Word: deadpan
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MOVIES . . . CHASING AMY: "If you loved 'Sleepless in Seattle,' you?ll just hate 'Chasing Amy,''" says TIME's Richard Schickel. As director Kevin Smith proved with a few bucks and some black-and-white film stock in 'Clerks,' he?s an original, a deadpan, dead-on observer of the whole Gen-X mess. In 'Chasing Amy,' he has moved up slightly?color film, more than one setting, scenes with actual extras in them. But he?s still a guy making two-shots of people talking about their troubles, working them through on the basis of faulty information and silly suppositions...
MOVIES . . . CHASING AMY: "If you loved 'Sleepless in Seattle,' you?ll just hate 'Chasing Amy,''" says TIME's Richard Schickel. As director Kevin Smith proved with a few bucks and some black-and-white film stock in 'Clerks,' he?s an original, a deadpan, dead-on observer of the whole Gen-X mess. In 'Chasing Amy,' he has moved up slightly?color film, more than one setting, scenes with actual extras in them. But he?s still a guy making two-shots of people talking about their troubles, working them through on the basis of faulty information and silly suppositions...
...guilt and sarcasm extends even to the most minor conversations. During Gregory's first evening with Hannah, Rose asks her mother to quit her interrogation and go prepare desert: "I've raised two daughters, I've buried a husband, I've made my coffee," she responds in perfect deadpan. Mimi Rogers is equally vicious and hilarious as Rose's sister, particularly toward her poor husband Alex; Pierce Brosnan is unerringly type-cast as the fawning millionaire hubby who just doesn't understand how his beautiful Claire can be such a monster...
...title of Vaclav Havel's "The Increased Difficulty of Concentration" alone suggests that it is a difficult play to stage, leaning heavily towards the meta-physical and absurd. The play, deeply colored with irony and deadpan humor, offers at its core a vague but haunting presentation of the meaninglessness of modern life The production of director Ron Avni '97 is an admirable attempt to capture all this frenzied complexity, but is too often overwhelmed by the scope and obscurity of the text...
After one helter-skelter day of turbulent bicycle rides in the park, Roger and Pongo fall in love with Anita (Joely Richardson) and Perdita. They hold a double wedding and soon Perdita gives birth to 15 Dalmatian puppies. Daniels and Richardson play these potentially corny scenes with deadpan sincerity, making the parallels between canine and human love amusing rather than insipid. The always-reliable and lovable Joan Plowright also appears as the couple's nanny...