Word: melodramas
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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THERE ARE MOMENTS when Inserts seems to aspire to tragedy and others when it verges on absurdist farce. The broadly farcical sequences lighten what might otherwise be a plodding melodrama and heighten the pathos of The Boy Wonder's plight. A contrast is effected between The Boy Wonder's intelligence and dedication to cinematic art, and the foolish self-serving idiocy of the world around him. At one point, Stephen Davies as Rex, dubbed the Wonder Dog, an empty-headed young undertaker with visions of film stardom who moonlights as porno stud, proposes a perverse idea for flaunting his masculinity...
...ethic. The story, in which a family called the Wakatsukis endures in a short span most of life's large experiences (birth, death, new love, even madness), never seems forced or schematic. The result is a work that is modest and touching and refreshingly free of melodrama. It is not at all the sort of thing you expect to find on Thursday Night at the Movies, but which you could hope for more of. Richard Schickel
...proved adept at that as well. A suave addition to Hollywood society, he was briefly engaged to Actress Joanne Woodward; she and Husband Paul Newman are now among his closest friends. His backstage knowledge was only exceeded by his familiarity with backstairs politics. The Best Man, his well-made melodrama about infighting at a political nominating convention, opened on Broadway in 1960 and ran for 520 performances...
...perhaps, President of the U.S. Now a self-assured 13, Jodie Foster wants instead to be "a very good actress," a goal for which she is almost frighteningly well endowed. What hooked her on acting as a career was the movie Taxi Driver (TIME, Feb. 16), a florid melodrama of Manhattan's streets that is mostly memorable for Jodie's portrayal, as to the bordello born, of the trick-wise twelve-year-old whore...
...Virgin and the Gypsy is a cariacture of D. H. Lawrence at his worst--all violent passion and sensuality in lush color without any character development. The only relief in this romantic melodrama comes when a flood washes away the virgin's shrewish grandmother and the entire vile English country estate to our intense delight. Another dull melodrama to be avoided is Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon, unless you go for two and a half hour fag jokes in the guise of sympathy and relevance. Al Pacino's acting is excellent but does not overcome the ridiculous role...