Word: plot
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...sweeping and erroneous generalizations, to condemn any solution that is grounded in something deeper than knee-jerk common sense. In response to these trends, Democrats and Republicans who place the pursuit of truth above their party labels must acknowledge that "liberal academia" is not involved in a secret plot to destroy America. "Elite universities" are not motivated by secret political agendas. Those holding liberal views are as concerned with the future of the country as are conservatives...
Occasionally the low-budget film achieves moments which capture the antsy, interior world of close male friends in the tradition of "American Graffiti" or "Dinner." Too often, however, static camera work, awkward acting and the deliberate plod of the plot hinder potentially sharp interactions...
Though Nicky's affair with Wendy provides a central plot line for the film, the shenanigans of Nicky's crew are more interesting and unpredictable. Ralph (Nicholas Turturro) is the most engaging of the guys who get together to play poker, get drunk and engage in the kind of good-natured, explosive joking familiar from other films. His behavior--erratic, violent, tinged with sexual aggression and defensiveness--adds the only true element of surprise and discomfort to the film...
...Federal Hill residents--one a tailor who admonishes one of the boys for a "funny money" deal, the other a pawn shop owner who, after sizing up a stolen ring, tells Ralph to take the ring, get out and not come back--relax the occasionally awkward machinations of the plot and makes the Hill feel real...
...native New Yorker, Gewanter studied writing and literature at Madison and Berkeley. His own college projects tended towards the esoteric, including a one-act drama starring a deconstructionist who is charged with writing a bomb threat. (The gist of the excessively postmodern plot is derived from Foucault's "What is Author?" essay. It will not be airing after Married With Children anytime soon...