Peter Murmann

Movies, Drama

Maestro

18 February 2024

If you are hoping to learn a lot about Leonard Bernstein’s artistry, Maestro will disappoint you. There are two moments where one gets a sense of Bernstein’s creative power. Otherwise, the film is dedicated to chronicling his complicated love life. Bernstein is homosexual but marries and has children. Bradley Cooper (director and actor of Bernstein) focuses on telling this story. Bernstein’s musical artistry merely serves as a background that remains largely unexplored. I once saw a little video of Bernstein teaching the history of music in five minutes at Harvard. Given the title Maestro, I was hoping music would be at the center of the film. Perhaps there is a good documentary on Bernstein I can look for.

Diary, Astute Observations

Leonhard Cohen’s Last Words

7 January 2024

Movies, Comedy, Drama

Crocodile Dundee

3 January 2024

Crocodile Dundee was made with $7 million and took in over $300 million at the box office. It was the commercially most successful Australian film ever. Because the film became so popular, I wasn’t sure whether I had seen it or not. It turns out I had never seen at least the first “Crocodile Dundee” movie, and I fully appreciate why it was so successful. It is utterly charming. A young journalist happens to be in Australia when she hears the news that a man in the outback was attacked by a crocodile and then managed to rescue himself through an ordeal of several days.

Movies, Comedy

The Escort

30 September 2023

This film is inspired by *Pretty Woman. *This time, the girl is a graduate of Stanford University who found out that she can make easy money by not using her degree from the elite university. The boy/man in this film is not rich. In fact, he is so behind in his rent that he reluctantly goes back to his father to get a cash infusion. The more salient new twist is this: our boy/man has a sex addiction.

Movies, Drama

Elvis

7 May 2023

I love films about music legends such as Marley, Walk the Line, and Ray *because the soundtrack is guaranteed to be excellent. So I could not wait to see *Elvis. It starts out strong but pretty soon it fails to create the magic of great movies that pull you in and make you believe what you see is a real story. Baz Luhrmann, who wrote and directed the film, never lets you forget that the film and Elvis’s true life are different.

Diary, Politics

SNL funny take on Trump’s indictment

7 April 2023

The actor does a great job imitating Trump’s mannerisms. It is a well-written piece and made me laugh.

My own sense is that the change that Trump will indicted in Georgia is 80%. At the federal level it put the probability at 50%.

Click on picture below to play video.

Diary, Must Know

A Little Alcohol Won’t Kill You or Make You Stronger

3 April 2023

WSJ.com reports:

“People who drink a little don’t die sooner than people who never drank, study shows.

The findings suggest that the average man can drink up to about three drinks a day and expect to live as long as nondrinkers. Women might want to stop at about two drinks, the research suggested.”