Word: banally
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ABOUT SCHMIDT. About Schmidt, in a bizarrely somber, comedic fashion, is possibly the most depressing film of Jack Nicholson’s long career. His performance as a retired insurance executive is a deeply complex and hilariously tragic portrayal of the most banal aspects of one man’s post-mid-life crisis. Director Alexander Payne, famous for his digressions on suburban angst in films such as Election and Citizen Ruth, keeps the tone light and the characters archetypally and delicously bizarre. About Schmidt screens...
...public as too blah and timid; a more adventurous set of plans, replete with soaring towers and sky gardens, was unveiled in December. During its second season, the terrorism drama 24 planted a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles. The Sopranos showed how quickly tragedy can become a banal, catchall excuse, as mobster Tony Soprano phonily blamed his behavior on 9/11 during a therapy session. Oh, and that business about movies not blowing up buildings? The Sum of All Fears blew up Baltimore...
...from Yoho Brewing in Nagano and Hitachino Nest Beer of Kiuchi Brewery have both won awards at international beer competitions. Microbrew aficionado Yasuhiro Tani got hooked while living in Texas; now the 46-year-old accountant only buys jibiiru, often over the Internet. "Regular beer is generally popular but banal," he says. "Craft beer is so various in ingredients, flavors and styles that there's always something new that breaks the conventions of what beer...
...bystanders killed by bombs in Israel; a journalist murdered for no reasons other than that he was an American, a Jew and a reporter. In the suburbs of Washington, a pair of snipers stalked their victims, hiding behind trees, tucked among the vehicles in a parking lot, rendering violence banal--but no less cruel than it was anywhere else...
Critics often suggest that these photographs increase viewers’ awareness of the banal objects we confront on a daily basis. As Paul states on the wall text, “these idiosyncratic scenes not only allow us to see such everyday objects afresh but also draw our attention to the relation between objects and their users.” These images do not exist simply to give us a greater understanding of the importance of orange peels or pomegranate skins. Viewed in the context of his portraits, one begins to see that these disposable items are the traces left...