‘Movie Corner’ Archives
Movie corner: Timely take on immigration
By HOWARD McQUITTER II oldschoolmovies.wordpress.com howardmcquitter68@gmail.com “The Deposit” (2019) ****1/2 Askja Films Drama Here again, I”™m reporting from the 38th Minneapolis-St. Paul Inter-national Film Festival with another gem of a film only this time it”™s from Iceland. What”™s exciting, too, is the director is on site to take Q&A, and her name Asthildur jartansdottir. Gisella (Elma Lisa Gunnarsdottir) is in a real economic straits after losing her journalism job and her investments with her former boyfriend failed to pay off. And to be expected she begins to panic as bills start to pile up with the possibility she may lose the nice house she acquired from her grandparents. Then Gisella goes to the computer looking for immigrants to rent her two empty rooms. She finds three illegal immigrants living under a slumlord in a seedy part of town and convinces them to move into her house. Two women Maria [...]
Movie corner Bold whodunit from Denmark
By HOWARD McQUITTER II oldschoolmovies.wordpress.com howardmcquitter68@gmail.com “The Purity of Vengeance” (2019) ***** 5 of 5 stars  This month I”'m attending the 38th Minneapolis- St. Paul International Film Festival for about the 14th year (not necessarily in consecutive order) and for the third year (consecutively) as press (once I did press back in the days of Oak Street Cinema). This year the festival has brought to the Twin Cities more than 250 films from 75 countries. One of the films that catches my eye is a brilliant thriller/crime/ drama from Denmark called “The Purity of Vengeance” directed by Christopher Boe. Simply put, the film is as bold as it is smart marked by whodunit and why. To date, “The Purity of Vengeance” is the highest- grossing film in Denmark, but unlike so many American films of similar genre that put too much heat in the violence blocking out any feasible plot(s) the movie just [...]
Movie corner Rewatch Bogart”'s last movie
By HOWARD McQUITTER II oldschoolmovies.wordpress.com howardmcquitter68@gmail.com “The Harder They Fall” (1956)  **** Columbia Pictures A hard-hitting boxing movie where the mob has an iron-grip on the boxing business and like another film of the same era called “Set-Up”(1949), it features much reality about who controls boxing in the 1930s-1950s. At the time, boxing along with baseball, is America”'s most popular sport. “The Harder They Fall” is Humphrey Bogart”'s last film (he died on Jan. 14, 1957, from esophageal cancer) but he is still on top of his game as an actor. I saw this movie when I was a boy, and have seen it several times since then, most recently three weeks ago. The director Mark Robson (“The Seventh Victim” 1943, “Peyton Place” 1957, “Valley of the Dolls” 1967) is joined by Philip Yordan who writes the screenplay and also produces Bogart”'s last [...]
