Word: comic
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...impressive enough that Paltrow holds your eye as a parade of lovelies and virtuoso actresses (Greta Scacchi, Polly Walker, Juliet Stevenson) march past. But her finest trick is to provide a comic subtext to Emma. She both lives inside the character and encases her, giving her glamour and the lilt of parody. Paltrow is to Emma what Emma is to her friends: a helper, a tease and a judge. Thanks to Paltrow, Emma stays lovable, partly because both are in their early...
...wisdom gaily bestowed on lesser mortals. Though it crinkles with warmth, it is exactly one shade too pleased with itself. Emma could be one of nature's noblewomen, if only she would stop trying to stage-manage other people's lives. Graceful and witty, she is a goddess whose comic flaw is that she wants to play...
...well as a business standpoint (the shift in power from the studios to stars and their agents was a major factor in Lewis' rise). Levy readily acknowledges the sloppiness and indulgence of much of Lewis' movie work, but he also makes a case for Lewis' importance as a physical comic and, when he was at the top of his form, an innovative and stylish director...
...experience probably explains why Bobby Bantz, LoddStone's second in command, is a fulsome repository of foul behavior and slippery business practices. Among them is the willfully complicated gross-and-net game that fattens those on top and leaves naive scriptwriters out of pocket. Puzo takes his vendetta to comic climax when a novelist turned LoddStone hack has to kill himself to get his money. That he sets aside his multiple suicide notes for a rewrite is the sort of black-humor icing that tops off much of this highly anecdotal read...
...example of the movie's comic sensibility lives and breathes in the character of Special Agent Milton Dammers, that crazy FBI agent. You see, the funny thing about Dammers is that he is knowledgeable about the occult--and also pretty strange himself! That means he hides behind doors a lot and, for no discernible reason, cannot stand when women yell at him. Ultimately, we find out he has scars all over his chest and (gasp!) perhaps might not be as good-hearted as we thought...