Word: penns
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...directors latest, the fanciful Sweet and Lowdown, is in most respects a minor work of art, though it is pleasant and interesting. But enthusiasts should note that it represents something of a breakthrough for Allen, in that the main character, fictional 30s jazz guitarist Emmet Ray (Sean Penn), is a brooding, inarticulate, freewheeling figure motivated by moody emotions. Sure, hes neurotic as hell, but not in the style of nebbishy self-analysis that has informed so many Allen protagonists. Emmets comic/pathetic exploits are governed by the cadences of jazz, which has always been a background presence in Allens movies...
...Allen is lucky that his clever though slight concept is bolstered by actors who breathe an impressive amount of life into their limited characters. Sean Penn gleefully slips into Emmets skin. Stuttering, overconfident and vulnerable, Emmet is a bundle of nervous tics that Penn knows how to make believable. Emmet is, in addition to being a performance artist, a kleptomaniac, pimp and all-around heel, who somehow comes off as a nice guy despite himself. The running joke of the movie is that Emmet Ray is the second greatest jazz guitarist of his time, and the two times that Emmet...
...team's hopes have been raised since the Crimson beat Brown 193-106 at Blodgett on Nov. 19. The Bears are the defending Ivy champions. For Harvard to complete a perfect conference schedule, the Crimson must defeat Penn, Yale and Princeton in meets at Blodgett after the break...
...really come into his own this year, had another impressive tournament to add to the pair of fourth place finishes he has already earned. Rechul's decisive 6-2 defeat of Boe Rushton of Boise State guaranteed him the seventh place spot. Rechul, who came close to defeating Penn's All American Bandele Adenyi-Bada at the Ivy Classic, continued to prove this weekend that he can contend with the nation's best...
...Penn does bold justice to this lowdown giant. But Samantha Morton, as Emmet's "mute orphan half-wit" of a girlfriend, is the sweet revelation. Rarely has a performer mined such complex and potent emotion from such simple materials: a smile, a shrug, an attentive winsomeness. She hardly nods or shakes her head in response to a question, yet always conveys the meaning and feeling. In an age of actors' tics and rantings, such austere clarity is worth cherishing. The interpretive magic that Emmet Ray achieves with six strings, Morton conjures with none...