Illustration by Michael DiMilo Killing Me Softly: Film Review of Love Lies Bleeding ★★★★ 1/2 By Geoff Carter Film noir, which never really left us, is undergoing a radical transformation. From its beginnings in classics like Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, Laura, The Killers, and—more recently—Body Heat and Chinatown, we have taken that long dark highway from that …
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Category:Michael DiMilo
Kickass and Dreams
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, listens as the keeper lists a new area of complaint, that being the mysterious process by which dream subjects are selected and then produced. One might think with all the raw material the keeper has amassed he would not be plagued with a repeated …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Wildcat”
Illustration by Michael DiMilo ★★★★ 1/2 For the Love of God: Review of Wildcat By Geoff Carter The creative process is a mystery. Understanding how and why individuals are driven to give up their time, wealth, energy, even their happiness in the pursuit of artistic perfection can make for compelling cinema, but trying to capture …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: The Legacy of Woody Allen
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter He is a legendary filmmaker whose career has spanned fifty-some years—and has worked with everyone from Diane Keaton to Cate Blanchett to Scarlett Johannson to John Cusack to Michael Caine—and more. He has worked in nearly every film genre imaginable—slapstick, romantic comedy, historical features, mystery, documentary, psychological drama–everything …
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Yearly Cycle
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Every year during the last week of July, the Milwaukee Riverwest neighborhood, an eclectic enclave of artists, musicians, families, and working folks, hosts the Riverwest 24, a twenty-four-hour bicycle race that runs along the neighborhood streets. According to the Riverwest 24 website, the event came about because of efforts by …
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Stranger than Fiction
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter When I was kid, we used to be able to order paperback books in school from The Arrow Book Club, a division of Scholastic Books. I remember eagerly looking through the order form at titles like 13 Spooky Stories, A Wonderful Trip to the Mushroom Planet, The Forgotten Door, or …
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Horrible, Wisconsin
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Imagine my surprise when I recently learned that I’ve lived nearly my entire life in a horrible city. I never knew that. I’ve always thought Milwaukee was a pretty decent place to live. I grew up, got married, and raised a daughter here, I worked in Milwaukee Public …
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Counting Coup
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Some of us may remember Rod Serling’s classic 1964 political thriller Seven Days in May, a movie about a military plot to take over the United States government. Burt Lancaster stars as General James Mattoon Scott, a megalomaniac convinced that a new peace treaty between the USSR and the US …
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Independence Day
(Originally published July 8th, 2021, but–unfortunately, and with the addition of the new SCOTUS, still as timely now as it was then) Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Our nation is celebrating The Fourth of July today. Any American can—hopefully—tell you what this holiday is all about. On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental …
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Talking Points
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter “The sky is falling!” “We’re doomed!!” “It’s the end of the world as we know it!!” And so forth and so on. Such was the fallout from the Democratic Party after the first presidential debate last week. First, former president Donald Trump sauntered out from stage left, smirking …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Wicked Little Letters”
Illustration by Michael DiMilo Poison Pen Pals: Review of Wicked Little Letters ★★★★☆ By Geoff Carter If you take a mystery, wrap it in a comedy, sprinkle in some feminist trappings, and then top off with a pinch of clownish but mean-hearted patriarchal mulishness, you end up with the wonderfully amusing but deceptively intricate film Wicked …
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The Birds and the Bees
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Earlier this spring, we were heartened to see our old friend the mother robin return to her nest tucked above the heater on our front porch. Last year, she hatched three broods throughout the spring and summer, and so we were able to watch the hatchlings grow until …
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