Category: Ithaca Film Journal

What I’m Seeing This Week: I audibled to When Evil Lurks last week to catch it before it left Cinemapolis, so my choice is once again The Royal Hotel. For real this time!

Also in Theaters: This week’s big news is that Killers of the Flower Moon, the latest film by all-time great director Martin Scorsese, opens at Cinemapolis and the Regal Ithaca Mall on Thursday. If you don’t have other plans, I can think of *far* worse ways to spend a Saturday evening than making a double feature out of the screenings of the 4k restoration of Contempt and 35mm print of Tokyo Story screening at Cornell Cinema. Daughter of the Dragon, the second installment in the “From Silent Film Star to American Icon: Celebrating Anna May Wong” series co-sponsored by a trio of local film organizations, plays Cinemapolis on Thursday. The Toll of the Sea, which opened it last month, is one of the highlights of my movie year so far. Last but by no means least, the Ithaca Experimental Film Festival will be at Cinemapolis on Saturday and Sunday.

Home Video: The Detroit Lions, Cincinnati Bengals, and Chicago Bears all won their Week 5 NFL games, which is a confluence of events I’ve been waiting patiently for so that I can say: oh my! Now must be a good time to watch The Wizard of Oz, which I’ve had the pleasure of seeing twice this year under most excellent circumstances! First I was in the audience for a print from 1945 which screened at the Nitrate Picture Show in June. Then I watched it on DVD a few months later with my five- and seven-year old daughters, who had never seen it before, as one of my selections (we rotate) for our weekly Family Movie Night. I’m happy to report that they loved it! You can also stream Wizard on Max with a subscription or rent it from most other commercial streaming video platforms. In other news, Elemental, which I’ve been championing in this space as one of my favorite movies of the year, is now available on Disney+.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: Director Kitty Green’s previous film The Assistant was one of the last movies I saw in theaters before COVID. I remember that it definitely got to me, so I’m going with The Royal Hotel at Cinemapolis.

Also in Theaters: Cornell Cinema is screening The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari at Cornell’s Sage Chapel on Wednesday with a live soundtrack by The Invincible Czars. I had a good time watching them accompany Nosferatu there last year. Drylongso, which got a Criterion Collection release in August, is playing their regular venue in Willard Straight Hall the following evening. Hocus Pocus wasn’t a big part of *my* childhood, but my kids love it and we’d probably be planning to catch one of the 30th anniversary screenings at the Regal Ithaca Mall this week if we weren’t heading north for the first half of it for Canadian Thanksgiving. Hopefully it will stick around for awhile!

Home Video: Black Sheep, which is now available on the Criterion Channel as part of their “Directed by Allan Dwan” series, is the most fun I’ve had watching a movie in I don’t know how long. Total catnip for me, down to the presence of Eugene Pallette, more or less realistic poker hands, and period (1935)-interesting drink orders like crème de menthe frappé and Dubonnet. David Cairns got it exactly right as he so often does when he noted that stars Edmund Lowe and Claire Trevor deserved a whole series of Thin Man-like films and lamented the fact “sometimes film history just misses a trick.” Highest possible recommendation!

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: Cornell Cinema kicks off Ithaca’s 12th annual Silent Movie Month on Sunday with a screening of The Toll of the Sea accompanied by an “original, live experimental score” by local ensemble Cloud Chamber Orchestra. This is part of a series that they are presenting in partnership with Cinemapolis and the Wharton Studio Museum called “From Silent Film Star to American Icon: Celebrating Anna May Wong.” In addition to featuring Wong’s first starring roll, Cornell Cinema’s website notes that The Toll of the Sea is also the first-ever two-strip Technicolor film. With a runtime of just 48 minutes, this will only require giving up a small portion of my football Sunday and even less than usual with the Falcons and Jaguars playing in London at 9:30am Eastern, which seems well worth it!

Also in Theaters: A restored version of director Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense opens at Cinemapolis on Friday to commemorate the film’s 40th anniversary. Oppenheimer enters the final week of its run there and probably the Regal Ithaca Mall (where it’s down to just one screening a day) as well, although it will be coming to Cornell Cinema soon. As reported by The Ithaca Voice, a documentary with local ties called Common Ground will screen at Cinemapolis on Sunday followed by a “talk-back” event.

Home Video: Critic Farran Smith Nehme aka the Self-Style Siren recently tweeted a link to an updated version of an old essay about the Joan Fontaine vehicle Ivy, which is now available on the Criterion Channel as part of their “Noir by Gaslight” series. It contains some striking cinematography by Russell Metty, breathtakingly perfect costume design by Orry-Kelly, effective use of music by Daniele Amfitheatrof, and quite possibly my favorite performance by Fontaine that I’ve seen so far.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: Our Body would be an easy choice for me, but unfortunately neither of the two showtimes at Cornell Cinema is compatible with my schedule. Meanwhile, My Loving Wife and I enjoyed the first two Hercule Poirot films directed by Kenneth Branagh and she has made it clear that she does not want me to see A Haunting in Venice, which is at both Cinemapolis and the Regal Ithaca Mall, without her. So it transpires that I’m going to revisit In the Mood for Love, which is regularly cited as one of the best films of the millennium, but which I’ve never even thought of as one of my favorite movies directed by Wong Kar-Wai. Considering that Cornell Cinema is showing a restored 35mm print, it seems quite possible that I will look back on my calendar mishegoss as a blessing in disguise.

Also in Theaters: I’m not sure why Jawan, which continues its run at the Regal this week, hasn’t gotten more attention stateside. Our nation has turned its lonely eyes to Tom Cruise to save cinema, but he can’t do it on his own–after all, even Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio shared the film with eight other Yankees! Shah Rukh Khan is a Star and this is a Movie. So is Oppenheimer, which continues its runs at Cinemapolis and the Regal this week and which remains my pick for best new film of 2023 for now. If you just don’t have nearly three hours to spare, I recommend Bottoms, which is playing the same two theaters and clocks in at a clip 90 minutes. If you’re in the mood for repertory fare, Interstellar features an unforgettable lunar rover chase scene and screens at Cornell Cinema tomorrow.

Home Video: Critic Jason Bailey helpfully notes that Annihilation is leaving Netflix on September 29. I saw this and Twin Peaks: The Return for the first time during lockdown, and they will forever be linked in my mind as texts which capture the relentlessly haunting feeling that the call you dread receiving may be coming from INSIDE YOUR OWN BODY. If you’re looking for something lighter, High Tension, which is now available on the Criterion Channel as part of their “Directed by Allan Dwan” series, contains a nice bit of business with a piano.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: There aren’t a ton of reviews of the Indian action spectacle Jawan, which is now playing the Regal Ithaca Mall, floating around on the movie publications I frequent, but I’m intrigued by the ones that are.

Also in Theaters: It’s a good week for family-friendly fare in Ithaca! You can see Singin’ in the Rain, a mortal lock for any Top 25 Movies of All Time I might ever compose, for just $2 at Cinemapolis or $10 for a “family group” of five or more on Sunday as part of their Family Classics Picture Show. Meanwhile, Cornell Cinema is screening Mary Poppins on Saturday and Sunday as part of their 100 Years of Disney series. I took my then four- and six-year old daughters to see this film at Cinemapolis last year with, and while it was a bit long for them, they loved it. Cornell Cinema is also showing Elemental, which at least for the time being remains one of my favorite movies of the year, on Monday. More mature moviegoers who haven’t already seen it should prioritize Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, which screens at Cornell Cinema tonight as part of their Cult Classics series.

Home Video: As a virtually uncoachable (for reasons of, er, let’s say “youthful overconfidence”) former cross country runner, I’m puzzled that it took me until last week to finally watch The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner! It’s now screening on WatchTCM with a subscription, and although it doesn’t quite measure up to its fellow British “kitchen sink” realist film This Sporting Life (which is currently available on the Criterion Channel with a subscription), I like it for a lot of the same reasons. Sports fans far too often forget that there are real-life human beings under the laundry they root for, but these movies are reminders that when the game is over, the athletes who played in them often have to go back to work or under the knife to treat their latest injury. And whether you’re an anonymous amateur or Aaron Rodgers, the latter hurts like hell.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: I finally caught up with Shiva Baby, the harrowing first full-length collaboration between director Emma Seligman and star Rachel Sennott, on Max and am now excited to see their follow-up effort Bottoms at Cinemapolis!

Also in Theaters: I saw Blue Jean, which plays Cornell Cinema tonight and Monday, at the Gene Siskel Film Center this summer when I was in Chicago for a conference and recommend it for Rosey McEwan’s terrific performance in the lead role and as a generally impressive debut feature by director Georgia Oakley. There’s a John Carpenter film at the Regal Ithaca Mall for the second week in a row, which is awesome! This time they’re honoring the 40th anniversary of Christine with screenings on Wednesday and Friday. That’s also the only place in town where you can see the new Shah Rukh Khan vehicle Jawan. Finally, Oldboy, which is even more epically demented than I remembered, remains at Cinemapolis until at least Thursday.

Home Video: Last week I recommended two films directed by Shōhei Imamura, but was remiss in not mentioning a third: with Oppenheimer still in theaters, now is a perfect time to watch Black Rain, which Jonathan Rosenbaum called “one of the few movies that’s addressed Hiroshima without blinking.” It is now available on Mubi with a subscription as part of a double feature with The Ballad of Narayama. With director Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things earning an eight-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, I also recommended checking out 2017 Oscar nominee (for Best Original Screenplay) The Lobster on Max with a subscription.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m going to opt for the restored and remastered 4k version of Oldboy at Cinemapolis. I think I must have caught this at either the Manor or Squirrel Hill Theatre in Pittsburgh during its original theatrical run in 2005, but haven’t revisited it since. My backup plan if I find myself running behind schedule is the teen comedy Bottoms, which is garnering positive reviews and screening at the same location 45 minutes later in the evening on Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday.

Also in Theaters: It’s a great week for repertory fare in Ithaca! In addition to Oldboy being at Cinemapolis, Cornell Cinema is screening Beau Travail on Friday and Sunday as part of their “The Greatest Films of All Time?” series, which highlights top finishers in last year’s Sight & Sound Critics’ Poll. They will also show the Cuban film Death of a Bureaucrat on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Regal Ithaca Mall is featuring a trio of anniversary re-releases, including the wildly entertaining John Carpenter movie They Live (35 years old) and classic anime film Perfect Blue (25 years old) on Sunday and Wednesday and Jurassic Park (30 years old), one of the only movies my parents ever took me to see in theaters when I was a kid, all week. Looking just at 2023 films, my favorites are Oppenheimer, which is at both Cinemapolis and the Regal; Elemental, which is at the Regal; Passages, which is at Cinemapolis; and Asteroid City, which is at Cornell Cinema on Saturday and Thursday.

Home Video: I have been binging on films directed by Shōhei Imamura lately in preparation for a review. Eijanaika, which is available on the Criterion Channel with a subscription, rates as a Must See in my book. If you like that one, 1983 Palme d’Or winner The Ballad of Narayama is definitely worth the price of a $1.99 rental on Prime Video as well.

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