Word: americanizers
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Aside from a superb soundtrack, the film’s other strength is its wonderful cast of character actors. Hoffman remains at his brashest and bawdiest as an American DJ, a stark opposite from Nighy’s prim, if slightly spaced-out, British gentleman. Unquestionably, though, the funniest performance comes from Kenneth Branagh as a viciously polite British official intent on destroying Radio Rock. His outraged caricature is particularly evident during a scene in which he casually threatens to outlaw one of his subordinate’s haircuts. Nick Frost’s (“Shaun...
Alexander’s inspiration seems to be culled as much from the natural beauty of Sri Lanka as the sufferings of its people, who have endured 26 years of civil war. As an African American writer in the tradition of Frantz Fanon and Aimé Césaire, Alexander sometimes goes astray in his characterization of the post-colonial experience, misguidedly evoking a universalized disposition in Africa as in South Asia. He transposes this affinity onto his narrator, who makes the reverse gesture: “I am Mahayana & of Africa / both Sri Lankan & non-Sri Lankan...
...voice so chronically self-indulgent that by the end of this monumental poem even its most grandiose aural gestures are reduced to ambient noise. Alexander has chosen a deeply unusual setting for his epic: both Sri Lanka and old-fashioned nautical adventuring are idiosyncratic interests for an American poet. The island, despite its physical loveliness and tragic recent history, is yet to inspire a fitting work of poetry or prose, and for all its ambition, “The Sri Lankan Loxodrome,” does not do justice to its subject...
...Carrie Underwood was making her seemingly untrammeled run to victory on the fourth season of “American Idol,” judge Simon Cowell famously predicted that not only would Underwood go on to win the competition, but she would also outsell all previous “Idol” winners. The next three years made Cowell appear remarkably astute. As Ruben Studdard and Fantasia Barrino fell by the wayside, and Kelly Clarkson grappled with artistic—and perhaps just general—confusion, Underwood’s first two albums established her as Nashville?...
...Quitter”—a light, playful track firmly in the traditions of Nashville—the entire record consists of overwrought, impeccably produced, tuneless and indeed lifeless numbers as utterly forgettable as the “coronation songs” that “American Idol” winners sing in each year’s final show...