Kudos to Mr. Mueller, 12 November 2004 Author: Milrav A visceral and elegiac film impressively crafted by first time director Niels Mueller and an equally perspicuous screenplay, a collaborative effort by Neils Mueller and Kevin Kennedy. Another unforgettable performance by Sean Penn, as Samuel Byck, and a flawless performance by Jack Thomson's, as Jack Jones, that is worthy of all movie awards. Samuel Byck (Sean Penn), an office furniture salesman during the Nixon era, found solace by chronicling his tribulations on tapes and eventually mailing them to Leonard Bernstein for compassion. The film, which was based on these tapes, re-examines the social plagues that forever haunt us - the socioeconomic and political quasi-religious dogmas that are inflicted upon us. At the end we realize that we are Sam Beck's 'Mr. Bernstein' left with the choice to redeem him or not. This is the best film I've seen so far this year.