Category: Ithaca Film Journal

What I’m Seeing This Week: We’ll be out of town for the next five days, but My Loving Wife and I are going to take advantage of the fact that we’re staying with willing babysitters to see Stalker at The Screening Room in Kingston, Ontario tonight.

Also in Theaters: The Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival kicks off in earnest tomorrow with two screenings at Cinemapolis, where all remaining events will take place. Highlights include three films which made a splash on the festival circuit last year: Green Border, winner of a Special Jury Prize at the Viennale, on Saturday; Last Things and Youth (Spring) on Monday; and Pictures of Ghosts, which is directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, whose last feature Bacurau was the topic of my May, 2023 Drink & a Movie blog post, on Tuesday. You can find reviews of all of them by searching my Film Blogs, Etc. 2.0 CSE by title. The best new film now playing locally that I’ve already seen remains Dune: Part Two, which is at both Cinemapolis and the Regal Ithaca Mall. Wicked Little Letters, which My Loving Wife wants to see, opens at the same two theaters tonight. Anything with both Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley in it is an easy sell for me, so we might have to make plans for another date night soon! I’m intrigued by two action movies at the Regal: Monkey Man, which is directed by one of my favorite actors, Dev Patel, and the Liam Neeson vehicle In the Land of Saints and Sinners. Critics seem to like both! Cornell Cinema returns from Spring Break with free screenings of the Burkinabé film Borders on Tuesday and A Pocketful of Miracles: A Tale of Two Siblings on Wednesday. The latter will be followed by a Q&A with director Aviva Kempner and Cornell professor Elliot Shapiro. Otherwise, your best bets for repertory fare are a trio of films playing the Regal: Gone with the Wind on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday; The Matrix tonight; and The Dark Knight on Wednesday.

Home Video: As mentioned previously on this blog, I was troubled by this year’s Oscar winner for Best International Feature Film and Best Sound The Zone of Interest. While that remains the case, I feel like I have more appreciation for what it is *trying* to do after finally seeing The Act of Killing, which it references in a key moment that I now understand clarifies that Christian Friedel’s Rudolf Höss knows that he is a monster. This is important because I don’t think “living next to Auschwitz” is a terribly useful metaphor. The Act of Killing and its companion film The Look of Silence delve deep into the psychology of killers like Höss (in this case the leaders of gangs that murdered hundreds of thousands of so-called “communists” in Indonesia in the 60s) by way of depicting in harrowing detail not just the sky-high cost of resisting them in the moment, but also the Sisyphean task of holding them accountable afterward should they emerge victorious. This is, to me, a far more potent “there but for the grace of God” than the fear we might one day be judged by history and/or our maker to have been “good Nazis” because it doesn’t let us off the hook so easily—we can’t just say not me, I attended a protest/changed my profile picture to a flag/cast a protest vote against Joe Biden/whatever. Anyway, these movies would be a mortal lock for any Best Films of the Millennium list I might be moved to create, so: highest possible recommendation! The Act of Killing is now streaming on Peacock, The Look of Silence is available on Prime Video, and current Cornell University faculty, staff, and students have access to both via Academic Video Online.

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

What I’m Seeing: I’m going with Problemista at Cinemapolis.

Also in Theaters: The 2024 edition Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, which has the theme “turbulence,” kicks off on Monday with an online new media exhibition. More on this next week after the movies get started! You’ve got one last chance to see the dubbed version of The Boy and the Heron with “bonus content” at the Regal Ithaca Mall tonight; otherwise Dune: Part Two, which is at both Cinemapolis and the Regal, remains the best new film now playing locally that I’ve seen, but depending on what else you’re into I might recommend Love Lies Bleeding, which is at Cinemapolis, instead. There are two free screenings at Cornell Cinema tonight which feature conversations with the filmmakers afterward, first Jole Dobe Na / Those Who Do Not Drown at 4:45pm and then The Art of Un-War at 7:30. Three films that garnered attention (some positive, some negative) on the festival circuit last year open at the Regal tonight: They Shot the Piano Player; Asphalt City (which premiered at Cannes with the title Black Flies), and Late Night with the Devil. Your best bets for repertory fare are Chinatown, which is at the Regal tonight; Dogtooth, which is at Cornell Cinema tomorrow; and The Matrix, which has a 25th anniversary screening at the Regal on Wednesday.

Home Video: One of my favorite things about The Criterion Channel is the wealth of short films available on it. Whenever I’m not pressed for time, I like to watch one before each feature I view at home. Many of them are grouped into collections, and I recently worked my way through everything in the “Animated Shorts” program. Three titles won’t be available after March 31 and are absolutely worth checking out before they leave. Spook Sport is directed by Mary Ellen Bute, whose Synchromy No. 4: Escape made a huge impression on me when I saw it at last year’s Nitrate Picture Show, and features direct animation by the OG Norman McLaren. Papageno is silhouette animation set to Mozart’s The Magic Flute directed by another giant of cinema, Lotte Reiniger, which has terrific backgrounds that lend outstanding depth to her compositions. Finally, A Night on Bald Mountain is a pioneering pinscreen animation by the technique’s inventors Alexandre Alexeïeff and Claire Parker which has many affinities with Movie Year 2023’s Godland (also on The Criterion Channel), including black and white living and dead horses, an erupting volcano, and the theme of civilization vs. nature. Additional highlights include Les Escargots, a tale of giant snails that my kids loved, and Something to Remember, a melancholy snapshot of a society of animals on the verge of collapse remarkably made in 2019 when, you know, HUMAN society was teetering on the brink. The pick of the litter, though, is the utterly charming Cockaboody, which recreates one of the great privileges and pleasures of parenthood: overhearing snippets of imaginative play.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: Lots of possibilities, but I think I’m going with Hundreds of Beavers at Cinemapolis unless I audible to Problemista, which is playing there as well.

Also in Theaters: Deserving Best Animated Feature Oscar winner The Boy and the Heron is back at the Regal Ithaca Mall in dubbed and subtitled versions, both with “bonus content.” The next best new movie that I’ve already seen is the satisfyingly epic Dune: Part Two, which is there and at Cinemapolis. Love Lies Bleeding is at both of these theaters as well, and if you saw its trailer and thought “that’s my kind of movie,” you won’t be disappointed–it’s absolutely bonkers! The “immersive feature documentary and profound sensory experience” 32 Sounds that I mentioned last week is back at Cornell Cinema on Saturday and Sunday. If none of that sounds good, there are quite a few choice repertory options this week, including a 50th anniversary screening of Chinatown at the Regal on Wednesday, a screening of Wings of Desire at Cinemapolis that same night co-sponsored by Buffalo Street Books as part of their “Stories to Explore” series, and a screening of Babette’s Feast at Cornell Cinema on Tuesday which is accompanied by lectures on the “science of taste” and a “special tasting.”

Home Video: In my “Top Ten Movies of 2023” post earlier this month I mentioned that I had not yet seen John Wick: Chapter Four because My Loving Wife and I were saving it for a movie marathon. That day came sooner rather than later when Jason Bailey of the New York Times alerted us to the fact that the first three films leave Netflix on March 30. Long story short, we enjoyed them all immensely! As someone who can’t watch high-rise collapse in an action movie without thinking of all the people who live in it who might not have renter’s insurance, I appreciate the fact that there is astonishingly little collateral damage in these films. I counted a handful of parked cars that will need some body work and any number of buildings end up with bullet holes in them, but civilians are conspicuously absent from most of the major fight sequences, which tend to take place in spaces that are coded as either abandoned or belonging to the bad guys. And my goodness, what a riot of color, grace, and inventiveness they are! My favorite installments in the saga are the original John Wick, which takes its sweet time coming to a simmer, and the last, which spends nearly its entire 170 minute runtime at full boil. I believe these will be regarded as classic movies of our era and I look forward to watching them again in a few years, at which time I might even dare to try to say something original about why.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: My Loving Wife and I have a Dune: Part Two date night planned for this weekend at either Cinemapolis or the Regal Ithaca Mall, plus I’m going to see Love Lies Bleeding at one of those theaters as well.

Also in Theaters: There’s a ton of interesting stuff at Cornell Cinema this week! The highlight for me is probably a visit from experimental filmmaker Christopher Harris with his works Reckless Eyeballing, Distant Shores, and Still/Here tomorrow or the screening of the “immersive feature documentary and profound sensory experience” 32 Sounds on Saturday. Only 100 tickets are available to the latter so that every member of the audience can be given their own set of headphones. Two movies that appeared on plenty of top ten lists last year, How to Have Sex and Monster, are also there tonight and this weekend. Unfortunately, *none* of these showtimes work with my schedule! Oh well. The best new film that I’ve already seen remains The Taste of Things, which is at Cinemapolis, for at least one more week. The two biggest winners at this year’s Oscars, Oppenheimer and Poor Things, are back at the Regal. Finally, my top repertory recommendation is The Secret of Kells, which is at Cornell Cinema on Sunday afternoon.

Home Video: After all the controversy that Saltburn generated last year and with Swimming Home garnering attention on the festival circuit, I though it was high time that I finally watched Teorema, which both movies have been compared to. As a film almost entirely constructed out of captivating screen presences (including most notably Terence Stamp, Anne Wiazemsky, and Silvana Mangano) being captivating, it’s absolutely worth seeing. I’m not entirely convinced that it achieves all that it appears to aspire to in the realms of philosophy or theology, but at worst it may just be the definitive cinematic text on the phenomenon of the quarter/midlife crisis. It also features an intriguing sepia-toned silent introduction to the main action, Ninetto Davoli as a spirited herald-mailman, and a naked and epically hairy Massimo Girotti stumbling through an ashen Mount Etna landscape. Teorema is now streaming on The Criterion Channel.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: My Dune: Part Two date night with My Loving Wife remains a week away, so I’m going with The Peasants at Cinemapolis.

Also in Theaters: You can still see all of this year’s Oscar-nominated short films at Cinemapolis all week even after their annual fundraising gala, which returns for the first time in four years, on Sunday. The best new feature-length movie playing there or anywhere in Ithaca that I’ve seen is The Taste of Things. Director Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, which is also at Cinemapolis, is worth checking out as well, but his fellow 2023 Cannes Film Festival entry Anselm, which is screening at Cornell Cinema in 3D on Sunday, looks like it might be more interesting. The week’s best repertory options are the entertaining “ramen western” Tampopo, which is at Cornell Cinema tonight; The Iron Giant, one of my favorite animated films of the past 25 years, which is at the Regal Ithaca Mall on Saturday; and the gorgeous Irish animated film Song of the Sea, which is at Cornell Cinema on Sunday. Last but not least, two Cornell alums, director Jason Goldman and colorist Greg Reese, are presenting their documentary Rowdy Girl at Cornell Cinema tomorrow. More information about this screening can be found here.

Home Video: Earlier this week I published my top ten list for Movie Year 2023. The following titles from it are available on Blu-ray/DVD; streaming for free or via a major subscription service; or available to Cornell University students, staff, and faculty on one of the platforms that the Library subscribes to:

• Mambar Pierrette = available on DVD from Icarus Films
• A Thousand and One = available on Blu-ray/DVD and Prime Video
• 20 Days in Mariupol = available on two of Cornell’s streaming video platforms, Academic Video Online and Kanopy
• Poison = available on Netflix
• All of Us Strangers = available on Hulu
• Menus-Plaisirs–Les Troisgros = available on PBS for free until April 20
• The Killer = available on Netflix
• Ferrari = available on Blu-ray/DVD

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

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.