Word: grodin
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...just how well can campaigns for or against Supreme Court Justices really work? In California, opponents of Chief Justice Rose Bird and Associate Justices Joseph Grodin and Cruz Reynoso assert that the three justices should be removed because they are out of touch with the majority, especially on the issue of the death penalty. Ideology and specific issues become the centerpieces of Court campaigns, while the subtle principles the Court is charged with enforcing are lost by the wayside...
This is the story of how a glumly harassed studio executive (Walter Matthau), a clinically depressed screenwriter (Charles Grodin) and a frenetic director (Bill Macy) try earnestly to make a movie that "says something" true and < beautiful about love and sex. Since this is exactly the kind of project no one wants anymore, the trio finally fails. Having hung around Hollywood and learned a few things, all three actors offer well-observed and rather sympathetic portrayals of these familiar types. Actor-Producer Grodin's script is anecdotally acute but a little unfocused, and it is not especially well served...
...Wilder has fashioned an ironic, worldly, yet sternly moral comedy that gives an energizing twist to every farcical convention and finds the perfect timing for every rubber-faced reaction to calamity. Judith Ivey as a wife whose dimness is perfectly shaded, Gilda Radner as an angry romantic, and Charles Grodin as a secretive goof all follow their leader's spirit. The result is the summer's first comedy for adults. May they respond profitably to so rare a gift. -By Richard Schickel RED DAWN...
...classic meditation on how urban realities undermine our urbane fantasies. If he had, unlikely adjectives like Felliniesque might now be accreting to The Lonely Guy. But half the film is merely joky in a flat, familiar way, and Steve Martin in the title role and Charles Grodin as his best friend too consistently play in the depressed-repressed mode. There needs to be some open frenzy in their madness. Still, there is more off-the-wall originality in the film than audiences can find in a dozen typical commercial comedies. It is a one-night stand one might actually remember...
...Woman invades Cheech and Chong territory for stock comic complications and a slapstick climax. By film's end, the viewer's hopes have shrunk along with wee Lily. The razzle-dazzle finale - and a barrage of TV commercials and guest appearances by Tomlin and Co-Star Charles Grodin - may be working...