Word: wit
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Being the cleverest fellow in movies had its perks: six Oscars (out of 21 nominations), for writing, producing and directing. It also earned Wilder, from the sterner critics, the label of cynic. They said his films were long on wit and short on compassion. Pick up a rock, and Wilder's view of the human condition would crawl out from under it. Nearly 40 years ago, critic Andrew Sarris wrote, "Billy Wilder is too cynical to believe even his own cynicism." Today we can see that Wilder was less a cynic than a premature realist. An Austrian Jew who left...
There are, however, flashes of Albee’s wry verbal wit and sneaky ability to shift the foundation of his fictional world. When trying to sort out the details of an affair, Martin’s best friend Ross (portrayed by American Repertory Theatre founding member Stephen Rowe) questions, “Sylvia––the goat who you’re fucking?” “Don’t say that,” responds Martin curtly, before correcting him, “whom...
...Romano), a saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) and a sloth (John Leguizamo)--survives plot challenges of no particular ingenuity. The film breaks anthropological ground by revealing that humans lived in the Ice Age, but its contribution to cartoon history is more modest. It yearns for Pixar-style wit without quite earning...
...crucial. It matters how a TV star may interpret a lyric differently from a classic Broadway belter or a London lilter. It matters that Brent Spiner (Star Trek’s Data) is a vocally superior John Adams in 1776, but somehow his performance in the revival matches the wit or intensity of William Daniels’ original portrayal. It matters that in the second Broadway revival of Cabaret, Alan Cumming delivers the shocking final line of “If You Could See Her” as a harsh whisper, whereas Joel Grey sings it in the original production...
...somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff,” in which she exclaims, “stealin’ my shit from me / don’t make it yours / makes it stolen.” Johnson, arrayed in orange, exhibits the sharp wit and comedic sensibility necessary to carry this poem respectably...