Word: smarts
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Abel writes like a dramaturge, developing character and conflict mostly through articulate dialogue that ping-pongs between her smart, if oftentimes deluded or flawed characters. This makes La Perdida as engaging as good theater. A typical scene pits Memo against Carla in a long argument about the purity of Carla's motives for staying in Mexico. It lasts for over five pages with Memo saying things like "You teach over-priced English classes to under-educated Mexican morons who buy into the imperialistic American model?" To which Carla wonders about Memo's real reasons for learning English. "It wouldn...
...Spanish puts the book at the edge of today's controversy over the purity of English. La Perdida includes a glossary for all the Spanish at the end, except strangely, a translation of the title. My crude Google-based research roughly translates it as "The Lost One." For a smart, involved and serious graphic novel read, La Perdida should be found...
...Clooney (Syriana) and Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) won in the supporting actor categories; Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) and Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) took Best Actor and Actress; Brokeback Mountain was cited for adapted screenplay, Crash for original screenplay; and Brokeback?s Ang Lee for Best Director. The smart money even had the right over-under number on how many Jewish references host Jon Stewart would make in the award show?s first 30 minutes...
...first thing a film critic (this one, anyway) should say of V for Vendetta is that it's a terrific movie. I love the look and the verve of the thing, the confidence of its epic design, its smart use of half a dozen noted British thesps, lending weight and wit to the supporting roles. Hugo Weaving gives the finest no-face performance since Eric Stoltz in Mask, and Natalie Portman, always an eye magnet, does her sharpest film work yet. In her sobbing scenes, when her will must be broken, then forged anew, she comes darn close to acting...
MATTHEW PERRY Chandler's gig: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip The buzz: NBC's fall comedy show about a comedy show is seriously smart for the funny Friend...