Category: Ithaca Film Journal

What I’m Seeing This Week: Colman Domingo might be my favorite working American actor, so this is an easy choice: I am going with Sing Sing at Cinemapolis.

Also in Theaters: My favorite new film playing in Ithaca RIGHT NOW is Good One, but its final screening at Cinemapolis is today at 2pm–see it if you can! Starting tomorrow my top recommendation will once again be Between the Temples, which is also at Cinemapolis. I wrote about why last week. Other new films I enjoyed include Inside Out 2 and Twisters, which are at the Regal Ithaca Mall, and Love Lies Bleeding, which is at Cornell Cinema tomorrow night. There are more other movies I’m interested in playing Ithaca theaters than I’ll have time to see, with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Cinemapolis and the Regal), Blink Twice (the Regal), and Dìdi (Cinemapolis) topping the list. All three screenings of My First Film, which opens at Cinemapolis tomorrow, will be introduced by director Zia Anger, who is an Ithaca College grad. There will be a free screening of the film Cornell Commits to Confronting Climate Change Activists at Cinemapolis tomorrow followed by a Q&A with local activists and members of the crew. Finally, your best bet for repertory fare is Eyes Wide Shut, which screens at Cornell Cinema on Saturday as part of their “Party Like It’s 1999” series. I still remember walking home alone at night along Route 30 after seeing it at the Wonderland 4 Cinema (RIP) when I was in high school, as on-edge as I ever had been in my entire life. I’d actually prioritize this ahead of any of the new movies I mention above, especially if you’ve never seen it on a big screen before.

Home Video: My favorite movies from the first half of Movie Year 2024 are starting to hit the streaming platforms, which means it’s time to start revisiting them. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, has actually been available on Mubi with a subscription for awhile, but I finally got around to watching it again the other night and it’s even better on a second viewing. I got so lost in its wildly inventive narrative mélange the first time, for instance, that I failed to appreciate the beautifully textured 16mm black & white photography of what I’m lazily going to call the “main” plot. It also has a wonderfully thought-provoking title. Who or what exactly should we temper our expectations about? Ourselves, because we’re too busy cultivating social media personae to ever stand up and do more than just rage against the falling of a 40 hour work week, safe roads, civil liberties, &c? Or are reports of the total subjugation of the proletariat greatly exaggerated so long as there are still people as smart and resourceful as protagonist Angela Raducanu (Ilinca Manolache) around? Neither interpretation is a perfect fit, but I favor an optimistic reading. It also features a killer soundtrack, which some kind soul compiled into a Spotify playlist. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World is now a lock for my top ten list for 2024, so: more to come!

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: I am going with Good One, which opens at Cinemapolis today.

Also in Theaters: My top recommendation is Between the Temples, which continues its run at both Cinemapolis and the Regal Ithaca Mall. It stars Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane as student/teacher dyad (each plays both roles at different times) and features my favorite sound effect of Movie Year 2024, a defective door which swings open unbidden with an anguished wail reminiscent of someone being tortured on The Machine from Kane’s The Princess Bride, as well as one of the funniest and most original depictions of a drug experience that I’ve ever seen in a film from any era. I also enjoyed Twisters, Inside Out 2, and Trap, all of which are at the Regal Ithaca Mall, and Love Lies Bleeding, which is at Cornell Cinema on Saturday. New movies which I haven’t seen yet, but hope to before they leave theaters, include Sing Sing (Cinemapolis), Blink Twice (Cinemapolis and the Regal), and Dìdi (Cinemapolis). Finally, your best bets for repertory fare are two blasts from my past: Coraline, which is concludes its run at the Regal tonight, and 10 Things I Hate About You, which plays Cornell Cinema tomorrow. It has been a minute since I last watched either of them, but I enjoyed both when they were originally released 25 and 15 years ago respectively.

Home Video: One of my most gratifying cinephile parent experiences to date has been watching my kids grow up with the work of director Hayao Miyazaki, who *I* didn’t discover until college. When my oldest recently selected Howl’s Moving Castle as her Family (née Friday) Movie Night selection, I assumed that I had already seen it, but it quickly became apparent that I was wrong. Between the fact that it’s one of Miyazaki’s least schematic films and the capriciousness of the transformations that afflict so many characters, I suspect it feels like an allegory for whatever you went through most recently. I love the scene where Howl takes the form of a king and announces that they’re abandoning a military tactic because it exposes civilians to too much danger, then the real king comes in and obviously couldn’t care less about such things, and as someone who continues to enjoy each new stage of life as much as the ones which preceded it, I also dig the depiction of old age as a “curse” that also comes with plenty of benefits. Howl’s Moving Castle, like all Studio Ghibli titles, is exclusively available for streaming on Max with a subscription, but you can also easily find it on DVD and Blu-ray for not much money at all.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m going with either Between the Temples or Didi at Cinemapolis, but that’s only because I’ll be in Pennsylvania this weekend, which means I’m going to miss the free “Silent Movie Under the Stars” screening of The Mark of Zorro at Upper Robert Treman State Park on Saturday. Blast! More details can be found here on the Wharton Studio Museum’s website.

Also in Theaters: Honestly, my favorite new film now playing Ithaca is probably still Twisters, which continues its run at the Regal Ithaca Mall this week, but repeating that each week is starting to get boring, so I’m going to talk about something else there instead. Trap is, like director M. Night Shyamalan’s last outing Knock at the Cabin, a story about the battle of good vs. evil, but this time it’s the latter that’s under siege. It also shares a surprising affinity with Inside Out 2 (which is also at the Regal) in that both posit that it’s not healthy to be happy all the time because that isn’t sustainable for normal people. Shyamalan further suggests that we should be deeply suspicious of anyone who is able to maintain the facade for a lengthy period of time, which I totally get: Josh Hartnett’s Cooper Adams is way creepier to me than either Nicholas Cage’s titular character in Longlegs or Simon Prast’s obviously insane preacher in MaXXXine. My other new movie recommendation is Love Lives Bleeding, which announces the triumphant return of Cornell Cinema on Saturday. This is your annual reminder that at the crazy low prices of $25 for graduate students, $30 for undergraduate students, $36 for staff, and $40 for everyone else, their year-long All-Access Passes are the best arts and culture value in Ithaca! I’m also hoping to see Blink Twice at either Cinemapolis or the Regal before it closes. Your best bet for repertory fare is obviously Rear Window, which is at the Regal on Sunday and Wednesday, but I have a story about Wet Hot American Summer, which is at Cinemapolis on Sunday! In late August 2001 I was an entering sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh and me and many of my friends bonded over our mutual love of MTV’s sketch comedy television series The State. When we learned that a film by alum David Wain and starring many other cast members was screening theatrically in New York we drove through the night to see it, only to discover that it wasn’t playing the day we arrived. So we went to the Twin Towers instead with the intention of riding the elevator to the top. It cost more than we expected, though, so we bailed when one of my companions noted that “it’s not like they’re going anywhere.” Anyway: fun movie!

Home Video: My friend Scott and I have a two-person movie club whereby each month one of us selects a film which we both watch at least twice, then we talk about it. This has proven to be a great opportunity for me to catch up on titles that have been lingering on my watch list for far too long and sometimes, in the case of his choices, things which I didn’t even know I was missing out on! Last month, for instance, he chose the very solid spaghetti western Death Rides a Horse, which is available on Prime Video. I love the introduction to John Phillip Law’s laconic hero Bill as an adult in which he shows off his prowess with a gun, the bevy of great one-liners that Luciano Vincenzoni’s screenplay give shim and Lee Van Cleef’s Ryan, and Ennio Morricone’s top-notch score. In case you care about such things, though: boy howdy does this film fail the Bechdel test with flying colors!

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m going with director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest Trap at the Regal Ithaca Mall.

Also in Theaters: My top recommendation *right now* is The Widow Clicquot, my favorite period piece of Movie Year 2024 so far which features an excellent seduction scene between Haley Bennett, who is terrific in the lead role, and a very entertaining Sam Riley; a brief look at an ancestor of the modern French courtrooms we’ve lately learned to love from films like Saint Omer and Anatomy of a Fall; and first-rate costumes by Marie Frémont. Alas, it closes at Cinemapolis tonight, so Twisters will reclaim the title of Best New Movie Now Playing In Ithaca That I’ve Already Seen tomorrow, with Inside Out 2 once again close behind in second. Both are screening at the Regal. Other new titles that I hope to see in theaters before they close include Cuckoo, Didi, and Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger, all of which are at Cinemapolis; Cuckoo is at the Regal as well. Your best bet for repertory fare is definitely Stray Dog, which is at Cinemapolis on Sunday.

Home Video: The other night I mixed up a My Pal Rye from the book Forbidden Cocktails as part of my research for a review I’m writing of it for ye olde blog. When I saw that Night Nurse, the movie author André Darlington pairs is with, is on WatchTCM until August 28, I figured I had to watch it. I actually didn’t love the drink, but the film is magnificent! It embodies everything that is appealing about the Hollywood’s “pre-code” period between the adoption of the Hays Code in 1930 and the beginning of its actual enforcement in 1934: you’ve got Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell stripping down to their underwear every few minutes and climbing into bed together at one point, a Depression-era socialite party depicted as a veritable circle of hell, and the very clear suggestion that some crimes (here bootlegging) pay very nicely, thank you. It also includes a sinister Clark Gable, entertainingly naturalistic working class dialogue, and a runtime of just 72 minutes, plus its bookended by delightful POV shots from inside an ambulance. There is absolutely no reason not to watch this sometime during the next fortnight if you have access!

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: I think I’m going to go with The Widow Clicquot at Cinemapolis, but I might audible to Trap at the Regal Ithaca Mall.

Also in Theaters: I haven’t seen been to a movie theater since last week’s post, so Twisters remains my favorite new movie in Ithaca that I’ve already seen and I once again also recommend Inside Out 2. Both films are at the Regal. Among new releases not already mentioned which I haven’t seen, the ones which intrigue me the most are Kneecap and Touch, which are both at Cinemapolis, and Cuckoo, which is there and at the Regal. “Ithaca-raised” filmmaker Nicholas Geisler will present three short films at Cinemapolis tonight as part of a program called “An Evening with Salt Cellar Films” that I unfortunately won’t yet be back in town for (I’m writing this from Ontario). There’s a free community screening of a short film called Restoring Joy at Cinemapolis on Monday. Your best bet for repertory fare is the 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia, which all movie lovers should see on the big screen at least once, and which plays the Regal on Sunday and Monday. You can also catch Cool Hand Luke at Cinemapolis on Sunday.

Home Video: I recently worked my way through the “The Dirty Stories of Jean Eustache” collection on The Criterion Channel. Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore has lived large in my imagination as potentially one of the greatest films I’d never seen for many years and while I *respect* it immensely after two viewings–especially the acting by leads Jean-Pierre Léaud, Françoise Lebrun, and Bernadette Lafont–and agree that it’s an essential watch for anyone who presumes to understand the French New Wave, I confess to feeling a bit underwhelmed. I seem to be in the minority here, and if you find yourself disagreeing with me you’ll definitely want to check out Eustache’s follow-up My Little Loves, which stars Martin Loeb as a boy who could plausibly grow up to be Léaud’s character in Mother, as well. I much prefer The Pig, which I recommended in this space last month, though. I was also impressed by Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes, a short featuring Léaud as a handsy Père Noël who is right up there with Percy Helton’s drunk in Miracle on 34th Street and Artie Lange’s guy who smells like beef and cheese in Elf as my favorite cinematic “bad Santas,” and The Virgin of Pessac, a fascinating “meanwhile, in a nearby small town . . . ” documentary about the May, 1968 protests in France. The other titles I definitely recommend are A Dirty Story, a reenactment of a man (Michael Lonsdale) telling a Peeping Tom story shot in 35mm followed by a documentary depiction of the person (Jean-Noël Picq, who appeared in both Mother and Little Loves) who supposedly actually lived the event recounting the same tale shot in 16mm which is greater than its two constituent parts, and the 1982 César Award-winning short Alix’s Pictures.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m heading to the family cottage in Ontario tomorrow, so there are no theatrical screenings in my immediate future.

Also in Theaters: It looks like Twisters, which continues its run at the Regal Ithaca Mall, will reign as my favorite new movie in local theaters that I’ve already seen for at least three weeks! I also recommend Inside Out 2, which is there as well. If I *was* able to see something this week, it would probably be one of the films opening at Cinemapolis: Kneecap, Widow Clicquot, or Touch in that order. Other noteworthy new movies include Trap, director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest, and Harold and the Purple Crayon, which is based on the beloved children’s book. Your best bet for repertory fare is legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo, which is at the Regal in a dubbed version on Sunday and Tuesday and with subtitles on Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday. Finally, the tenth edition of Movies in the Park kicks off tomorrow with a free screening of Wonka at Stewart Park.

Home Video: As reported by the Ithaca Voice last month, Fancy Dance is the first widely-distributed film to prominently feature the Gayogohó:nǫˀ or Cayuga language spoken by members of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation. It is now available for streaming on Apple TV+ and is definitely worth checking out if you missed it during its run at Cinemapolis. I liked Lily Gladstone’s performance as inveterate con artist Jax, a scene in which she plays a siren while her young niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson, who is also very good) steals a mark’s car keys, and the movie’s treatment of Roki’s first period. I wasn’t as keen on the ending, but this is nonetheless a very solid debut feature by Ithaca resident Erica Tremblay.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: I have no desire to see Deadpool & Wolverine, so it’s slim pickings this week! I think I’m going to go with A Quiet Place: Day One at the Regal Ithaca Mall since it’s getting better reviews than Fly Me to the Moon, which is at both the Regal and Cinemapolis.

Also in Theaters: It’s close, but Twisters has usurped Inside Out 2 as my favorite new movie now playing in Ithaca that I’ve already seen on the strength of its outstanding soundtrack. If 103.7 QCountry is your go-to local radio station too, you’re probably already familiar with “Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma” by Luke Combs; I also really like “Song While You’re Away” by Tyler Childers, “Ain’t In Kansas Anymore” by Miranda Lambert, and “The Cards I’ve Been Dealt” by Warren Zeiders. Both of these films are at the Regal. And, jeez, that’s kinda it. If you’re a horror movie fan, I recommend MaXXXine (Cinemapolis) over Longlegs (both Cinemapolis and the Regal).

Home Video: I recently reviewed the film Under the Fig Trees for Educational Media Reviews Online and recommended it for all library collections which have a global scope as a fine addition from North Africa or that focus on labor issues or women’s rights. It’s available on DVD and a variety of streaming video platforms via Film Movement.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: My family is still out of the country, so I’m tentatively planning on seeing a whopping three films at Cinemapolis: Kinds of Kindness (since I audibled to Longlegs last week), MaXXXine, and National Anthem.

Also in Theaters: Inside Out 2, which continues it’s run at the Regal Ithaca Mall, remains the best new movie in Ithaca that I’ve already seen. I enjoyed Thelma, a crowd pleaser starring June Squibb as a nonagenarian vigilante at Cinemapolis which also features the late Richard Roundtree in his final role, as well. In addition to everything I’m seeing this week, I’m hoping to catch Twisters at the Regal before it closes or maybe at Cornell Cinema this fall. Your best bets for repertory fare are two family-friendly films at the Regal: The NeverEnding Story, which has screenings on Sunday and Monday, and The Lion King, which is there all week.

Home Video: Like many people I’m shaken by current events. I found solace in two films I watched a few nights ago and am therefore recommending them as a double feature. The first is The Pig, a cinéma vérité-style short (50 minutes) documentary directed by Jean Eustache which is available on The Criterion Channel. Like his previous film The Virgin of Pessac, this one (which was made in 1970) seems to cry out to be read as commentary on the events of May 1968 given its proximity to them. If you’re a chef you might disagree–after all, it’s a fairly straightforward depiction of the butchering of the titular animal: we watch as it’s bled, scalded, and broken down into primal cuts, then witness the preparation of casings and stuffing of sausages. Introductory text explains that because the subjects are speaking in a local dialect, there are no subtitles, and although even non-French speakers will catch a few words they recognize like “coeur,” for the most part we’re left to our own devices to make sense of what we see. If you eat meat, you might reach for words like “timeless,” “humane,” or even “beautiful”; however, if you’re a vegetarian, it probably strikes you as barbaric. What I’m certain of is that both camps can benefit from this clear-eyed look at what exactly happens when a hog becomes “pork” which depicts an event that took place at a specific time and place, but also has happened every day around the world for generations.

I followed The Pig up with House of Usher, which was directed by the recently deceased B-movie legend Roger Corman, stars Vincent Price as Roderick Usher with a Draco Malfoy haircut, and is available on Turner Classic Movies On Demand and WatchTCM until July 25. It’s highly enjoyable for its lurid colors, overwrought performances, and nervous breakdown soundscape. Watching it when I did, I was also struck by the terms Usher uses to describe the curse which he believes afflicts his family:

This house is centuries old. It was brought here from England. And with it every evil rooted in its stones. Evil is not just a word. It is reality. Like any living thing it can be created and was created by these people. The history of the Ushers is a history of savage degradations. First in England, and then in New England. And always in this house. Always in this house. Born of evil which feels, it is no illusion. For hundreds of years, foul thoughts and foul deeds have been committed within its walls. The house itself is evil now.

Poe’s story already was a tale about original sin become self-fulfilling prophecy, but in the hands of Corman and screenwriter Richard Matheson it takes on practically geopolitical dimensions! I don’t mean to suggest that either House of Usher or The Pig offers *answers* for our current moment, but they’re both full of great questions that it would behoove ourselves to ask, most notably who are we (however you define that): pig or butcher? Roderick Usher or Mark Damon’s Philip Winthrop? Philip Winthrop or Myrna Fahey’s Madeline Usher? Or Harry Ellerbe’s Bristol, perhaps? And then, of course, what now?

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: I’m dropping my loving wife and our dog Sally off at the family cottage in Ontario–our kids are there already with their grandmother–this weekend, then returning home alone to spend the rest of the month by myself before I join them all again in early August. During this time I’ll be at liberty to see as many movies as I want, and I plan to kick things off with screenings of both Thelma and Kinds of Kindness at Cinemapolis.

Also in Theaters: Inside Out 2, which I started writing about last weekend, is the best new movie in local theaters that I’ve already seen, but the quietly intense coming of age (sort of) story Janet Planet isn’t far behind. The former is at the Regal Ithaca Mall, the latter is at Cinemapolis. In addition to the films I’m seeing this week, I’m also hoping to catch the horror movies MaXXXine and Longlegs at one of those two theaters before it closes. Can You Still Love Me, the directorial debut by local filmmaker Adam Howard, screens at Cinemapolis on Sunday. Finally, your best bet for repertory fare is either Princess Mononoke, which is at the Regal Sunday through Wednesday, or The Lion King, which is there all week, depending on whether you’re more of a Studio Ghibli or Disney kind of person.

Home Video: Last week I promised a list of my five favorite films directed by Asghar Farhadi. Here it is!

5. A Hero (available on Prime Video). Not just a return to form after the relative disappointment of Everybody Knows–I could justify ranking this as high as third! I’ve been trying to avoid reflexively using auteurist terminology like “Farhadi’s A Hero,” etc. out of respect for the complexity of filmmaking, but I do still tend to organize my movie watching around individual artists (i.e. not just directors) in large part because I enjoy encountering the same techniques, ideas, and faces appear again and again and watching them accrue ever more complex and subtle meanings. Here the opening shots of Naqsh-e Rostam are some of my favorites in Farhadi’s entire oeuvre: it’s his signature house in a state of disrepair, except the house is the nation of Iran! Similarly, Amir Jadidi isn’t just playing Rahim, he’s also playing the side of Shahab Hosseini’s Hojjat that we don’t get to see in A Separation. Speaking of which:

4. A Separation (available on Prime Video). Farhadi’s first Oscar winner (for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year–it was also nominated for Best Writing, Original Screenplay) and considered by many to be his best film. Payman Maadi’s Nader is perhaps Farhadi’s best unlikeable protagonist, but what stands out most in my mind is Shahab Hosseini’s terrifyingly wild physicality in the role of Hodjat, which is even more striking because he plays one of the most sympathetic characters in Farhadi’s previous film About Elly, which I’ll discuss further in just a minute.

3. The Past (available for rental from Apple TV+ and Prime Video). Easily the most underrated film on this list. I think it can sometimes be challenging to encounter a familiar director working in another language or setting because it forces you to reconsider what exactly you like about them. In the case of Farhadi, I suspect that his movies introduced many Americans to an Iranian U.H.B. that they didn’t know existed; transplant them to France, and what previously felt like a bridge between the citizens of countries two whose leaders are antagonistic toward one another becomes a case of “yeah, well of course *they’re* just like us.” Farhadi is hardly the first filmmaker who had to learn from experience that a little flash goes a long way, and A Separation is his first movie after he truly got all of the “art school” out of his system, but it advances almost too far in the direction of neorealism. The Past has all of that movie’s virtues, but with more three-dimensional characters and a successful return to stylistic flourishes like shots of people talking who we can’t hear because we’re separated from them by soundproof glass which he didn’t yet know hot to utilize fully effectively in films like Beautiful City: in other words, it’s his most “mature” work to this point.

2. About Elly (current Cornell University faculty, staff, and students have access through Kanopy via a license paid for by the Library; it is also available for rental from Apple TV+). There’s also a lot to be said for youthful exuberance, though! I had never heard of Asghar Farhadi when I saw this movie at the Silk Screen Film Festival (RIP) in Pittsburgh, PA in 2010 and it absolutely knocked my socks off. Had I been making year-end top ten lists at the time, I’m nearly certain it would have come in at number one. So this could be a sentimental pick, but I also think that it’s a masterful portrait of people who spend so much time and energy trying to convince themselves and others that they’re living their best lives that there’s none left over for genuine empathy, which is of course also a recipe for political complacency, and Taraneh Alidoosti’s Elly flying a kite is pure joy.

1. The Salesman (available on Prime Video). Not just number one on this list, one of the best movies of the 21st century so far. From the House of Usher opening to the subtle intertwining of its plot and themes with the play-within-a-movie Death of a Salesman to lead performances by Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoosti, my favorite Farhadi regulars, that draw power from the other roles they’ve played for him, The Salesman represents his richest and most original treatment of his main themes.

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

What I’m Seeing This Week: I am going with Janet Planet at Cinemapolis.

Also in Theaters: The best new movie in local theaters *right now* that I’ve already seen is Fancy Dance, which was directed by Ithaca resident Erica Tremblay, but it closes at Cinemapolis today. After that the title will pass to Inside Out 2, which continues its run at the Regal Ithaca Mall and which I think I’m planning to write about. The other films I thought about seeing this week were The Bikeriders, Kinds of Kindness, and MaXXXine, all of which are at both Cinemapolis and the Regal. A Quiet Place: Day One and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes are the latest editions in franchises that don’t interest me much which are at the Regal and seem to be getting decent reviews? I’m much more likely to eventually see Sundance darling Thelma (Cinemapolis), which features a pretty incredible cast, or Kill (Regal), an Indian action movie. Your best bets for repertory fare are Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which is at the Regal on Sunday and Wednesday, and Altered States, which is at Cinemapolis on Wednesday.

Home Video: In preparation for my recent Beautiful City review for Educational Media Reviews Online, I watched or rewatched every film directed by Asghar Farhadi. I’ll be back next week with my five favorites, but in honor of Independence Day, my recommendation this week is his third feature Fireworks Wednesday, which current Cornell University faculty, staff, and students and New York state residents can watch online for free via Projectr. This is a must-see for all Farhadi fans, as like Beautiful City it contains many of his trademark techniques and themes in a not-yet-fully-developed state as well as a great lead performance by Taraneh Alidoosti. It’s a great “observer effect movie,” too, in that her character Roohi’s constantly shifting understanding of the truth of the situation she has landed in is very much affected by the reactions of others to her well-intentioned but impulsive interventions, and it may also change the way you look at About Elly, as it uses the sound of firecrackers in a very similar way as that movie uses of the sound of the ocean.

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