Word: simonizes
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Where have all our leaders gone? In Certain Trumpets (Simon & Schuster; 322 pages; $23), Pulitzer-prizewinning historian Garry Wills tries to answer that familiar question by posing some queries of his own. Where are the good followers? Wills asks. And where are the great issues and programs that unite leader and led in action? A leader without committed followers is an unheard voice in the wilderness. Followers without a leader who understands their needs are a mere mob. And without a timely, common cause, neither leader nor followers will affect history, for good or ill. Wills describes 16 people...
...remarkable thing is that Simon, although a bum, is one hell of a guy. One hell of a guy. He is full of jokes; when a stuffy Disability administrator asks, "What state were you born in?" Simon answers, "Infancy." He reads Zola. He cooks. He fixes cars. He defends the Constitution brilliantly in a classroom showdown with Money's thesis advisor, that sneering elitist bastard Professor Pitkannan (played with relish by Gore Vidal) who finds the document vulgar and crude...
Pretty soon, Simon becomes the father Monty never had. Monty's roommates--Courtney (Moira Kelly), Everett (Patrick Dempsey) and Jeff (Josh Hamilton)--also get to like him; he even moves in with them. After Simon makes wise remarks, Monty and Courtney realize that they like each other, and they even have sex. Simon's so nice; it's really too bad he is doomed! Doomed...
...most endearing aspect of the movie is the acting. Joe Pesci is genuinely likeable in the lead, although it is hard to get past the fact that Simon is a shameless caricature. He performs especially well in the scene when Simon, wheezing and on his knees, interrupts Monty and Courtney's postcoital petting. He does not perform as well when he rubs his hands and says, "Boy oh boy oh boy," something he does with unsettling frequency...
...Yeah, right. You would have had to have done a scene where Simon went to the Science Center and printed out the floppy disk and turned it into pages again. I don't know. God, if that's the biggest question people have I'll be happy. It's a good point, but I think it's one that we were aware of, and we just did the best we could...