Word: toning
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Barnz wants to put us through an experience of frustration and miscommunication, mirroring Phoebe's own, fine. But if that's what he's up to, he fails to maintain a coherence of tone within that narrative technique. At one point, Phoebe does something quite dramatic and dangerous. The movie has been steaming steadily toward this foreshadowed moment, and we feel it coming as a reckoning, involving shrinks, medication, and if Phoebe is lucky, rescue. Instead Barnz, bizarrely, softens it and turns it into another trip to the principal's office, stretching his credibility past the breaking point...
...amid the splatter of crushed limbs, the chatter of Strangelovean science fiction and the sludge of traditional romance--and despite way too much tone-deaf acting--Watchmen has splashes of greatness. It proves again that the action movie is where the best young Hollywood brains have gone to bring flesh to their fantasies...
...technical execution. Harnessing the Steinway to produce a resounding bass undertone that pianists with a lighter touch so often lose, Lang beckoned us into the heat of Bartók’s chordal battle. After a virtuosic passage that unabashedly showcased the percussive capabilities and dissonant tones of the instrument, a plaintive melody, influenced by Bartók’s roots in folk music, resolved the chaos. Jerking out of this harmonic respite, Lang coaxed the coda from a steady trot of sharp staccatos into a thunderous gallop of arpeggiated exclamations. Lang transitioned flawlessly from the mad chaos...
...change her tune, the songs often become much less appealing. “Prison Girls” is an ominous song with a Latin-rhythmic feel that is a change from the liveliness of the other tracks. Case has a chance to sing in a darker, more minor tone, and the instrumentation lends itself to a more complex mix of sounds and riffs, but the song as a whole drags on and does not seem suitable for the delicacy of Case’s voice. On “I’m an Animal,” Case declares...
...that works particularly well when multitracked into dense harmonies. His timbre reinforces their aesthetic of naïveté, but sounds a bit thin when soloing over acoustic guitar on tracks like “The Worm Forgives The Plow.” Owen’s vulnerable, intimate tone draws attention to his lyrics, which are rich in metaphor and often veer towards intentional self-parody, with lines like “I need a cookie and a hug.” The lyrics work best when they undermine, rather than reinforce, the fuzzy cuteness of, well, everything else...