” engagements, which doesn’t even include Poor Things since that one never closed there. Meanwhile, you can also see the dubbed version of The Boy and the Heron at Cinemapolis all week and the subtitled version at Cornell Cinema on Saturday. My top pick isn’t any of these films, though, but rather All of Us Strangers, which is at Cinemapolis. Like Petite Maman, one of my favorite movies from last year, it suggests that the path to truly understanding our parents runs not through Reality or Fantasy but a different realm that we maybe don’t still have a name for in 2024. It also features four magnificent lead performances, one of the year’s best opening shots, and a brilliant Christmas scene starring the song “Always on My Mind” by the Pet Shop Boys (which you’ll never hear the same way again) among manifold other virtues. With Cornell Cinema back for the spring semester, there are great repertory options again, including a 35mm print of Rashomon tonight and on Sunday and Berlin: Symphony of a Great City on Monday. The Wizard of Oz is at the Regal on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday, too. Finally, I’m intrigued by Origin, which opens at Cinemapols today, although I suspect it will close before it works its way up to the top of my list.

Home Video: In addition to all the movies listed above, there are a ton of other Oscar nominees available on streaming video and if you’re anything like me, they will dominate your viewing for the next six weeks. Before you get started, though, allow me to recommend setting aside one night to revisit City Lights like I did the other day. It has been on my mind ever since I saw Fallen Leaves, which pays tribute to it, so I put it on immediately when I noticed that it’s currently in Turner Classic Movies’ On Demand lineup and available via their Watch TCM app (as well as on Max and The Criterion Channel). The opening sequence is an all-time great; the boxing scenes are every bit as much a delightful travesty as the football scenes in Horse Feathers that I wrote about in August, 2022; and the final cut may be the most perfectly-timed one in the history of cinema. If that still isn’t enough to convince you, it also would pair beautifully with Best Live-Action Short Film nominee The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which is of course now streaming on Netflix.

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: It’s basically a coin flip for me between American Fiction and All of Us Strangers, both of which open at Cinemapolis today. At the moment I’m leaning toward the former because the showtimes are slightly more compatible with my schedule, but I definitely reserve the right to change my mind and I’m almost certainly going to see the other one next week, so it doesn’t really matter anyway.

Also in Theaters: For the third week in a row, The Boy and the Heron and Poor Things rule the roost as the best new films I’ve seen currently screening in Ithaca. You can see the former at Cinemapolis in both its dubbed and subtitled versions and at the Regal Ithaca Mall with subtitles only; the latter is also now playing at both locations. I haven’t mentioned Wonka, which continues its run at the Regal this week, in this space previously because I almost certainly won’t end up seeing it in theaters, but it’s probably the next-best-reviewed option after these two and American Fiction/All of Us Strangers. Unless, that is, you count Pixar’s Soul, which is also now playing at the Regal once a day. You can see Cowboy Bebop: The Movie there as well with subtitles on Sunday and Tuesday and dubbed on Monday.

Home Video: I’m extremely late to this party, but the four shorts directed by Wes Anderson based on Roald Dahal stories that Netflix released a few months ago are pretty great! However, while I liked The Swan, The Rat Catcher, and most especially The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, my favorite is definitely Poison. Not necessarily because it represents the purest expression of Anderson’s style or a spur track into previously uncharted territory (which it may or may not), but simply because it’s a nearly flawless adaptation and one of the best films I’ve seen in Movie Year 2023, full stop. One fine moment is when Ben Kingsley’s Dr. Ganderbai administers serum to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Harry Pope, who supposedly has a highly venomous krait sleeping on his stomach. He holds up to the camera in turn a piece of rubber tubing, a bottle of alcohol, and a syringe as Dev Patel’s Timber Woods narrates in rapid-fire staccato on from the other half of a split-screen composition. The effect is neither specifically theatrical or cinematic, but something else. In a play we probably wouldn’t be able to see these objects, and in a more traditional filmic presentation they’d be expected to speak for themselves, but in this movie they function to draw attention to Dahl’s choice of words. Ditto Benoît Herlin’s stagehand spritzing water on Dr. Ganderbai’s forehead to simulate sweat. There are also a number of places where Poison departs from its source material to salutary effect, such as by giving Woods an implied backstory involving a hospital stay as a child, his memories of which are triggered by the smell of chloroform, or by manipulating the beats of everything from the moment he and Ganderbai begin the pull down the sheet covering Pope to the original final line: “you can’t be.” Another highlight is the lighting in the scene in which Pope bares his fangs. Outstanding across the board.

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: I haven’t seen many films by Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki, so I’m going with Fallen Leaves since you’ve got to start somewhere. It’s at Cinemapolis for one week only starting today.

Also in Theaters: The Boy and the Heron, which continues its run at Cinemapolis this week in both dubbed and subtitled versions and at the Regal Ithaca Mall with subtitles only, is one of my favorite films of Movie Year 2023. Poor Things, which remains at Cinemapolis, is another. If Fallen Leaves wasn’t here for such a limited time, I’d probably be seeing Napoleon this week since I missed it during it’s first Ithaca run last year. It’s back at the Regal for one show a day. Speaking of the Regal, one of the reasons it will be a tragedy if it ever does close for real is because they do a great job of programming new films from India. Two Telugu-language films, Guntur Kaaram and Hanu Man, open there today. Finally, I’m banking on The Color Purple, which is at Cinemapolis, picking up Oscar nominations in a couple of week and sticking around in or returning to local theaters, but you might prefer not to take the risk.

Home Video: Over winter break I watched as many documentaries directed by the talented Belgian-Cameroonian filmmaker Rosine Mbakam as I could get my hands on in preparation for my EMRO review of her stellar first narrative feature Mambar Pierrete. My favorite was Chez Jolie Coiffure, which is about a Brussels hair salon. The most audacious is Delphine’s Prayers, which invites us into a room with one of the director’s fellow Cameroonian transplants and keeps us there until she’s said everything she has to say. Last but by no means least, Mbakam’s feature-length debut The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman and the collaborative (with An van Dienderen and Éléonore Yaméogo) essay film Prism are the ones most essential for understanding what she’s doing in Mambar Pierrette. Current Cornell University faculty, staff, and students have access to all of them through a great platform called Docuseek that the library subscribes to. Even if you aren’t so fortunate, they’re all available on DVD or a variety of commercial streaming video platforms from Icarus Films.

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: I pivoted to The Iron Claw last week for scheduling reasons, so Ferrari remains next up on my list. It is now playing at the Regal Ithaca Mall.

Also in Theaters: The Boy and the Heron, a dazzling inventive grown-up fairy tale which rates among director Hayao Miyazaki’s finest work, is back at Cinemapolis in both dubbed and subtitled versions and remains at the Regal with subtitles only. Poor Things, which continues its run at Cinemapolis, is a raunchy, steampunk-inflected ode to “practical love” which includes some of the years best images, sounds, and performances. The Iron Claw is a first-rate sports movie which will be at Cinemapolis for at least one more week. You can’t go wrong with any of them, so pick whichever one sounds the most like your jam! Among movies I haven’t yet seen, the one with the best buzz in the circles I run in after Ferrari is probably Godzilla Minus One, which is at the Regal.

Home Video: There are still two months to go before I write about my favorite films of the year on Oscar night since so many significant releases haven’t yet reached Ithaca, but the list is already starting to take shape. One title that will definitely appear on it is A Thousand and One, which is now streaming on Prime Video with a subscription and available for purchase on Blu-ray and DVD. “Well-executed period piece with a terrific female lead” describes a gratifyingly large number of recent films, but director A.V. Rockwell’s debut feature can stand toe to toe with any of them. Teyana Taylor is a force of nature and Spotify informs me that the opening theme by Gary Gunn was one of my most-listened-to songs of 2023, but maybe the most impressive thing about it is the way an empty apartment first gradually turns into a home, then suddenly becomes a haunted ruin.

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.

What I’m Seeing This Week: I wasn’t able to make it to Poor Things in Baltimore during our holiday travels, so I’m going to catch a matinee screening at Cinemapolis on New Year’s Eve. Then, to avoid falling too far behind on new releases, I’m going to see Ferrari later in the week either there or at the Regal Ithaca Mall.

Also in Theaters: I’m at an unusual disadvantage in that I haven’t yet seen most of the films playing in Ithaca! Of those I have, though, my clear favorite is The Boy and the Heron, which continues its run at the Regal. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, seeing director Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away was one of the great moviegoing experiences of my life. If you know his work, you should see his latest because it ranks with the best of his oeuvre; if you don’t, you should see it for the same reason by way of getting acquainted.

Home Video: One More Time, which is now streaming on Netflix with a subscription, is not a remake of Groundhog Day, but it features a similar “time loop” narrative and deliberately (there’s literally a scene in which the main character watches the earlier film for clues about what’s happening to her) hits a lot of the same beats. To take a cue from One More Time‘s soundtrack, it has a similar relationship to its inspiration as Ashnikko’s “L8r Boi” does to Avril Levigne’s “Sk8er Boi,” only Jonatan Etzler and company aren’t so much reconstructing a beloved text with a bad foundation as reworking the facade a bit. Crucially, they understand that Phil Connor’s journey was not necessarily toward becoming a *better* person, but rather one who knows what he really wants. Throw in a good lead performance by Hedda Stiernnstedt, colorful secondary characters, and a depiction of the early aughts that this member of Conestoga Valley High School’s Class of 2000 found convincing if a bit rosy, and you have a fine example of what My Loving Wife and I call a “Friday night movie.” Hat tip: Elisabeth Vincentelli in the New York Times.

Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.