Word: neil
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Obscene Directed by Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor; not rated; in limited release For publishing many of the past century's landmark works, including Howl, Naked Lunch, Lady Chatterley's Lover and Tropic of Cancer, Barney Rosset's Grove Press earned the U.S. government's highest tribute: prosecution for obscenity. This zippy documentary distills all the zest and pain of Rosset's career. Like the man and his imprint, it's sensational...
...Lucky Ones Directed by Neil Burger; rated R; out now Back from Iraq, three soldiers--a career Army man (Tim Robbins), a cute hillbilly (Rachel McAdams) and a guy made impotent by shrapnel (Michael Peña)--take the life lessons all road movies must provide. Each plot turn is predictable, but this awful film still has secrets: Why was it made? Why is it played as comedy? And who'd benefit from seeing...
...emotions, the intricate tightrope walk between comedy and tragedy--Ayckbourn's greatest feat, really--may be why his work has got short shrift in America. Early in his career, after such West End (and occasional Broadway) successes as Absurd Person Singular, Ayckbourn was labeled, patronizingly, the "British Neil Simon." But as his plays have grown darker and more complex, Broadway has largely abandoned him. Although Communicating Doors, one of his lesser comedies, had a successful run off-Broadway a couple of seasons back and Comic Potential, his latest West End hit, will be produced this fall by the Manhattan Theatre...
...sure, American productions of Ayckbourn are usually botched; directors tend to broaden the comedy and stomp all over the delicate (and very British) nuances. It's as if they still believe that silly Neil Simon tag. Better to compare Ayckbourn--who, at 61, has written nearly 60 plays and directs them himself--to another artist whose work was misunderstood in his lifetime, Alfred Hitchcock. Both worked in popular genres that had few pretensions to art--the suspense thriller and the domestic comedy. Both were technical virtuosos who loved to set themselves challenges in their chosen medium. And both managed...
...shade of trees sheltering him from the hot Saturday afternoon sun, graduate student Neil T. Roach could be heard clacking rocks together, fashioning stone tools for the archaeology department’s annual goat roast...