Word: shrewd
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This chatty smorgasbord is nominally about Cecilia Bartoli, but the greater part is a hilarious collection of anecdotes, gossip and shrewd observations concerning that unique branch of humanity, the opera singer. Tenors are uncommonly stupid; divas, when they are not scarfing down pasta, are outrageously unreliable. The imperious troublemaker Kathleen Battle, feeling chilly in a limo in Los Angeles, is said to have telephoned her manager in New York City and ordered him to call her driver to ask him to turn down the air conditioning. A nervous Deborah Voigt, waiting backstage for her entrance, absentmindedly ate a prop chicken...
...this will merely cement Spielberg's reputation as Hollywood's perpetual winner, a cinematic genius and shrewd moneymaker who is almost incapable of taking false steps. Even when he does flounder, as he did with Amistad, he seems to bounce back with a stronger, more awe-inspiring, more heartfelt success than ever before. Such appears to be the case with his latest film. But the lovefest spawned by Saving Private Ryan has prevented most critics from questioning Spielberg's motivation in creating such a movie, which is by no means clear...
...Towne the director has a shrewd and patient eye for the small, telling tics of human behavior, Towne the writer says all his best work--which includes the classic Chinatown--is "about a man's relationship to his profession, the willingness to put everything into doing one single thing well," which he finds "purifying and thrilling...
...surprised by all this? I was. Clinton has usually been equal to the moment. He has never been eloquent, merely verbal, and he has never--how to put it?--stunned us with his brilliance. But he has often been shrewd, and he has always shown the skills of the survivor. He has always, too, acted the public part of the presidency with ease and burly vanity. The other night on TV I saw a videotape of Clinton walking along the White House lawn, his hands clasped thoughtfully behind his back, his face a shaded mask of contemplation. In physical attitude...
...result is a shrewd portrait, sly, casual yet palpably authentic, of the principal ways members of any minority try to respond to an uncomprehending world. Each learns something useful from the other, and we, incidentally, learn something believable and warming about modern Native life and manners. Smoke Signals could be more complex and compelling narratively, but there's a sweet freshness in its voice that's worth heeding...