‘Movie Corner’ Archives
Movie Corner: Oppenheimer
5 Stars Universal Pictures 2023 Biography/History/Drama By HOWARD MCQUITTER II Howard McQuitter II To tell the story of Robert Oppenheimer in a book, in film or on stage is to tell the story of a very complicated man. Director Christopher Nolan gives the viewers more than just a caption of Oppenheimer in his new film. The man, J. Robert Oppenheimer, was a physicist, genius, doctorate, father of the atomic bomb, victim of the “Red Scare”. Indeed, I thank Nolan for making a film about a man whose atomic bomb (advanced into the hydrogen bomb, then to the nuclear bomb) changed the entire outlook of modern warfare since 1945.The film doesn’t start with Oppenheimer’s childhood years, but starts circa 1925 when Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is at Harvard about to graduate with a physics degree. He then does his postgraduate work at Cambridge University only to become frustrated by his overbearing tutor Patrick Blackett (James D’Arcy) who insists that his student stick [...]
Movie Corner: Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Celluloid Dreams2022Comedy/Drama/Adventure 4/5 stars By HOWARD MCQUITTER II Howard McQuitter II Luxembourg, Luxembourg is one of the 50 plus films I saw at the 2023 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival at the St. Anthony Main Theater. It is one of those events in the city that brings out many people. This year marks the 42nd year of the largest film festival in Minnesota. The Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul (MSP Film) was founded in 1962. The late Al Milgrom (died in 2020 at age 98) did the groundwork for this wonderful film festival. Like myself, he was a true cinephile but he was also a director, writer and producer of films. Celluloid Dreams Luxembourg, Luxembourg starts out with two identical twin brothers Vasya and Kolya (Ramil and Amil Nasirov) as kids playing risky pranks in the train yard to the commentary of voiceover saying such things as, “They say that when a son looks like mother, he is born happy. Even though we are twins, Vasya looks [...]
Movie Corner: Confessions of a Nazi Spy
Warner Bros.1939Black & White 3.5/5 Stars By HOWARD MCQUITTER II Howard McQuitter II Often forgotten but influential in world history, especially in America, before and during World War II, is the movement of Nazi sympathizers. To shed some light on Nazi spies here and abroad at the time, Hollywood studio moguls like Jack Warner (Warner Bros.) and Louis B. Mayer (MGM Studios) produced films to let their audiences see in theaters stories of Nazi sympathizers and Nazi opponents played by actors. However, Nazi sympathizers did live in real time and not just on screen. One of the motion pictures at the time is director Anatole Litvak’s Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) that gets entangled in who are spies, who squeals on the other (intentional or unintentional), who gets away, and who catches the culprits through artful tactics. In Litvak’s movie FBI agent Edward Renard (Edward G. Robinson) is determined to out the Nazi sympathizers in America and elsewhere, if [...]
