Word: subtext
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Flightplan”—a film that dares to incorporate the association of airplanes and terrorism in a post 9/11 world—has some underlying agenda of social commentary? After an entire summer of allegory-laced big-budget action features with socio-political subtext, it’s refreshing to find a smart movie with no aspirations to social relevancy...
...1940s, which in turn derived from an earlier era. Stratford productions sprawl grandly. The stage spills over with bodies, and even walk-ons are played by seasoned performers. Directors seem concerned more with creating stage pictures than with unearthing moments of character revelation. There is scant search for subtext, for the sort of humanity that lurks within people rather than revealing itself readily in words...
...somewhat shaky performance from Rumanian-born Soprano Ileana Cotrubas, who sings Magda, the Lyric's handsome, glittering production is cast with young Americans. Originally presented in 1981 at Pisa's Teatro Comunale G. Verdi, it is directed by Giulio Chazalettes, who might have made more of Rondine's disillusioned subtext and in so doing brought out its richer texture. But as performers gradually realize the opera's possibilities, harder-edged interpretations will no doubt follow...
...Amateurs begins as straightforward coverage of the manic scramble for a handful of spots on the 1984 U.S. Olympic rowing team: "It was not a celebrated event ... no tickets were sold, and the community in which it was held, Princeton, New Jersey, largely ignored it." But a subtext soon makes itself apparent. Within a few pages the book becomes not merely an examination and celebration of one of the few authentic amateur sports. It is also a close analysis of addiction. For these rowers are, to a man, driven, single-minded, type-A combatants who make better companions...
Somewhere in there, too, is a substantial amount of socio-political subtext, but it’s dropped in such a half-hearted, haphazard manner that any commentary ultimately gets lost among all the flashy explosions. Sure, such lines as “No one pays attention to Africa” pop up now and then, but they appear jarring amidst gunfire battles and elaborate speed-boat chases...