Word: hustler
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...read many of the high court's First Amendment cases. Just as the Constitution protects pure thoughts and words, it likewise protects "depraved" desires, as long as those desires are spoken but not acted upon. For example in a recent case the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the right of Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt to publish a parody claiming that the Rev. Jerry Falwell lost his virginity in a drunken orgy with his mother in an outhouse. "Depraved?" Assuredly. Protected speech? Of course, without a single Justice in dissent...
Many Filipinos will be proud that last week's mass display of public indignation rid them of a President who was none-too-bright, unreliable after lunch and, if the testimony in Joseph Estrada's Senate trial is true, had the moral scruples of a two-bit Tondo hustler. But as with Woodstock II (or III), the sequel to 1986's People Power revolution is an echo with a hollow yet distinctly nasty tone. Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos cast presidential no-confidence votes with their feet - an act that doubled as an impromptu referendum on their constitution...
...part. Then the director gave the feisty upstart a small stipend to live on, enrolled her in acting classes, and loaded her up with stacks of background material. There were videos of brooding, gutsy movies like "A Streetcar Named Desire," "A Woman Under the Influence," "Gloria" and "The Hustler," along with method acting manuals by Stanislavski and Uta Hagen...
...dislocation: the characters are constantly on the go, traveling by bus, plane, and taxi; they've all lost hold of exactly where and who they are. Gwyneth Paltrow portrays a girlish Las Vegas showgirl (she wears pink tights and blue barrettes) who hits the road with a karaoke hustler played by Huey Lewis (yes, that Huey Lewis, as in the News). Paul Giamatti ("Private Parts") is a salesman who has grown so detached from his family that when he returns home, his kids won't talk to him and his wife cuts him off in mid-conversation with a curt...
...Unfortunately, when the characters in "Duets" aren't singing, they don't have much to say. That's probably because there's not much to these characters to begin with - come on, a karaoke hustler? Played by Huey Lewis? Karaoke as a metaphor for finding meaning in a meaningless world? Most people would probably be better off reading the Bhagavad Gita than crooning "Bette Davis Eyes" in front of a bar full of strangers. Bruce Paltrow's direction (in the past, he served as executive producer and director of NBC's "St. Elsewhere") is as aimless as his characters' lives...