Attribution: MGM, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (Originally published December 18, 2022) By Geoff Carter It’s only about a week until Christmas, and we’re into the full swing of the holiday season. Shopping, decorating, traveling, baking, wrapping, entertaining, and all the other painfully joyous activities are part of the annual hustle and bustle of the …
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Category:Movies
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Film Review of “The Wonder”
Attribution: Fernando de Sousa from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Little Girl Lost: Movie Review of The Wonder By Geoff Carter The beginning of Sebastian Lelio’s The Wonder, an historical drama based in post-famine Ireland, is—strangely—framed with a shot of the movie set on which it is being made. A female narrator speaks directly …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Film Review of “Gueros”
Attribution: Fernando de Sousa from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons A Road to Nowhere: Film Review of Gueros By Geoff Carter Available on Netflix Cinema is the best of all visionary worlds because it incorporates so many elements of all the other artforms. It is a visual art. The frame can be as …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Film Review of “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”
Attribution:Fernando de Sousa from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Born to be Wild: Film Review of Hunt for the Wilderpeople By Geoff Carter There are filmmakers whose creative stamp is so distinctive that their films are recognizable almost from the opening credits. Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton, and Quentin Tarantino fall into …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Film Review of “Death on the Nile”
Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous: Film Review of Death on the Nile Attribution: Fernando de Sousa from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter A few weeks ago, I reviewed Reptile, (Pen in Hand Review of Reptile), a Netflix murder mystery. While the film contained an interesting premise and had a promising beginning, I …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Film Review of “Neil Young: Heart of Gold”
Attribution: Fernando de Sousa from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Golden Years: Film Review of Neil Young: Heart of Gold By Geoff Carter The Ryman Auditorium: Nashville, Tennessee Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons The concert film is a genre that is as idiosyncratic as the artists it documents. From the frenetic …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies : Film Review of “Big Eyes”
Attribution: Fernando de Sousa from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter The Art of the Deal: Film Review of Big Eyes The film Big Eyes opens with a daring escape. The year is 1958. Margaret Ulbricht (Amy Adams) is—for reasons unknown to the audience—leaving a bad marriage, the irony of which soon becomes …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Reptile”
Attribution: Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Unsplash Less is More: Movie Review of Reptile By Geoff Carter There have been a spate of movie mysteries making the rounds of theaters and streaming TV during the past year or so. Kenneth Branagh’s remakes of the Agatha Christie classics Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and A Haunting in Venice (based …
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The Pen in Hand Movie Guide to Hiding Under the Bed
Photo by Skyler Sawyer on Unsplash By Geoff Carter (Originally published on October 31, 2020) I grew up in the sixties and seventies, in what might be called the golden age of the horror movie. Not only were we able to see films The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Scream and Scream Again at the drive-in theater, but every Saturday afternoons we …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to Horror Films: The Next Generation
Damian Gadal, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter (Originally posted October 31, 2020) The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting longer, and there’s a chill in the air. Frost is on the pumpkin. The leaves are turning color. All this means one thing—Halloween is just around the corner. And that means …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Okja”
Attribution: Jorge Simonet, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons The Meat of the Matter: Review of Okja By Geoff Carter There are some films that evoke a keen sense of conscience or guilt in the audience—films that make us feel remorseful, guilty, or maybe even responsible. Documentaries like Sicko, Bowling for Columbine, Night and Fog, White Helmets, …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of Wes Anderson’s “Poison”
Attribution: Photo by Nicolas J Leclercq on Unsplash Silent and Deadly: Review of Wes Anderson’s Poison R. Soedirman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter In the last feature of Wes Anderson’s film anthology of four Roald Dahl short stories produced for Netflix, he creates a tense and gripping suspense tale about a man trapped in his …
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