Word: spader
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Jack Nicholson plays Will Randall, an editor for a large publishing house in New York City. With the last sweep of 1980's-style conglomerations, he finds out his job is going to be given to his scheming underling, Stewart Swinton (James Spader) and he is going to be offered the new frontier of Eastern Europe to develop. With his New-found canine powers he gets a shoot of testosterone and guts and decides to battle with is boss, the publishing tycoon, Raymond Alden (Christopher Plummer). Meanwhile the boss' daughter has fallen in love with him, so when he finds...
...rough beast slouching along a Vermont roadway? All his senses are suddenly sharpened: he can smell liquor on a colleague's breath at a dozen paces, overhear plotting phone calls far down the corridor, even -- literally -- sniff out his wife's affair with his chief rival (James Spader). He becomes, you might say, an animal in bed. And he, naturally, develops a taste for the jugular in matters of business...
...Nichols and the writers (novelist Jim Harrison and Wesley Strick) are treading a fine high wire; one misstep and off you tumble into self-satire, the modern horror film's omnipresent danger. But by provoking authentic laughter with their satirical thrusts at current corporate styles (Spader is a hilarious model of yuppie unctuousness), they make sure we are amused often and always at the right moments. If Nichols had less skill, we would crack up when the moon is full and Nicholson's stunt double starts leaping around the countryside, but using low light and slow motion, the director displays...
Venue (Louisiana) and history (a corrupt past) evoke the Long family; sexual carelessness mixed with liberal idealism recalls the Kennedys. Together these touches give the tale of the Fowler clan of STORYVILLE a certain vibrancy. The story line -- in which the family scion (a well-cast James Spader) runs for Congress, investigates a murder in which he could be implicated and sorts out the circumstances surrounding his father's suicide -- is twisty and full of colorful characters and weird behavior. Director Mark Frost, co-creator of Twin Peaks, has made a good-looking movie, combining intellectual ambition with darkly glamorous...
...right-wing minstrel running for the Senate against a liberal incumbent named Brickley Paiste (and played by Gore Vidal, whose 1960 drama, The Best Man, addressed similar campaign compromises). With the help of a Mephistophelian campaign boss (Alan Rickman) and a mostly fawning corps of TV anchors (James Spader, Peter Gallagher, Susan Sarandon, Pamela Reed), Bob will do anything to get elected. Power is something a fellow could nearly...