Word: conceits
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...trademark mannerisms are in evidence, from the nasal drawl of contempt to the wounded-crow flutter of arms and hands. So is the open-wound vulnerability that brings her fey lunacy back to earth. She takes a character who is mostly an idea, a conceit -- a person for whom pretending is more real than reality -- and invests her with poignancy and pride. In spirit Lettice is a one-woman show. But Smith gets splendid support from Margaret Tyzack in the thankless, stereotypical role of her clumping comrade Lotte Schoen and obliquely from Britain's Prince Charles, whose marginally less dotty...
...Roger of the title is Roger Smith, GM's chairman, and the central conceit of the film is Moore's desire to take Smith on a tour of Flint to show him the havoc he has wrought. To this end, Moore and his film crew stalk Smith, showing up and asking to see him at GM headquarters, at the Detroit Athletic Club and at another club, where Smith is not even a member. This leads to a number of funny-edgy encounters with puzzled receptionists and security personnel. At one point Moore flashes a Chuck E. Cheese card as identification...
...ironically, it is the hawks who are most loudly claiming victory, including moderate Republicans who are uncomfortable with that label and would rather be seen as conservatives. Much of American policy now seems based on the conceit that insofar as Gorbachev is good news, he is both a consequence and a vindication of Western foresight, toughness, consistency and solidarity. According to this claim, the heady events of 1989 are the payoff for the $4.3 trillion ($9.3 trillion adjusted for inflation) that it has cost the U.S. to wage peace since...