Illustration by Michael DiMilo Life During Wartime: Review of Civil War ★★★☆☆ By Geoff Carter Civil War is a hard film—although not as hard as some—to pigeonhole. It’s a war movie, it’s a road movie, it’s a political thriller, it’s a journalism movie, and a (sort of) post-apocalyptic film. It also might be argued that it …
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Category:Michael DiMilo
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Heretic”
House of God: Review of Heretic Illustration by Michael DiMilo ★★★★1/2 By Geoff Carter “Two young women working as missionaries for the Church of Latter-Day Saints—the Mormons—enter the home of a charming middle-aged man and soon find they have walked into the devious puzzle box of a religious fanatic, that they are prisoners of a …
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Altered States
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter In the late 1970s, when I was still in college, a movie named King of Hearts was the popular midnight movie (before it was preempted by Eraserhead and the ubiquitous The Rocky Horror Picture Show). The film was about a French town taken over by inmates of an insane asylum during World War I. The …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Play Ball!
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter I sighted my first robin a few weeks ago. The daffodils and crocuses are starting to peek through the ground. After possibly one of the longest winters in the history of the modern world—at least subjectively speaking–spring has arrived. We can enjoy walks in the sunshine, digging in …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “The Gorge”
Illustration by Michael DiMilo ★★★1/2 Long-Distance Relationship: Film Review of The Gorge By Geoff Carter Genre movies have come (or gone) a long way. It used to be that a spy movie was just a spy movie. We could always trust James Bond to be suave, sophisticated, and deadly—and his movies to be fun romps. …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Josie and the Pussycats”
Illustration by Michael DiMilo ★★★★★ What’s New, Pussycat?: Review of Josie and the Pussycats By Geoff Carter Our favorite theater, The Oriental, is part of Milwaukee Film, a non-profit institution dedicated to (according to their mission statement) “entertaining, educating, and engaging our community through cinematic experiences… where we are committed to high-quality and accessible film programming.” (MKE …
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Dialogues on Robber Barons 2.0: This Land is My Land
Illustration by Michael DiMilo Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Mark M., Dave S., Mark O., Dennis C., and Geoff Carter Bots, Not a lot has been spewed on this thread regarding Trump’s power grab in Washington. So I’ll launch an opening shot. As I write–and things are changing rapidly–several of Trump’s Executive Orders (EOs) have been …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Film Review of “The Apprentice”
Illustration by Michael DiMilo ★★★1/2 The Art of Greed: Film Review of The Apprentice By Geoff Carter One of the timeliest films to come out this year was The Apprentice, a biopic of Donald Trump’s life as a young man and his subsequent career as a ruthless and unscrupulous businessman. Even fans of Donald Trump might find …
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View to a Drowning
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter In November of 2024, a disturbing incident was reported at the River Ouse near Yorkshire, England. According to the Sun, a man had fallen in the freezing water and a crowd gathered to watch as he struggled in the water, seemingly drowning. No one moved to assist him. Members of …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Sing Sing”
Illustration by Michael DiMilo Hard Time: Film Review of Sing Sing ★★★★1/2 By Geoff Carter Prison films have been a Hollywood staple for years. I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, The Birdman of Alcatraz, The Green Mile, Cool Hand Luke, The Shawshank Redemption, and many, many more have all tried to depict the struggles, …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: An Oscar Rubric
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter . In sports, winners and losers are determined by how many points they score. Some measure success by the size of a bank account or fame, but there are other more subtle metrics. When I taught English, it was a requirement of the job to develop a rubric, …
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Taken for Granted
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter “Don’t it always seem to go/ That you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone/” –“Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell Humans have a peculiar tendency to become quickly accustomed to surrounding circumstances—particularly good circumstances—and then to subsequently take them for granted. The excitement of getting a …
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