Word: melodrama
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...colorful but ultimately threadbare tapestry of rural America, in which the CB substitutes for drab reality. By showing the murky side of CB broadcasts, Demme implicitly criticizes an American ideology which necessitates the use of CB as an outlet for frustration and loneliness. Too bad Demme turns tragedy into melodrama so that his film succeeds only on the level of frivolous entertainment...
...goes. Ordinary, likable people persistently misunderstand themselves, their needs and desires, and there fore misunderstand their equally befuddled neighbors. In the hands of someone other than Tacchella, all of this might be the stuff of tragedy, or at least of psychoanalytic melodrama. But Tacchella seems to be convinced that eccentricity is the best measure of our humanity, some thing to be treasured and explored rather than deplored. His way is simply to record in quick sketches each little absurdity his camera catches, give a rueful Gallic shrug and move briskly on. If such a thing is possible, he is profoundly...
...industrial melodrama, a product not known to sell many tickets, the thing starts out simply enough: Loren Hardeman Sr., 86, founder of the Bethlehem Motor Co. back in the heroic days of car manufacturing, is tired of vegetating down in Florida. He wants to make his comeback by manufacturing "the Betsy," a sort of Model T cum Volkswagen for the '70s, ecologically sound, energy conserving, sensible. He hires a stud race-car driver, one Angelo Perino (Tommy Lee Jones), to honcho the project back at the factory, sneaking it by Loren Hardeman III, the old man's grandson...
...Pygmalion, are rarely performed. Conversely, scarcely a season passes when the overestimated Saint Joan and Candida do not show up on some theater's docket. One could hardly underestimate The Devil's Disciple. Shaw himself thought that this 1897 play would eventually be considered a "threadbare popular melodrama...
...fulfillment in politics. When the oppression and tyranny of his father's rule is brought to his attention, he becomes outraged and swears to foment a revolution. With a jarring suddenness, Pippin stabs his father in the back and sings to a new day, turning the comedy into a melodrama for the moment...