Peter Murmann

This movie directed by Elia Kazan holds up even 50 years after its making. Labor unions in America no longer enjoy the power they did after World War II when their struggles with management made the front page of newspapers almost every day.  If the movie were made today the corrupt union boss would be [Read More]

  A young Irish family emigrates to Manhattan to start a new life. But first the old life has to be left behind, and this proves to be harder than anticipated. Although death seemingly looms behind every corner, life struggles mightily to get back on its feet. This is a wonderfully perceptive film. Jim Sheridan [Read More]

How do you feel when your heart is failing you, but you don’t know if a donor heart is found in time to save your life? How do you feel when your husband and two little children are killed by an inattentive driver only a few blocks away from home? How do you feel when [Read More]

This Civil War movie works because it is has historical depth and employs a love story very effectively.  Instead of going overboard with passion, the lovers take cautious steps toward each other and just as they allow themselves a kiss and the dream of a life together, Inman (Jude Law) is forced to join the [Read More]

I have never seen a movie quite like this one. It reminds you of a poem. But here most of the work is not done by words but by images. Bill Murray’s performance has received raving reviews.  For me, it was not Bill Murray’s acting that made the movie interesting, but the novelty of how [Read More]

“Punch, Drunk, Love”. The title of the movie summarizes the film well.  People who have problems with their tempers (Punch) have difficulties maintaining stable relationships. Their dispair can lead them to the bottle (Drunk).  But, according to the film,  there is still hope: Even if you cannot control your temper, don’t give up. There may [Read More]

The whale rider is a young girl who finds herself in the middle of a collision between a small traditional culture in New Zealand and the modern world. Her mother and twin brother die during childbirth. Her father leaves her with her grandparents and tries to escape to Europe. The grandfather has absolutely no use [Read More]

If you like classical music and detailed explorations of emotions triggered by the relationship between father and son, this is a film is for you. In the middle the movie feels a bit slow. But once you have seen the surprising and dramatic ending, you realize that the slowness in the second hour made the [Read More]

I am a big fan of John Malkovich the actor. John Malkovich the director might still win me over some day, but not if he does not hire an editor who can keep the self-indulgence of a movie-star turned director at bay. I was lured into the film by high ratings that the moviegoing public [Read More]