Word: absurdity
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Holub's most ascerbic essays lambast this spurious Soviet science, in which party-approved researchers concoct absurd theories to please their superiors. In their best form, these essays take the form of veiled political satire, an art perfected by the Czechs...
...premise of the "Scud" series itself is typical of the comic: delightfully simple yet utterly absurd. In the hyper-violent, super-capitalistic universe of the future, a corporation called ScudCo manufactures "disposable assassins": three coins deposited in a vending machine will get you a robot designed to be the perfect killer, which will demolish your enemy and then self-destruct as soon as it's accomplished its mission (planned obsolescence, after all, is what makes consumer culture go). Our hero is a typical Scud robot assassin, bought by a middle manager who needs to get rid of a hideous mutant...
...while we're having our minds and emotions numbed. For instance, the scenes of Max and Horst at work in the concentration camp--endless vistas of two ragged, small figures stumbling across the whiteness of stone or snow in their meaningless work--evoke echoes of the theatre of the absurd, of postmodern anguish a la Waiting for Godot. But it seems unclear why this effect is courted in the first place. The movie's ultimate aim appears to be a statement about the sublime aptitudes and beauty of the human soul, and the existentialist numbness of its intermediate scenes, striking...
There are also occasional flashes of brilliance that hint at Coppola's past genius. What the movie lacks in drama, it often makes up for in comedy. Coppola can't help but accentuate what is absurd about these characters even as he tries to inject them with true emotions. At times, it almost becomes clear what Rainmaker could be--a genre-busting comedy that plays off cliches...
...most absurd part of the evening occured when Smith came to the inane spoken voice part of "Wrong Number" and simply laughed it off. Another strange part of the night was that, unlike Smith and Gallup, who were clearly engaging the audience, keyboardist Roger O'Donnell seemed to be in his own world, maintaining a dumb smile on his face as he stood still...