Word: squirm
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...where did our love go?"). They thrill again to the eloquent plaint of the Shangri-Las ("Remember, walkin' in the sand") and the sly taunts of the Angels ("My boyfriend's back, he's gonna save my reputation/ If I were you I'd take a permanent vacation"). They squirm a bit at the references to J.F.K.'s assassination and the Viet Nam War, then perk up for so-fine evocations of Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner and Janis Joplin. The '60s and some of its prime shakers are dead, but the decade's survivors figure they can revive...
...squirm while watching the play and feel that hot blush starting on your neck, but--like the rest of the audience--you'll probably laugh as heartily at the smut as you did in fourth grade. But underneath the laughter, Cloud 9 has a squalid streak and leaves you feeling as though you might want to wash your mouth, or more appropriately your ears, out with soap...
...best in film: veering unnervingly between caressing affection and blind rage. Small wonder that as the son, Macchio looks so skittish that his feet are almost never flat on the floor: he is forever on his toes, primed for flight. Early in the play De Niro makes the boy squirm by pledging to be his best friend, a pal so close he would pick his son's nose for him. Later, when he learns the boy has sampled heroin, he aims a loaded gun at his offspring, then at himself. Cuba is less angry about drug use--he snorts cocaine...
Good schlock--like An American Werewolf in London or Risky Business--steps gingerly just this side of outright derision of its subjects. Bad schlock--St. Elmo's Fire--hates its characters intensely and usually ends up by offending us or making us squirm...
...something else. Ivy games are certainly no criminal offense against PBS's mandate, and the public stations need all the good will they can get. Public broadcasting executives should start to ask themselves, though, how far they can go in sacrificing their programming and policy orientation as they squirm to keep their stations in the black. And the federal officials who manage public broadcasting's central inances should be wary of dangers to PBS's credibility as an impartial and pluralistic network. Meanwhile, however, on a somewhat selfish level. I'm glad we were able to watch Game...