HUDSON VALLEY CRUCIAL VIEWING: November 21- December 4

Your Guide to Repertory Movies in the Hudson Valley

Author

Bel Simek
November 20, 2025

Intro Paragraph

Not much to report at the top guys! We’re heading into the “holiday season” which means everyone is busy as hell, there are not enough hours in the day, and the sunset makes you want to crawl into bed at approximately 5:15 with the hope that maybe tomorrow hopefully, miraculously, work will be cancelled. This is not an easy time of the year to motivate for any after-work activities, I know. But listen, as your sage cinematic advisor, I must recommend that you try AT LEAST once before the end of the month to get out of the house after dark, perhaps even to see… a movie? I’ve even thought of some compelling scenarios for you. Are you hosting family for Thanksgiving? Are you dreading how many people will be in your home for a number of days? Are you traveling to see them and need to strategize a brief respite? Do you just need to get yourself out of the house to stave off the seasonal affective disorder? Maybe you’ve finally caved to instagram brain rot and it is starting to make your frontal cortex atrophy. That is what ~the movies~ are made for. Break out of that rut! I bet there’s something on this list that will inspire you. Or, at least, I hope it does.

THE LIST

Saturday, November 22

This is not an official Bel’s Pick but I want to shout-out whoever does the fliering for Rosendale Theatre. I have seen fliers for this in the most unlikely places. I saw one on an out of commission telephone pole by the Wendy’s/Walmart/Lowe’s/Rhinecliff Bridge exit intersection in Kingston’s apocalyptic mall zone. I don’t even know how they scrambled up onto that ridge! These guys are the true heroes of independent cinema. Also, Godzilla rules.

Sunday, November 23

Monday, November 24

Tuesday, November 25

Wednesday, November 26

Kingston Film Foundation Presents: I don’t think I need to tell you to see Point Break. Katheryn Bigelow’s early work accesses specific subcultures with such a deft hand while managing to fuse them into fun, engaging, smart, and ingeniously constructed genre pieces. Making Near Dark, Point Break, and Strange Days within a decade is mind-blowing to me. This is also peak 90s Keanu for me, and Swayze is unbelievably convincing as your older, white hippie friend who keeps trying to get you into buddhism in a way that’s bound to get you in trouble somehow. This movie is so fun and charming and excellently paced, I’m glad it’s the finale for our heist series at Upstate. Go see it, enjoy the interactive portion, and wipe any knowledge of the remake from your mind.

Bel’s Pick: I believe it was only a few weeks ago that I told you all I am forever a Guillermo del Toro apologist and this is no exception. This movie has actually been on my mind a lot while consuming the hype/criticism cycle surrounded del Toro’s adaptation of Frankenstein. The man has always had a certain flair for the gothic, particularly of the romantic sense, and I think Crimson Peak is a worthwhile film to revisit if you have any interest in digging into his broader thematic and aesthetic sensibilities. This movie is definitely not his strongest showing; it can be corny at times, the acting isn’t always up to par, and not all the CGI has aged particularly well. I don’t really know if that’s the point though. Del Toro constructs a lush fairytale romance that rapidly devolves into an Edgar Allen Poe haunted house nightmare. I think it’s a darkly sensual film despite the occasional stiffness of its leads, and it uses so many fun, hard-to believe details to build out its particular, sensational world. Also, IMO, when the CGI works it works. This is a great example of his eye for incredible creature design, and though a lot of the work is sadly only seen in fleeting glimpses, they’re still incredibly impactful, haunting, and beautiful. I often feel like this is one of his films that got skipped over by a lot of people, and if you were one of them, why not give it a go? It’s also an appropriately winter-y tale for this time of year.

Friday, November 28

Saturday, November 29

Sunday, November 30

Bel’s Pick: Did you think you had finally escaped my mad ravings about silent films after I wrote about Haxan in October? Think again guys, I’ll never stop! Someday I’ll launch a spin-off newsletter where all I’ll do is talk about silent films and then you’ll see. Anyway… This one is literally a classic, guys. Carl Theodor Dreyer is one of the most important directors of the silent age, and this movie has been referenced, riffed upon, and utilized in so many different artistic spheres. (If anyone ever wants to talk about its influence on high fashion aesthetics and photoshoots / the Chappell Roan girls in full suits of armor craze , find me later, I have some thoughts). Beyond that, it’s an incredibly poignant example of the rawness, weight, and emotionality film can carry without the use of sound. Renee Jeanne Falconetti gives the performance of a lifetime here, conveying a nuanced performance that seems at once so modern as well as untouchable and otherwordly. There are fascinating, conflicting reports from the set, in turns accusing Dreyer of near sadism in order to wrench the performance out of Falconetti, while other accounts describe the intense, intimate collaboration between the two. It also carries the classic legacy of a film that was cut, recut, and nearly lost due to numerous political and aesthetic objections to Dreyer’s vision. I know that this film has been in the public domain since last year, and it’s easy enough to find it online and watch it at home, but you’d be doing yourself, and it, a disservice. Go see a matinee and then you, too, could join these people who are ranting and raving about it in the same way I would like to continue doing here.

Monday, December 1

Tuesday, December 2

Wednesday, December 3

Bel’s Pick: One of the greatest modern horror movies of all time. I am not the first to say it, nor will I be the last. I don’t really want to say much about this movie in case you haven’t seen it. This is one of those films you really, really should go into almost totally blind. This is a perfect example of what genre can do to elevate human drama. When a storyteller allows themselves to step out of the bounds of perfect (or imperfect) realism to welcome in the outsider, the things that sit beyond the veil of our normal experience, it allows for a story to more wholly ruminate on deeply humanistic issues and impulses without our usual desire to obfuscate or dodge. It has to be handled deftly, and with grace, and it’s easy to skew wholly into the unreal. This movie manages to beautifully marry the casings of a familiar genre to reveal something so intimate, so mournful, without sacrificing a deep well of emotionality and tenderness. It’s also an excellent example of a well done adaptation, one that takes the source and molds it to fit the new medium without making huge concessions or transforming it beyond recognition. Don’t miss it.