To the extent I know what Bernstein was like in real life, it was exactly like that. I even briefly met his daughter Jamie once, who was quite obsessed with her father’s legacy.
I would have preferred a movie about Burt Bacharach. I read his autobiography and his life was very interesting. Imho his career as an American composer, songwriter, pianist, and record producer rivals Leonard Bernstein. Except Burt Bacharach is not known as a conductor. Burt married two famous women, songwriter Carole Bayer Sager and actress Angie Dickinson. A movie about him and the 1960’s/70’s era that defined his best work could be quite good.
The two men’s careers overlapped. Bernstein was born 1918 and Burt Bacharach 1928.
I plan to watch Maestro. Bradley Cooper is very good in musicals. I’m always interested in musicians and what inspired their careers.
Bradley Cooper is known for intensive research and preparation. His portrayal of Bernstein should be pretty close.
We watched the 1954 classic White Christmas with the family. It was entertaining enough but also kind of interesting looking at the cultural differences between a modern movie and one made in 1954.
- It literally is a “white Christmas” as the entire cast was Caucasian.
- Two middle-aged confirmed bachelors singing and dancing together and at one point dressing up in female costumes to lip-synch a song is pretty gay by modern standards (but would be more accepted as such).
- No one from the 151st Division seemed to be suffering from amputations, PTSD or any other overt signs of trauma from fighting in WWII.
- I don’t know if 1954 audiences thought the pairing of 50 year old Bing Crosby with a 20-something female lead was odd, but it probably didn’t matter as everyone looked 40 back then.
- I don’t know what a retired WWII general’s pension looked like, but I suspect it wouldn’t be enough to purchase a resort.
- Thanks to this SNL skit, I thought the cast was going to turn into bears on the train ride to Vermont.
Was it that movie or the sequel that had a scene in blackface?
You’re thinking of Holiday Inn, made in 1942, that had the blackface “Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday” number. (“Who dat?”) Aside from that cringe-worthy sequence, that’s a pretty entertaining film otherwise, with Bing teaming up with Fred Astaire. There was never a sequel to White Christmas.
I just saw this a couple days ago and agree it was a really good film. It was also, surprisingly, a fitting examination of the use of kamikazes during WWII. Way better than The Eternal Zero (which I reviewed upthread and, unlike Godzilla Minus One, was pretty much only an examination the use of kamikazes during WWII—and, unlike GMO seems to have been all for the use of kamikazes in the end. Pretty disgusting, actually.).
But Godzilla Minus One? Good movie. Heartfelt and earnest. People should see it.
American Fiction. Geoffrey Wright plays an academic and struggling author whose books are retelling of Greek tragedies and don’t sell. So he gives the people what they want, adopts a pseudonym, and writes a totally crap novel about the “black experience” that’s full of drugs, thugs and gangsters.
I loved it. It’ll get Oscar nominations.
*Jeffrey
Right. I noticed my mistake when I went to IMDB to look up Leslie Uggams, who has a major role. I still think of her as a singer on “Sing Along With Mitch” (1961-64); and she had a big role in Roots in the 1970’s.
Not to mention playing Blind Al in Deadpool.
Maggie Moore(s) TRAILER (Hulu, 2023)
The blurb: Police Chief Sanders investigates the bizarre murders of two women with the same name and unravels a web of small-town lies. He meets and quickly falls for Rita, a nosy neighbor who is eager to help solve the mystery.
It was alright. The ending bothered me for a few reasons but the film deserves better than 50% and 65% on Rotten tomatoes. I never followed Mad Men so I know others associate Jon Hamm with another character but I think at this point the actor is getting over exposed in the ‘Slow Talking Wise Sheriff’ role he fills so often.
Written by Tina Fey, this is still not a comedy in any sense, watch Whiskey Tango Foxtrot for that. It however still has some serious dramatic moments to recommend it. Those looking for a knockoff Fargo-lite might be happy with this, just keep you expectations low.
Poor Things is the perfect phrase for those unfortunate enough who spent money to watch this ugly, sexualized, Frankenstein rip-off. Also, not a movie you take your ultra-feminist daughter too!
Anyway, don’t waste your time. Or wait until it hits whatever streamer is dumb enough to show this thing.
Just a waste of time and money, all around.
I mean, I’ve seen him in Fargo. Does he play a ‘Slow Talking Wise Sheriff’ (or, more accurately, a racist asshole Sheriff who pretends to be a ‘Slow Talking Wise Sheriff’) in any other film or series?
Granted, the man is prolific, but the only things I can even recall seeing him in apart from Mad Men and Fargo (season 5) are Top Gun 2 and as one of Liz’s love interests in 30 Rock (in which he is a New York doctor who is so handsome and charming that everyone just overlooks who hopelessly inept he is and lets him skate through life–about as far removed from ‘Slow Talking Wise Sheriff’ as you can get, actually. Oh, and there’s another Tina Fey connection!).
Oooo, I’m a huge Jeffrey Wright fan. I’ll have to watch for this one.
Well, in WW2 the Army was segregated. There would have been no blacks in the “151st”. And Shell shock or PTSD is something that can not been seen like that. You wouldnt know, except upon examination.
America in general was pretty segregated.
My point is that in modern filmmaking, usually old war buddies get together to do something like perform a heist of conduct some personal bit of foreign policy, not put together a song and dance tour.
Was it the Terminator? 
Just back from The Hunger Games: A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (or something like that), attended at the insistence of the child. Despite being only vaguely familiar with the other films, this prequel was surprisingly easy to follow (all you need to know is that Coriolanus Snow becomes the antagonist of the films set later, when he’s played by Donald Sutherland). Some surprisingly good storytelling and good performances overall apart from Viola Davis in full scenery-chewing mode. On the whole I’d say it’s a decent film, but not enough to inspire me to watch all the other HG films.
oh, forget it