Carrie Pilby

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Susan Johnson directs. Gonzalo Amat behind the camera. Michael Penn scores. Phillip J. Bartell cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 9 years ago.
• 2Directed by Susan Johnson, shot by Gonzalo Amat. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 3Original score by Michael Penn. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 4Editor Phillip J. Bartell shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 5Bel Powley and Vanessa Bayer and Colin O'Donoghue carry the top of the cast.
• 6Marketing tagline: "Live your life before it passes you by".
• 7IMDB entry: tt2989524 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography

Gonzalo Amat

Original score

Michael Penn

Editing

Phillip J. Bartell

Production design

Curt Beech

Costume design

Leslie Yarmo

Makeup / hair

Roma Demartino

VFX supervisor

Culley Bunker

Sound

Isaac Derfel

Stunt coordinator

Manny Siverio

Runtime

98 min · 1h 38m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Box office

$28,430

Original language

EN

IMDB

Carrie Pilby (2017) ↗

Also by

Susan Johnson

• 
  To All the Boys I've Loved Before

  2018 · ★ 7.6

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Carrie Pilby Official Trailer 1 (2017) - Bel Powley Movie

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Reno2017-08-18
  ★ 7/10

  Life happens and we just've to flow with it, making better choices! A better film than I thought. What I thought was seeing how it was received. It was based on the book of the same name, directed by a newcomer. A coming-of-age film, about a 19 year old smart girl, but struggling in the real world since finished her education. Particularly, she's having a trouble with her father in communicating. Not that she's incapable of blend in with the rest of the world, but she's preoccupied with what she's interested in. Now her therapist hints to make a list to accomplish things than the dull life according to him she's presently living on. During her attempt, what are all things she go through was told in the remaining narration. Bel Powley was brilliant in the title role. It was more like a sequel to her previous film 'The Diary of a Teenage Girl'. Like it was the next stage of her story. Between adulthood and teenhood, at the edge of teenage. Apart from her, the rest of the cast was decent. I usually like this kind of films, but they are all same. Developed from the basic storyline that we are very familiar with. In that perspective, this is not an impressive film, especially if you have seen plenty. Even though not bad for watching it once. Since the characters, cast and settings differ, besides the presentation was good, it surely a nice film to watch alone in a lazy weekend. Probably under- appreciated, but definitely an under- noticed film of the year. 7/10

  Read full review ↓
• Kamurai2020-07-27
  ★ 6/10

  Good watch, could watch again, and can recommend. This is a great little "coming of age", literal search for identity in an extra-ordinary young woman placed in a situation to "catch up " with her peers. Firstly, I'm calling a lot of flags on this play because she's got a photographic memory, she's graduated from Harvard (she clearly could have gone on to get a Master's and a Doctorate), she's pretty much smarter than everyone, and she comes from a wealthy family that is paying for her life. Now, that said, her problems are still legitimate problems: they could just easily be SO MUCH WORSE. My biggest problem is that she learned all this crap because she was told to without any real direction in life and could be doing anything she actually wanted, but she wasn't given a support system to put her on a path to where she could be happy without this movie. But since we're in a universe where she was "shipped off", this is an emotionally centered piece where she is battling with social connection as well as the emotions involved and finally being faced with a place she could fail. I have a feeling that straight women are going to connect more with this movie that other demographics as it does focus a lot on what it means to have the appreciation of different men, and / or whether that validates part of you (as a woman) as a person. To me, it has a funny moral of "No matter your advantages, life will kick you while you're down." Bel Powley kills it, as it is almost a one woman show with rotating support characters (/ villains?), and she does a significantly large portion of the work.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• BR

  Braveart Films

  US

Key crew

• NovelCaren Lissner
• Executive ProducerAlison Bossert
• ProducerSusan Cartsonis
• Co-Executive ProducerDean Craig
• ProducerBrent Emery
• ProducerSuzanne Farwell
• Co-ProducerKym Gold
• Associate ProducerHeather Haggarty
• Executive ProducerElaine Harris
• ProducerSusan Johnson
• Associate ProducerNanou Matteson
• Co-ProducerPer Melita
• Co-ProducerStefan Mentz
• Associate ProducerVictoria Moorhouse
• Executive ProducerMarcel Sassola
• Executive ProducerTeri Simpson
• ProducerLisa Wolofsky
• Co-ProducerMarlon Young
• CastingSig De Miguel
• CastingStephen Vincent
• Production DesignCurt Beech
• Art DirectionAlanna Dempewolff-Barrett
• Set DecorationNadya Gurevich
• Costume DesignLeslie Yarmo

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• new york city
• genius
• dating
• woman director

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical (limited)2017-03-31
• Digital2017-04-04

Also known as

International titles

• 哈佛沒教的幸福課TW
• 캐리 필비KR
• Кэрри ПилбиRU