Word: earnest
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...sign our age, and perhaps a hopeful sign, that these questions are treated with earnest skepticism. Plenty of careful medical and environmental studies have made it clear that suicide may well be an attractive alternative to "living" through a nuclear exchange. And yet something threatened to choke sympathy off at the throat. Were the Brown students 1980s zoot-suiters who had spoiled a serious issue with a publicity stunt, muddying the earnest reputation of Ivy League students? It is difficult not to ask the question...
...campaign, Ferraro appears to be winning in the field, Bush on paper. The Democrat has drawn large, enthusiastic crowds. Her quick-footedness has served her well. Bush, meanwhile, is surprisingly inept as a campaigner. His earnest speeches seldom excite even the smallish Republican crowds he usually addresses, and he sometimes reacts badly to the to-and-fro of daily campaigning. Yet according to public opinion polls, the Vice President, with his 18 years of solid national experience, is much more highly regarded than his Democratic counterpart. A New York Times/CBS News poll released Sunday found that 47% of voters view...
Williams is not well-suited to play the Last of the White Liberal Lawyers; how many attorneys do you know that take depositions in a black leather skirt? There must be a law school somewhere in Hollywood that turns out these good looking and earnest young lawyers ripe for disillusionment...
...Neal is, as ever, good at earnest befuddlement; Long is marvelously febrile in both misery and triumph. Screenwriters Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer (who here makes his directorial debut) appear to have been up and down and to have learned that both are bad news; they also display a familiarity with the life and films of Peter Bogdanovich. Only in their reach for a reconciling ending do they betray the cool ferocity of their approach. They may love old movies as much as their protagonist does, but they should know that, for good or ill, Frank Capra has retired...
...flip side of the character he played in the 1980 movie Melvin and Howard. The lovable lout has turned into a dangerous brute; LeMat's subtle achievement is to s show that both are one. The rest of the cast, especially Richard Masur as Francine's bland, earnest, ultimately heroic attorney, is uniformly excellent...