Word: comic
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...mother’s death, his time in a children’s home, and his father’s remarriage are mostly grim—young, scarred legs and bodily worms abound. But his frankness, perhaps the book’s most noteworthy quality, permits the often-comic process of learning to temper the bleak surroundings he sometimes faces. We watch his evolution through adolescence, transmitted in extremely spare formulations that one hesitates to call prose. It might be a good time to again call attention to the title; Hoffmann offers succinct summations, highlighting the most important images...
...writer. Shiva Naipaul’s work is more than worthy of notice on its own merits, but in so far as he has been remembered at all in recent years, it has been as V.S. Naipaul’s brother.Like the elder Naipaul, Shiva began his career writing comic novels set in their family’s native Trinidad; works such as “Fireflies” and “The Chip-Chip Gatherers” won literary prizes and critical approval, and although he would write only one more novel in his lifetime, his skill...
...rare safe haven, begins to lose much of its structural integrity. Despite the film’s grim tone, the storyline isn’t all danger and darkness. After a two-year absence, Quidditch is back, and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) joins the Gryffindor team as Keeper. Comic relief comes in the form of new characters, most notably Ron’s annoyingly perky girlfriend Lavender Brown (Jessie Caves) and the arrogant Cormac McLaggen (Freddie Stroma), who compulsively chases after Hermione Granger (Emma Watson). Both in and out of the classroom, the Potter characters learn to brew love potions...
...Judge's gifts parallel those of his leading man. His plotting is full of funny, unpredictable moments but lacks the grating hysteria of the comic genre. In one scene, Joel arrives at a party, sees Cindy, then leaves. To skip a party scene involving romantic interests is tantamount to blasphemy in the wacky-comedy genre, but it's the right decision on Judge's part. We're never sure, until the end, exactly how things are going to end up for Joel...
...truth is, I watched it from my couch, on DVD, always a soporific setting. I'm happy to have seen Extract in a theater, where the largeness of the screen allows the smallness of the movie to grow on you, and where every subtle comic twitch on Bateman's face can be seen and appreciated. There's nothing vanilla about...