‘Movie Corner’ Archives
Movie Corner: Oct ’23
Elemental Disney/Pixar, 2023 Animation/Adventure 3/5 stars By HOWARD MCQUITTER II Howard McQuitter II One can honestly say Pixar doesn’t make bad movies. One can also say - with conviction - since Pixar chief creative officer John Lasseter left the company in 2018, the quality in the storytelling has noticeably diminished. Nonetheless, Pixar‘s animation is still fun. While animation/adventure like the Toy Story installments, Finding Nemo, Up, Monsters, Inc., Inside Out, Cars (well at least the first one) are all at stellar levels, Elemental, I think, falls into the “mediocre” category.Yet, there’s a cuteness to Elemental, and strangely enough, not much to laugh about. The theme of Elemental is fire, water, earth and air, all for life to subsist, can only be possible with God. Fire, the element that seems to be most discriminated against, is forced to live in Firetown, on the outskirts of Element City. The story begins with two immigrant Flames Bernie [...]
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 [...]
