‘Movie Corner’ Archives
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
from the series Movie Corner... 4/5 Stars Action/Adventure/Spy/Drama By HOWARD MCQUITTER II Howard McQuitter II Like all the previous seven Mission Impossible films, The Final Reckoning is a high octane adventure that seems boundless. There's always a purpose for The Mission Impossible installments and The Final Reckoning is no exception. There's one man Ethan Hunt, a hero (like Superman, Batman or Spider-Man) and a spy who performs stunning stunts in the air between airplanes, on the ground or risking his life in a sunken Russian submarine on the verge of going over the edge. Hunt, along with his longtime covert fixers Luther Stickell, Benji Dunn, and a new member Grace, a former girlfriend, are out to save the world from a monstrous, self-serving Gabriel. Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), as The Entity, has seized all the nuclear power available. Paramount Pictures Nothing will stand in the way for Hunt, including the antagonists Briggs and Degas, two vexing [...]
All That’s Left of You
By OLIVER STRICHERZ This year, MSPIFF44 showed a strong initiative to represent the stories of people from all parts of the world. More than 60 countries worldwide had at least one film in the festival, mostly in languages other than English. From documentaries to samurai films, there’s an international film for everyone. The Film Society’s deep appreciation for showing international stories through film shows up in many other parts of the year as well, through other specialty festivals such as the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, Italian Film Festival, Cine Latino, Black Europe Film Festival, and more, all in collaboration with local Twin Cities cultural centers and international voices. All That’s Left of You poignantly shows the decades-long story of a Palestinian family adjusting to and enduring the heartbreaking displacement from their homeland. Pictured are two of the presenters of the film, one of whom represents Mizna, a locally based nonprofit that, among many [...]
Sinners
from the series Movie Corner... 5/5 Stars Comedy/Dark Comedy By HOWARD MCQUITTER II Howard McQuitter II All throughout, a profound maestro of blues with a quick glimpse of future Black music, rings strong from beginning to end. At the opening scene of director Ryan Coogler’s brilliant film (if not an outright masterwork) a young man, Sammie, drives up to a plain looking church, gets out and enters the place where the pastor, his father), is giving a Sunday sermon. When he approaches the pulpit where his father greets him, the camera zeros in on a snapped-off guitar neck in his right hand. Sammie’s face is bloodied and slashed as if he’s been in a brawl. That scene alone embodies a series of metaphors and allegories that will stare audiences in the face. His father requests Sammie to drop the guitar because “If you keep dancing with the Devil, one day he will follow you home.” Warner Bros. Pictures In a small town near Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1932, at [...]
