Word: cynics
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Being the cleverest fellow in movies had its perks: six Oscars (out of 21 nominations), for writing, producing and directing. It also earned Wilder, from the sterner critics, the label of cynic. They said his films were long on wit and short on compassion. Pick up a rock, and Wilder's view of the human condition would crawl out from under it. Nearly 40 years ago, critic Andrew Sarris wrote, "Billy Wilder is too cynical to believe even his own cynicism." Today we can see that Wilder was less a cynic than a premature realist. An Austrian Jew who left...
...cynic he was, it was with acerbic joy--a shameless love for all the scoundrels who schemed to get rich, kill the cuckolded husband, exploit the misery of a man trapped in a cave, beat a murder rap, shin up the corporate ladder, bamboozle an insurance company or steal a nice guy's girl. For Wilder, mankind was divided not into the haves and have-nots but into the haves and let's-gets. He celebrated the ugly American: brash men on the make, women on the take. What knaves these mortals be! How smart they are, though...
That is called drama--the conflict of two seductive types, like the romantic and the cynic. The cynic gets the best lines, but Wilder made sure that this battle of heart vs. mind was a fair fight. And often he gave the heart every reason to conquer--as in the climax of Some Like It Hot, when a despondent Monroe sings (tremulously, beautifully) I'm Through with Love and Tony Curtis waddles in on high heels to plant the most eerily passionate kiss in film history...
What makes Universe funny and not just wacky is that it uses the qualities that endeared viewers to Richter's Late Night persona--the affable, moon-faced cynic--making the character the kind of sweet but snarky dreamer you would want in the next cubicle. The supporting cast is top-notch, and after so many glamorous workplace sitcoms, it's nice to see one capture the tedium and absurdity of office life. And Universe mostly skips the physical jokes that Hollywood piles on comics who are, shall we say, not the leading-man stereotype (remember that flesh-colored underwear...
...cynic may suggest that the Academy Awards are just another publicity stunt orchestrated by that most commercial of institutions—Hollywood—in our most commercial of societies. Just look at two of the Best Picture winners over the last decade. Titanic and Gladiator are epic blockbusters that drew huge box-office revenues but are of questionable artistic merit. Even recent winners with significantly smaller budgets are hardly art-house flicks. Shakespeare In Love is little more than a sappy romance comedy in period costume, and American Beauty is a jarring but hardly-subtle expression of bourgeoisie suburban...