Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Reflections on the Academy Awards Well, the viewing world—18.7 million people—survived another Academy Awards presentation. The program itself, a three plus hour marathon of Hollywood stargazing, Vegas style theatrics, straight-out kitsch, high fashion, and sometimes genuine unabashed emotion, is, as always, eminently predictable …
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Category:Movies
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Photo by Liam McGarry on Unsplash All Over the Place: Film Review of Everything Everywhere All at Once By Geoff Carter Everything Everywhere All at Once is a film that does more than live up to its name. It is a frantic roller coaster ride to the ends of the universe—and back, a sci-fi thriller (sort of a Matrix redux involving …
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Dialogues on Working the Culture: Bloody Dreams on the Silver Screen
Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/PEJHULxUHZs Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Mark M., Dave S. Mark O., Dennis C., Paul C., and Geoff Carter Hey bots, I wrote this a couple weeks ago and thought it might be a good jumping-off point for a new thread. -G Justice For All? Violence at the Movies Movies are by far …
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Disenchantment
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Disney World, the mother of all family theme parks, is based just outside of Orlando, Florida. Its component pieces, EPCOT, The Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, span over 27,000 acres—about 43 square miles—and rake in huge profits—over twenty-seven billion dollars in 2022 alone. It is …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “All Quiet on the Western Front”
Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash Life in the Trenches: Film Review of All Quiet on the Western Front By Geoff Carter Since the 1998 release of the Steven Spielberg’s groundbreaking epic Saving Private Ryan, war films have undergone a number of profound stylistic transformations. Spielberg’s use of desaturated color, alternating camera speeds, flattened lenses, blood-spattered lenses, and shaky …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “The Fablemans”
Light and Dark: Film Review of The Fablemans Attribution: Jorge Simonet, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans is—like much of his work—simultaneously totally enjoyable and disturbingly inevitable. It is Spielberg’s peculiar gift that he is able to mythologize the ordinary, to turn the everyday into the epic, and the …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Top Gun: Maverick”
Photo by Houses Cheung on Unsplash Deja Vu All Over Again: Film Review of Top Gun: Maverick By Geoff Carter Movies are nectar for the masses. The people love the panache, the stars, the glitz, the glamor, and their occasional sheer audacity of movies. But most of all, the people love their predictability. Action thrillers like Die Hard, True …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Film Review of “Triangle of Sadness”
Photo by Jake Hills on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/23LET4Hxj_U Human Triangulation: Review of Triangle of Sadness A herd of male models—if that’s the proper collective noun for a group of them; maybe a pride or a flamboyance or a charm of male models would be more appropriate—at any rate, at the beginning of the film Triangle of Sadness, this group is …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Film Review of “Tar”
Photo by Justin Campbell on Unsplash Symphony For One: Review of Tar The opening of Todd Field’s psychological opus Tar is rather odd. The film’s credits fade in over a black background while a Shipibo Conibo Icaro (an indigenous Amazon people’s healing song) plays in the background. The oddly hypnotic music sung in a strange language over (what are usually) …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Film Review of “Women Talking”
Photo by Justin Campbell on Unsplash Strong Words: Film Review of Women Talking By Geoff Carter Language not only defines reality; it constructs reality, forming the narratives that are the lanes through which we navigate our world. Finding names for subtleties of emotions, relationships, and belief helps in the understanding of the concepts underlying the words. Language also …
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Kickass Watches The Sting
Attribution: English: Illustrator unknown; presumably a work-for-hire for distributor Universal Pictures., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joined the keeper and Phyllis in watching the old movie “The Sting,” and shared their conclusion that it was a good thing to do: great acting by old favorites, remembering Paul Newman …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Film Review of Elvis
Photo by Justin Campbell on Unsplash Soul Man: Film Review of Elvis by Geoff Carter Years ago, I went to an Elvis impersonator contest—yes, Virginia, there is such a thing—and was fascinated, although not surprised, that there were two categories for the performers: young Elvis and Vegas Elvis. Of course, to nearly every American, these categories speak for …
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