Word: leer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
JOEL GREY'S DIABOLICAL LEER, Liza Minelli's divinely decadent green nail polish and nervous mannerisms and the way her magnificent, ringing voice transfigured both in the lurid glare of the Kit Kat Klub--these are images that linger long and powerfully from the film version of Cabaret. From the growing horror of Nazism in Weimar Germany, the film cut artfully to the dazzling, perverse world of the cabaret, which grotesquely parodied an even more grotesque reality. The effect was to present a society in which decent human relationships were impossible, where human contacts were uniformly debased to the level...
...foibles and disorders of modern life. His publishers try to give the impression on the dust jacket that Hills is having a bit of a joke here with his talk of "Moral Virtue," the kind of joke you tell with plenty of broad winks and an occasional leer. It's just as well for them--who, these days, is going to buy a hortatory treatise on ethics that first appeared in Playboy...
Colleen Dewhurst and Ben Gazzara as Martha and George leer endearingly throughout with maddening control, periodically exploding barrages of verbal fire into vulnerable areas. Their conspiratorial magic transforms metaphysical ping-pong into a cooing and spitting that is pleasing to watch. Richard Kelton as Nick embodies the American Dream to a tee and he plays it with telling emphasis on the ruthlessness of youthful ambition. Maureen Anderman handles what is probably the most difficult role in the play without succumbing to the temptation of making Honey a one-dimensional hysteric...
...Massachusetts as it did in Alabama. The Bay State, the only one in the union to vote for McGovern in 1972, seems tailor-made for Wallace in 1976. He craftily plays down his chances in the March 2 primary and then adds-with something between a twinkle and a leer: "What if I did get a good vote? It would be a pretty potent message, wouldn't it? It would give them St. Vitus's dance in other campaign headquarters...
...account of her husband's set-to with constipation by rummaging bemusedly through the garbage or tranquilly scattering popcorn at the birds and Old Man Boyle. She coordinates her fickle behavior with the theme of insanity. Howze uses her spindly body delicately. She shapes her mouth into a crooked leer. And Old Woman Pus's complaint that her head is full of cobwebs emphasizes her resemblance to a spider with its graceful agility and venom...