Word: taut
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Quietly, Lear recedes as the band of vocal editors suggests fresh definitions: "sensual," "off the nest," "reborn," "glamourized," "well maintained." "Too much like automobiles," trills Lear, shooting across the room like a small comet. At 65, she's delicately handsome: 5 ft. 6 in., 115 lbs., with a taut dancer's body, sandblasted jawline, thick uncolored platinum hair and barely a trace of makeup except for one "expensive cosmetic," the face-lifting, her first done in her late 40s. Her fastidiously tailored look is accented by understated braided-gold Cartier jewelry and a black-band Tiffany watch. But behind...
...still have their lights on in the ambiguous dawn -- large cars and vans. The crusaders of Operation Rescue do not know where they are going, but they are prepared for long drives. Organizers line up the carloads to be given maps as they peel off out of the lot. Taut nerves make the leaders snappish as they scurry about, pausing in little clots of prayer, then bustling to their tasks. Their language is semimilitary, befitting such constant readers of the Book of Exodus. These are churchgoing, middle-class couples, uneasy in the shabby clothes they have put on for prison...
...sentenced to eight years for breaking into cars. He sang in the prison choir (his nickname was "Music Box") and, on his release after three | years, started a band. Brown's pioneering rhythm and blues soon had black audiences up on their feet dancing to funky drums, taut horn riffs and sweat- drenched lyrics that sometimes rose to the level of pungent urban poetry. A 1968 hit gave a slogan to an era: "Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud...
...opening game features a well-devised trap. But the lad is too slithery to hold, and he is soon en route to maman, with fatal consequences for her. From that fiery shoot-out until checkmate, the contest becomes increasingly taut, vicious and engaging. At each turn, Laemmle edges closer to his goal. At every escape, Thomas becomes a little wearier, a trifle more dependent on a cast of peasants, restaurateurs, shopkeepers and devious intelligence operatives. None are so devious or inventive as he is. The most adept, of course, proves to be Quartermain, flown in to rescue the child...
...film seems to have much of what one might expect from a David Mamet movie: a Chicago setting, smooth gangsters and solid performances by some of Mamet's usual players (in this case, Joe Mantegna and Robert Prosky). What it lacks is Mamet's usual taut, tricky plotting, unsentimental direction and compelling characters...