Category: Ithaca Film Journal

What I’m Seeing This Week: My loving wife and I are dropping the kids off at a playdate and seeing The Brutalist at Cinemapolis on Sunday, and I’m going to try to see Presence at the Regal Ithaca Mall as well.

Also in Theaters: Although we’re prioritizing The Brutalist for scheduling reasons, I’m actually more excited to see Hard Truths, which opens at both Cinemapolis and the Regal today. Soundtrack to a Coup d’État and Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, which screen at Cornell Cinema tonight and tomorrow respectively, have each appeared on at least 30 Best Movies of 2024 lists according to the website CriticsTop10. I fear that I’m going to have to give the latter a miss, but I’m planning to catch the former when it returns to town on February 8. My top recommendations among first-run options that I’ve already seen are Nickel Boys, a formally audacious requiem for those whom the arc of the moral universe didn’t bend fast enough toward justice to save that I anticipate will be my rooting interest for any number of Oscars which continues its run at Cinemapolis, and Flow, my favorite animated film of Movie Year 2024 which plays Cornell Cinema on Saturday and Sunday. Other new movies I enjoyed include Babygirl (the Regal), A Complete Unknown (Cinemapolis & the Regal), Nosferatu (Cinemapolis & the Regal), and The Room Next Door (Cinemapolis). Your best bet for repertory fare is Wild at Heart, which screens at Cinemapolis on Monday in memory of director David Lynch, who passed last Wednesday, but other great options include A Matter of Life and Death and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, which are at Cornell Cinema tomorrow and Sunday respectively.

Home Video: Speaking of David Lynch, my loving wife and I both chose to celebrate his life by finally watching movies directed by him which we’d never seen before. I was lucky enough to first encounter Mulholland Drive at the Squirrel Hill Theater (RIP) during its original theatrical run with a bunch of other members of the University of Pittsburgh’s Twin Peaks Club , but she somehow never got around to it. Although Blue Velvet was my first love and Dune will always hold a special place in my heart, this is probably the David Lynch film I’d pick as my favorite. Meanwhile, I’d always understood The Straight Story to be a skippable aberration in his filmography, but this is not at all the case: for all of his weirdness, Lynch also valued sincerity, and this film is as pure a distillation of that aspect of his sensibility as the eighth episode of Twin Peaks: The Return is of another. Both are highly recommended, as is everything else Esther Zuckerman mentions in her New York Times article “12 Cryptic Titles From David Lynch and Where You Can Stream Them.”

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 am planning to see both Nickel Boys and The Room Next Door after they open at Cinemapolis tomorrow.

Also in Theaters: It’s officially awards season at the Regal Ithaca Mall! Oscar nominations were originally scheduled to be announced tomorrow, and although this has been pushed back to next Thursday because of the devastating wildfires in California, contenders have started to reappear on the Regal’s screens. My top recommendation among the first batch is Anora, which screens Friday-Saturday and Tuesday-Wednesday. Additional titles returning to town this week include Conclave, The Substance, and The Wild Robot. Other new movies that I enjoyed include Babygirl (Regal), Nosferatu (Cinemapolis + the Regal), and A Complete Unknown (Cinemapolis + the Regal) in that order. I also hear good things about Better Man, so hopefully it will stick around at the Regal for at least another week. You have one last chance to see The Umbrellas of Cherbourg at Cinemapolis this evening, and that definitely should be your highest priority for repertory fare, but there’s also a free screening of the Marx Brothers vehicle A Night at the Opera there on Sunday as part of their “Family Classics Picture Show” series. Another fine choice would be The Goonies, which has 40th anniversary (typing that made me feel SO old) screenings at the Regal on Sunday and Monday. On the special events front, there will be a free screening of the documentary Move When the Spirit Says Move at Cinemapolis on Monday followed by a panel discussion about subject Dorothy Foreman Cotton.

Home Video: Green Border, one of the candidates for my top ten list for Movie Year 2024 (which as always I’ll publish in March), is currently available on Kanopy to all current Cornell University faculty, students, and staff thanks to a license paid for by the library. As a multifaceted view of the Belarus-Poland border crisis which began in 2021 when the government of Belarus disingenuously began offering refugees free passage into the European Union, it is topical, but seeing it shortly after Come and See underscored for me the extent to which it, too, is an anti-war film. As I wrote on Letterboxd:

Although it tragically comes at the cost of thousands of innocent lives, the path out of Green Border‘s hellscape is littered with less and less bodies as it progresses. People who are not desperately fighting for their own survival retain the capacity to be shocked into action by exposure to violent acts that their citizenship makes them complicit in, whereas war inevitably breeds future conflicts: the earlier film’s Belarusian victims of Nazi atrocities are themselves the instigators of this one’s new cycle of dehumanization.

It also contains powerful individual moments like the image of a mother squeezing a meager harvest of water droplets from the branches of an evergreen into the mouth of her child and a sickening thud that you’ll recognize when you hear it which I won’t soon forget.

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: My loving wife and I have a babysitter and are going to go see Nosferatu at either Cinemapolis or the Regal Ithaca Mall this weekend!

Also in Theaters: My favorite new film now playing Ithaca is Babygirl, which as Alexis Soloski recently noted in the New York Times is part of a bumper crop of “age-gap romances centered on women in midlife” that also includes this week’s home video recommendation. Its final scenes literalize the notion that a failure to communicate is the root of all interpersonal conflicts a bit too much for my tastes, but you can easily imagine Nicole Kidman’s Romy Mathis ending up someplace very different, and the film absolutely gets credit for that. She and male co-lead Harris Dickinson are terrific, as is Antonio Banderas in a supporting role. Babygirl closes at Cinemapolis today but continues its run at the Regal at least through Thursday. I also enjoyed A Complete Unknown, which is at Cinemapolis and the Regal all week. I’m intrigued by The Last Showgirl, which opens at both of those theaters this week, and Better Man, which opens at the Regal, but alas my schedule only permits me to see one movie. On the repertory front, the 4k restoration of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg at Cinemapolis for one week only should be your top choice if you’ve never seen it. I wrote about director Jacques Demy’s next film The Young Girls of Rochefort last February if you’d like some sense of what you’re in for. But seriously: just go!

Home Video: Last Summer, which is now streaming on the Criterion Channel, is similar to Babygirl in that it also features a female protagonist in her 50s who is depicted as sexy and a plot that revolves around implications and after effects of her having sex with a much younger man. Or boy, maybe, in this case. Here she’s named Anne and played by Léa Drucker, who in the words of David Ehrlich (speaking of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort) “still faintly resembles a young Catherine Deneuve” and he’s played by Samuel Kircher, a 21-year-old in real life whose character Théo is still in high school in the film. Oh yeah, and he’s Anne’s stepson. But while that may sound lurid and sensational, where Babygirl is specifically about the difficulty of achieving both personal and professional fulfillment when the deck is stacked against your gender, Last Summer is about the even more general disturbing urge to throw it all away that I suspect many people who “have it all” will identify with.

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 Babygirl at Cinemapolis.

Also in Theaters: The best new movie now playing in Ithaca that I’ve already seen is A Complete Unknown, which is at both Cinemapolis and the Regal Ithaca Mall. Timothée Chalamet’s Bob Dylan turning the members of the “teaspoon brigade” of Edward Norton’s Pete Seeger against themselves is a destined to be a great movie metaphor for the comeuppance of whatever holier-than-thou movement you think is only getting what they deserved, I enjoyed its depiction of early 60s Greenwich Village (played here by Jersey City) as a place with ambient crackling energy, and the music is of course excellent. Nosferatu, which is also at both Cinemapolis and the Regal, would be what I’m seeing this week, but I’m saving it for a date night with my loving wife. Gladiator II (Regal), Moana 2 (Regal), and Wicked (Cinemapolis & the Regal) are all fine. Your best bet for repertory fare is the classic anime film Paprika, which screens at the Regal on Wednesday, although I’m not sure how 2025 qualifies as its “15th anniversary.”

Home Video: La Chimera, which is now streaming on Hulu, will appear on my year-end top ten list on the strength of its treatment of the theme that there’s more to a good life than just being happy and a bevy of brilliant little touches like the list the smile Alba Rohrwacher’s Spartaco gives Josh O’Connor’s Arthur after he takes capricious action to temporarily (she will, of course, be back) resolve the question of how a certain piece of statue is worth, the disheveled suit Arthur wears at the beginning of the movie, Valentino Santagati and Piero Crucitti’s cantastorie, and a shot from inside an Etruscan tomb which is about to be unsealed for the first time in thousands of years. If you aren’t yet sick of Christmas movies, director Alice Rohrwacher’s 2022 short film Le pupille, which is available on Disney+, is also very much worth checking 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: I’m out of town for the holidays, so I won’t be seeing anything in Ithaca, but I’m hoping to catch Babygirl, A Complete Unknown, The Fire Inside, or Nosferatu at a multiplex somewhere during my travels. All four are now playing both Cinemapolis and the Regal Ithaca Mall.

Also in Theaters: The new releases mentioned above account for most of our local big screen real estate, but holdovers worth considering if you’re in the mood for something different include the sequels Gladiator II and Moana 2, which continue their respective runs at the Regal, and Wicked, which is at both the Regal and Cinemapolis. It’s understandably a light week for special events and repertory fare, but there *is* a “sing-along” screening of Wicked at the Regal every day at 11:10am if that sounds like your thing.

Home Video: The greatest New Year’s Eve movie of all time is indisputably (I assume) The Phantom Carriage, but I already recommended it in this space last October. Number two on my list is the first Coen brothers film I ever fell in love with, The Hudsucker Proxy which can be streamed on the Criterion Channel through the end of the month/year. It’s a particularly great choice if you’re ready to move on from whatever other winter holiday(s) you celebrate, since it’s set in a universe in which none of them seem to exist. If you aren’t a Criterion Channel subscriber, you can also watch it on Tubi if you don’t mind ads.

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 am excited to finally see All We Imagine as Light, the first film from India to compete in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 30 years, at Cinemapolis!

Also in Theaters: Flow and Anora, which conclude their respective runs at Cinemapolis this week, are both contenders for the back half of my Movie Year 2024 top ten list, so those are definitely my top new film recommendations. I also enjoyed A Real Pain, which is also playing Cinemapolis just until the end of the week, as is Queer, which it sadly looks like I’m going to miss. All the blockbusters dominating local screens that I’ve seen deliver more or less what their previews and posters promise, so if you *think* you’d like them, you’re probably right: in (very) approximate order of preference, that’s Gladiator II (the Regal Ithaca Mall), Moana 2 (Regal), Wicked (Cinemapolis + Regal), and Red One (Regal). There are no repertory screenings of note this week, but there are a whole bunch of other movies opening at both Cinemapolis and the Regal on Tuesday or Wednesday that I’m eager to see, including Babygirl, A Complete Unknown, and Nosferatu.

Home Video: If you missed The Night of the Hunter when it played Cinemapolis last month as part of their “Noirvember” series, fear not: it’s screening on the Criterion Channel until the end of the year! This retelling of the fable of the reed and the oak features velvety black and white cinematography by Stanley Cortez that opens with disembodied heads on a starscape reminiscent of October, 2023 Drink & a Movie selection The Very Eye of Night and contains two of cinema’s most indelible images, a dead woman’s hair slow dancing with underwater reeds at the bottom of the river and knuckles tattooed with the words “love” and “hate.” With an ending set on Christmas morning, it’s also a great example of what I call a “holiday mixtape movie” in that it’s a terrifically terrifying change of pace from the wonderful, but tonally similar seasonal favorites that many of us spend the month of December watching.

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: We are taking the whole family to see Flow at either Cinemapolis or the Regal Ithaca Mall!

Also in Theaters: All We Imagine as Light is appearing on all sorts of year-end Best lists, so I’ll definitely make sure to see it at Cinemapolis before we start our holiday travels next week! Queer–director Luca Guadagnino’s second film of Movie Year 2024 after Challengers, which I enjoyed–opens there tomorrow as well. My favorite new films now playing Ithaca that I’ve already seen remain Anora and A Real Pain, both of which are also at Cinemapolis. Moana 2 is “fun for the whole family,” as the fella says, and Gladiator II and Wicked deliver more or less what they promise, too. All three movies are at the Regal, and Wicked is at Cinemapolis as well. Finally, your best bets for repertory fare are holiday favorites A Christmas Story, which screens at Cinemapolis on Sunday, and White Christmas, which plays the Regal Sunday-Tuesday.

Home Video: With Anora still going strong in theaters, now is a fine time to check out Tangerine, the film that put director Sean Baker on the map, on Netflix. Especially since it takes place on December 24! To be sure, it’s even less of a “Christmas movie” than (in)famous debate cases like Die Hard, but it does feature a centerpiece performance of the song “Toyland” by protagonist Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) that calls to mind Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in Meet Me in St. Lous . With no disrespect to his latest effort, this remains my favorite one of Baker’s features.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: We rented a theater at Cinemapolis for a private screening of my oldest’s favorite movie The Mitchells vs. the Machines for her ninth birthday party, which we’re all pretty excited about! I’m planning to see Gladiator II there or at the Regal Ithaca Mall this week as well.

Also in Theaters: I’d be seeing Flow, which opens at the Regal tonight and Cinemapolis tomorrow, if I wasn’t saving it for next week when it will be eligible to be my Family (née Friday) Movie Night selection. In the meantime, my favorite new film now playing Ithaca remains Anora, which is at Cinemapolis, and I enjoyed A Real Pain (Cinemapolis), Conclave (Cinemapolis), and The Wild Robot (Regal) as well. Upcoming special events include the free student-led Hilltop Film Festival of Diversity and Inclusion screening at Cinemapolis on Sunday and Cornell Cinema‘s traditional end-of-semester “mystery screening” of a 35mm film print tonight. They’ll be back with their spring lineup in January. Finally, your best bet for repertory fare is the Studio Ghibli classic My Neighbor Totoro, which is at the Regal Saturday through Wednesday.

Home Video: With no disrespect to winner Encanto, The Mitchells vs. the Machines was easily my favorite nominee for the 2022 Best Animated Feature Film Oscar, so you really should check it out on Netflix if you haven’t already! Our girls, who have never known a world without YouTube, dig its clever use of a meme aesthetic, while my loving wife and I appreciate the way it finds meaningful things to say about parenting without devolving into sappiness, and we all love Beck Bennett and Fred Armisen voicing malfunctioning robots with the “human names” of Eric and Deborah . . . bot . . . 5000.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: Happy Thanksgiving! My oldest has selected Moana 2 as her Family (née Friday) Movie Night selection, so we’re seeing that the Regal Ithaca Mall today. I’m planning to catch a screening of Wicked either there or at Cinemapolis later this week as well.

Also in Theaters: There wasn’t much turnover in local theaters, so most of my recommendations are the same as last week: my favorite 2024 film now playing Ithaca is Anora, which is at Cinemapolis, and I enjoyed A Real Pain (Cinemapolis), Conclave (Cinemapolis), and The Wild Robot (Regal) as well. In addition to the two I’m seeing, the new release dominating screens nationwide is Gladiator II, which is at Cinemapolis and the Regal. Finally, Cornell Cinema once again has both the most interesting-looking special event and your best bet for repertory fare, the opening of an exhibit called “Inspired by Edith Head: Fashion Vignettes for a Film Series” at the Jill Stuart Gallery on Cornell’s campus on Wednesday at 4pm followed by a screening of Samson and Delilah at Willard Straight Theatre at 7pm.

Home Video: Looking for a palate cleanser between epic blockbusters past and present? Please allow me to recommend Here, which is now streaming on The Criterion Channel! At 84 minutes it’s short, and it features quiet but sophisticated sound design, contemplative extreme close-ups of moss, a multifaceted extended roots metaphor, and a scene in which a bunch of men sit around eating soup and talking about their emotions, all of which also makes it a great way to take a break from the hubbub of the holidays. As I mentioned on Letterboxd, pretty much the only thing I *don’t* like about it is its name, which it confusingly shares with another, more prominent Movie Year 2024 release (that I haven’t yet seen).

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: I have been planning to revisit The Night of the Hunter for awhile, so there’s no way I’m going to miss a chance to see it on the big screen at Cinemapolis on Wednesday!

Also in Theaters: For all the reasons I mentioned last week, the best new movie now playing Ithaca that I’ve already seen remains Anora, which continues its run at Cinemapolis. I also enjoyed A Real Pain and Conclave, which are at Cinemapolis, and The Wild Robot, which is at the Regal Ithaca Mall. The big news this week is of course the wide release of Gladiator II and Wicked: Part I, including at Cinemapolis and the Regal locally, tonight and Moana 2 (Regal) on Tuesday. I’m planning to see all three, which probably means I’m waiting for Heretic (Cinemapolis) to hit the streaming video platforms. So it goes. Finally, your most interesting-looking special event and best bet for repertory fare (aside from Night of the Hunter, natch) is the “Science on Screen” presentation of Ratatouille at Cornell Cinema tonight which will include presentations on “food nostalgia” and a tasting inspired by the film.

Home Video: I saw Seconds for the first time last month and I confess that initially I found it to be a bit tedious. Upon revisiting it a couple of weeks later, though, its various mysteries (including a man in an airport and a deceptively ambiguous final image) engaged me much more. Now I find myself thinking about it over and over again in connection to films from the past year like I Saw the TV Glow, which it surely must be a conscious reference point for, and a slew of movies about mid-life crises (Hit Man) and things that look like them (A Real Pain, Between the Temples). I’m still not sold on it as a masterpiece, but it’s leaving the Criterion Channel at the end of the month and I definitely think it’s a text that all cinephiles should be familiar with, so check it out if you’re a subscriber!

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