Word: metaphoritis
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...here as the naive, overwhelmed Tom Levi, whose purpose in life is both limited and noble, who becomes entangled in events far beyond his wildest imaginings, and who, in the final analysis, demonstrates a resiliency and inner strength which one gathers his father, for all his brilliance, lacked. The metaphor of the marathon runner, ever striving for greater fortitude, is indeed apt, and Hoffman has found a role which, with its moments of humor and of pathos, affords him an opportunity to turn in a performance strikingly reminiscent, in its portrayal of a character confused and bewildered, yet ultimately driven...
Well, Altman's legend will not stand on this little contestant, no matter how much Vincent Canby cheers her on from the sidelines. But chalk it up mostly to Altman's never-failing eye for realism. Because once having chosen this metaphor--a band of bad actors for a generation of gun-slingers--Altman portrays an acting troupe as he knows most of them to be--generally hungover, self-deluding, myth-gobbling and over-rated. So the real question remains: why choose this metaphor in the first place? Maybe Altman just wanted to give his real actors an improvising...
STILL THE SHOW has pretensions to verite. "The Wanton Wind isn't a metaphor for life; it is life," one of its stars insists. That's where the actors themselves come in. If we can't believe totally in The Wanton Wind, can't in the space of the couple of episodes we're presented with begin to empathize with its characters, we still have a chance to worry about the future of the actors who play them. As it turns out, though, they are hardly less one-dimensional or stylized than their roles; the aging star, the actor...
Wolff does fulfill his title metaphor, charting Crosby's transit and eclipse. He deftly dispels the romanticized view of Crosby as a lost generation archetype, but his emphasis on anecdotes rather than analysis reduces Crosby's short life to series of bizarre, disconnected incidents. Wolff resurrects Crosby from oblivion, but why he has bothered is never made clear...
...Little Red Book amply demonstrates, Mao was the most readable of Marxist theoreticians. But in other speeches, poems and letters, Mao displayed even more strikingly than in the book a command of pungent metaphor, as well as occasional flights of lyricism. A sampler...