Word: clever
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ANTHONY NEWLEY and Leslie Bricusse must have thought themselves quite ambitious. They wanted to create a clever, innovative show that would transcend the limitations of conventional musical comedy--a show that would say something. Instead, they made The Roar of the Greasepaint--The Smell of the Crowd in which the British class struggle is simplified, set to music, and peppered with punny lines and broad gags. A silly little show, it's like dramatizing a dissertation on social democracy by Mickey Mouse...
...Equal Rights Amendment, Reagan opposes the ERA. Where Carter undoubtedly would appoint justices who will safeguard civil liberties, Reagan and the platform he runs on state that nominees for the Supreme Court would be screened for their opposition to abortion; we pale at the thought of five clever, conniving William Rehnquists making decisions that would affect us for decades to come...
...16th century Japan a thief is saved from crucifixion because he looks like Lord Shingen, a clever and determined warlord who may have the strength and wit to unite a feudal nation under his banner. It is his idea to train the criminal as his double, against the day he himself is wounded or otherwise unable to inspire his troops in battle. This, in time, the kagemusha, or "shadow warrior," successfully manages. But then the dying leader conceives the notion of having his stand-in attempt a more difficult impersonation: Shingen wants the kagemusha to take over his life entirely...
...movie is witty and clever when the characters are witty and clever, and banal when they are banal. Some of the lines fizzle, the way lines fizzle in real life, and often these reveal the most about their speakers. Writers often go for laughs at the expense of their characters, and it is a measure of Sayles' compassion that he maintains little ironic distance from them. Yet the writing is not particularly economical, and the language, while sensitive and colorful and realistic, is not heightened or compressed the way great dramatic language must be. Some of the characters keep threatening...
...linguinous prose of Pauline Kael, et al, and in book form his essays stand up well. They are not meant to be read all together at one sitting, but to be savored, like stuffed peppers in chili sauce. If one dare bother to complain, Allen may not be clever enough. His stories are a form of verbal slapstick; he is desperately self-conscious when he puns...