Category: Ithaca Film Journal

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.

What I’m Seeing This Week: The snow on Tuesday waylaid my plans, so catching a screening of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery at Cinemapolis is still my number one priority. I’m excited to finally see Hamnet there as well!

Also in Theaters: Sentimental Value (Cinemapolis) remains my top new movie recommendation. Other first run fare I’m interested in but haven’t gotten to yet includes Rental Family (Regal Ithaca Mall), Wicked: For Good (Cinemapolis & Regal), and Zootopia 2 (Regal). I mentioned Now You See Me: Now You Don’t and Sisu: Road to Revenge, both of which continue their runs at the Regal, in this space previously, too, but My Loving Wife and I have pretty much made up our minds to save them for future movie marathons which also include their predecessors. Special events highlights include a free screening of an award-winning new documentary called Remaining Native at Cinemapolis on Sunday and Cornell Cinema‘s traditional end-of-semester “mystery screening” tonight. Finally, noteworthy repertory options include Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair opening at the Regal today and another batch of holiday classics appearing there throughout the week, among them personal favorites December 2023 “Drink & a Movie” selection National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation on Saturday, Love Actually on Tuesday, and The Christmas Chronicles, which features an energetic performance by Kurt Russell in the role of St. Nick, on Wednesday.

Home Video Recommendation: The Teachers’ Lounge was recently featured in the New York Times’s “Watching” newsletter, which reminded me that I somehow never got around to revisiting it despite the fact that it has been available on Netflix with a subscription for ages! Here’s what I said on Letterboxd back in February, 2024:

Features some of the Movie Year’s most excitingly thought-provoking final shots. Oskar (Leonard Stettnisch) solves the Rubik’s cube that Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) lent him earlier, confirming that like her he speaks the language of logic and mathematics. Which: compare her loyalty to him to her earlier refusal to speak Polish with her colleague Milosz Dudek (Rafael Stachowiak). Anyway, we then survey the empty rooms of the school where the drama has taken place before ending on a shot of Oskar being carried away by the police. The latter establishes the two characters as being united in their respective failures to unlock the escape room they have found themselves trapped in, but then the end credits roll to the strains of Mendelssohn’s overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, underscoring the sense of enchantment and theatricality pervasive throughout the entire film (most palpably in the protest or hallucination of the whole school wearing Eva Löbau’s Friederike Kuhn’s distinctive blouse). I’ll need at least one more viewing to figure out what exactly, but there’s definitely a lot going on here and I dig it!

After a second viewing I think what the Mendelssohn overture, which George Grove once wrote “stamps the fairy character of the work” from its opening four chords, brings to the party is the sense that “the world is turned upside down” as John McTiernan put it when writing about the influence of the Shakespeare play it was composed for on this month’s “Drink & a Movie” selection Die Hard. If anything I underrated this film by only ranking it seventh on my “Top Ten Movies of 2023” list, so do check it out!

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: Happy Thanksgiving! We’re currently in Baltimore celebrating this holiday and my oldest daughter’s birthday with family, but I’m planning to see Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery at Cinemapolis after we return.

Also in Theaters: I saw Sentimental Value and Bugonia at Cinemapolis last week and recommend them both because the former contains my favorite building and prop of Movie Year 2025 so far and the latter features some of the best costumes (by Jennifer Johnson). I also enjoyed Frankenstein, which continues its run there, and Lurker, a reworking of some scenes and themes from Whiplash that returns to Cornell Cinema on Tuesday. I will eventually take my kids to see Wicked: For Good at either Cinemapolis or the Regal Ithaca Mall and Zootopia 2 at the latter, but am in no hurry because I expect them both to stick around for awhile. This might not be true of Rental Family (Cinemapolis and the Regal), Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (Regal), or Sisu: Road to Revenge (Regal), but if so I’m content to just catch up with them on a streaming video platform down the road. Special events highlights include Casablanca breaking its own record as Cornell’s most-screened film of all time on Monday, while on the repertory front the Regal is kicking of the Christmas season with Gremlins tomorrow, Elf on Saturday, The Polar Express on Sunday, and The Holiday on Monday.

Home Video Recommendation: There aren’t a whole lot of classic movies out there that My Loving Wife has seen but I haven’t, but until just the other night Witness for the Prosecution was probably the most prominent. I enjoyed it first and foremost as a smorgasbord of great acting in a variety of styles by a bevy of legends including Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power, and Elsa Lanchester, but Laughton’s character also struck me as a variation on the tragic heroes of some of my favorite Westerns like The Searchers and Canyon Passage for reasons I’d have to spoil the ending to explain but detail on Letterboxd if you’ve already seen it. We actually watched it on Tubi, but it’s also streaming commercial-free on Watch TCM through Sunday

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: Five months ago I ranked Sentimental Value, which opens at Cinemapolis tonight, seventh on my “Cannes 2025 Films That I Am Most Eager to See” list, so that’s first up for me. I’m going to try to catch Bugonia there as well.

Also in Theaters: I will eventually take the girls to both Wicked: For Good and Zootopia 2, but they don’t seem to be in a tearing hurry, so neither am I. The former opens at Cinemapolis and the Regal Ithaca Mall tonight, and the latter opens at the Regal on Tuesday. My Loving Wife and I are saving Nuremberg, which continues its run at Cinemapolis and the Regal, for a future date night, but I do intend to eventually watch it, too, as well as Now You See Me: Now You Don’t and Sisu: Road to Revenge, both of which are at the Regal. I like Brendan Fraser, so Rental Family is on my list as well. It’s at both Cinemapolis and the Regal. Sticking just to first run fare I’ve already seen, my top recommendation would appear to be Frankenstein, which continues its run at Cinemapolis. This week’s special events highlights include screenings of Drink and Be Merry and Occupy Wall Street: An American Dream followed by filmmaker Q&As at Cinemapolis tonight and Sunday respectively. Finally, repertory highlights include Casablanca at Cornell Cinema tonight; Thanksgiving classic Planes, Trains & Automobiles at the Regal tomorrow; and The Holdovers there on Wednesday.

Home Video: McCabe & Mrs. Miller, the movie which inspired my new “I’ve Got Poetry In Me” series, is currently streaming on Criterion Channel, but only until the end of the month. In addition to being generally terrific, it’s also a perfect match for the early spell of bleak midwinter weather we’ve been experiencing in Ithaca lately, so be sure to check it out before it disappears!

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