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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Category:Movies
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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Dialogues on Springtime for Stalin: Hollywood Goes to Moscow
Attribution: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis C., Paul C., and Geoff Carter I read the Stalin synopsis below after reading the above piece on a lowly PR Russian—Vladimir Medinsky who is credited with Putin’s success—great visual I thought. Who …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “The Swan”
Photo by Nicolas J Leclercq on Unsplash By Geoff Carter Attribution: Swan on its nest by Sean Goodhart, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Taking Wing: Film Review of The Swan The third in Wes Anderson’s quartet of Roald Dahl short story film adaptations is The Swan, a somewhat harrowing but inspirational tale of strength, resolution, and righteousness. In this tale, …
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Kickass and Kyle’s Screening
Photo by Douglas Bagg on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis, having sat in on a screening of nephew Kyle Houseman-Stokes’s movie “My Dead Friend Chloe,” featuring Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris among others, passes along the word that Kyle has done himself proud in navigating the forbidding world of …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “The Ratcatcher”
Attribution: Photo by Nicolas J Leclercq on Unsplash Smelling a Rat: Review of The Ratcatcher Attribution: H. Zell, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons During my teaching days, when I was a Home & Hospital instructor and working with students in their homes who were too sick to go to school (these were extended and serious illnesses like cancer …
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