Word: droll
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...might expect that a news entity that calls itself "America's Finest News Source" would want the boast spoken by James Earl Jones and accompanied by John Williams theme music. In fact, the title has been appropriated by the Onion, a droll weekly newspaper published in Madison, Wis., devoted to producing deadpan, dead-on parodies of the resolutely low-key news reports wire services put out. Consider these recent headlines...
...Mike Myers' droll, brave impersonation, Rubell is a starstruck lout, a user-abuser, seductively snaky, cheerily malevolent; he could be Lolita's Clare Quilty without the gaudy wordplay. It'd be fun to see a movie about this Rubell. Alas, 54 focuses on the kids who worked for him: Shane the blond busboy (Ryan Phillippe), Anita the coat checker (Salma Hayek) and other cutie losers. The film tries to toss Saturday Night Fever's bridge-and-tunnel dreamers into the '70s' hottest disco. But for that to work, you need verve, edge and Travolta. All those are absent here...
None of these complexities would come across quite so eloquently without the accomplished performances of Deborah Kipp and Felicity Jones. Kipp, as Ruth, puts forth the perfect amount of droll wit in her early scenes to command respect, laughter and attention--she's casually captivating. In the second act, this bravado gradually transforms into insecurity about her position as a writer--an important change which Kipp portrays very sympathetically...
...such; but in quantity they become sheer madness. Or induce it. "The 20th century has never recovered from the effects of Marx and Freud." (V.G.); "But whether or not this is a good thing or a bad things is difficult to say." (A.E.) Now one such might be droll enough. But by the dozen? This, the quantitative aspect of grading--we are, after all, getting $5 a head for you dolls and therefore pile up as many of you apiece as many of you apiece as we can get--this is what too many of you seem to forget. "Coleridge...
Mortimer describes better Felix's normal habitat when he is not being tried for murder, the circle of literary lions who lunch and speak and tour to promote their books. The formalities of the book-touring circuit seem deliciously droll when dripping from Mortimer's pen, and the occasional appearances of Sandra Tantamount, Felix's chief rival within his publishing house, furnish a comic garnish to a sometimes somber book. Felix's hapless adventures on tour and his constant, futile pursuit of his publicist illuminate Felix's personality even as they entertain...