HUDSON VALLEY CRUCIAL VIEWING: October 24 - November 6

Your Guide to Repertory Movies in the Hudson Valley

Author

Bel Simek
October 25, 2025

Hello moviegoers! We’re a tad late this week with the newsletter (oops!) but we hope you’ll forgive us. We’re heading into the busy season for movie theaters, so as you can imagine we’ve been hard at work preparing to bring you some of the best repertory programming we can. I’d argue we’re entering the solid “awards-bait” territory of the film release calendar. If you’re like me, you’re probably struggling to find time to even see all the new releases coming out in the next few months. While you start planning your film-going calendar for the end of the year, we hope (as always) that you’ll save some room for some of the excellent second-run programming in the Hudson Valley. To help you out, we’ve got a big list for the next two weeks. See you at the movies!

THE LIST

Sunday, October 26

Monday, October 27

Tuesday, October 28

Wednesday, October 29

Bel’s Pick: If you’ve been subscribed to this newsletter for a while you know that I’m always going to shout out a silent film if I get the opportunity. Haxan is one of those legendary films that everyone should see but not many have. Made in 1922 by Danish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen, the film is part essay, part satire, part horror film, chronicling the “history” of witchcraft in Europe. Watching 100 years later, it can be interpreted as a poignant meditation on the lack of understanding surrounding mental illness and the “other” in the Middle Ages. Besides that, it’s a seminal piece of horror cinema and its imagery, effects, and directorial style resonate outward into the genre in ways you can still see today. This is a trippy, controversial film with some truly wild images, and I would strongly recommend trying to make it out to see it. Silent films from this era really don’t feel the same on your home TV, no matter how 4K HD blah blah your technical specs are. Even digitally, the clarity of projection helps to bring out the blacks and whites in ways your home TV just won’t capture. Just go out and see it, okay?

Thursday, October 30

Friday, October 31

Saturday, November 1

Sunday, November 2

Bel’s Pick: If you know me personally you’ve definitely heard me talk at length about how much I love Michael Mann’s Thief. It’s my favorite of his films, and it’s wild to think that it was his first. The visual style he’s so known for feels almost fully developed here, and the richness of the colors and deftness of the cinematography create a polished, professional debut that holds up against the rest of his filmography. Plus, you get an unbelievable soundtrack from the incredible German band Tangerine Dream and what is (to me at least) a career performance from James Caan. It’s sleek, it’s stylish, it’s emotive, and it still hews towards the tropes of the 80s without feeling too campy or cliche. Mann has a knack for digging into the repressed emotionality of his male leads, their interiority and their strife laid bare in a subtle way. Thief, I think, does it best. I was lucky enough to see it for the first time years ago on a 35mm print, and seeing it on the big screen really does feel different. Plus, this kicks off our November series of heist films! You wouldn’t want to miss the first one, would you?

Monday, November 3

Tuesday, November 4

Wednesday, November 5

Bel’s Pick: Look, I’ll admit it, I don’t have the ability to be objective when it comes to Guillermo del Toro. I’ll readily defend even his worst films, and happily watch and rewatch the best of them anytime they come up. Most of his filmography is strong enough to stand behind, and what he stands for in the film industry is admirable, even when his vision starts to stray. He’s a champion for what is fast becoming the lost art of practical effects, and his commitment to creating tactile, visceral, phantasmagoric realities in his cinematic worlds is what makes him so beloved. Cronos is one of his best films, but its often overshadowed by his more critically acclaimed work (Pan’s Labyrinth) or the more pop fare (Shape of Water or Hellboy). This is a creative, touching flip on the vampire narrative that still feels unique despite how saturated the genre was, is, and continues to be. It also shows one of his strengths as a director, which is coaxing impressive, touching performances out of child actors. Plus, it has an undercurrent of his well known obsession critiquing and unmasking the powerful, insidious role of fascism and capitalism in corrupting the innocent. If you blink you can miss it, but I think del Toro has one of the strongest political voices in contemporary western cinema, he just couches it all in fables and fairy tales. I don’t really want to tell you anything about the plot here, it’s better to go in blind, but I do strongly encourage you to try and catch it at the Orpheum. Plus, it’s a nice way to round out the end of the Halloween season, and I promise you won’t regret it.