Word: moderns
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Anyone who thinks romantic comedies are formulaic hokum is probably all too easily proved right. But every once in a while, a gem comes along to silence the cynics. Director James L. Brooks has crafted a warmhearted modern fable with a prickly sense of humor. Jack Nicholson plays an obsessive-compulsive curmudgeon named Melvin Udall, whose isolated life is complicated by developing relationships with two acquaintances: a gay painter who lives in the apartment next door and a lovely, down-to-earth waitress who serves him lunch every day. The film's genuinely funny, moving script will make the audience...
...double desks of the twins, and the pantomime rostrum of C.B. draw attention to how stark the set is--a draped dais surrounded by twenty telephones, with other furniture passim. Such an arrangement is hard to dislike and equally hard to fathom. Is it the device-crazed silliness of modern life that leads it on? Or a nihilistic take on that culture? Or a big sardonic joke free of philosophical posture...
...contributors, veritable modern czars of pop, try to capture Stevie Nicks' exuberance, but almost completely ignore her contemplation. As a result, Legacy sounds artificially happy and at times, difficult to listen to. The band Tonic sounds cheerful in singing "I'm just second-hand news." As the Irish band, The Corrs, rework the track "Dreams," they too, seem to ignore the tortured meaning of the lyrics and delightedly croon, "Thunder only happens when it's raining/Players only love you when they're playing." The Corrs, however, do incorporate the hall-mark of 1990's music. They sing with a dance...
...recede from the reaches of public attention, collapsing from lack of support beyond that of the silver-haired concertgoers who routinely fill Boston's Symphony and Jordan Halls. Even world-renowned orchestras from London and Berlin find themselves playing to the same sterling sea--all too often, the modern citizen instinctively sets aside any abiding appreciation for classical music, saving it for the Sunday matinees of his or her golden years. The names Yo-Yo and Itzhak ring bells for many Americans, but few would immediately recognize the virtues of pianist Max Levinson '93 or cellist Matt Haimovitz '96, both...
...novel is never fully developed. In fact, the food genre is quickly dropped, which can confuse a reader who thought this novel would be about taking a culinary journey into Greece and getting some heart-to-heart searching along the way. Instead, the novel delves superficially into many "modern" themes and experiences, and the plot line--already thinner than a slice of processed American cheese--doesn't fare well under the pressure and eventually melts away altogether...