Word: slapstick
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...OUTRAGED AT YOUR PRINTING OF Keillor's piece on Thanksgiving. I almost choked to death while eating my jellied cranberry sauce. Garrison cooked a delightful stuffing of philosophical musings, corn-pone anecdotes and downright slapstick jokes. A milestone hoot. PAT STEPHENSON Prairie Village, Kansas
...roles of Phyllis and Bishop are extremely difficult, spanning the full range of emotion from slapstick to criminal insanity, and they are mostly handled well by Sarah Burt-Kinderman and Ryan McCarthy. Though McCarthy is unconvincing as the young Bishop--his stuttering remains an irritating mannerism rather than evidence of his inner conflcits--he plays the older, savage Bishop with the necessary energy and conviction. His long, shouted monologue about masturbation would sink the play if presented without utter confidence; fortunately, McCarthy is equal to the task. While it is troubling that McCarthy remains in that one loud register...
Durang's script blends the conventions of slapstick, classic musicals. French farces, family dramas, metatheater and Shakespearean word play into a daring yet intelligent collage, characteristic of his other works. The play moves along swiftly, though the last ten-minutes, set after the play has actually sunk, seems a bit anticlimactic...
Sabbath is saved from slapstick by his desire to find relief and wisdom in his past. He comes closest in a conversation with a 100-year-old man who once delivered vegetables in Mickey's old neighborhood. Getting the spirit of the aged on paper has become something of a sub-specialty for Roth--notably in Patrimony, his tender and unsparing account of his father's life and death. The encounter between Sabbath and the centenarian is reminiscent of the earlier memoir...
...strength of 'Something to Talk About' lies in its reality. This movie asks questions that people face everyday. It doesn't allow the characters to take the easy way out, and its wry humor strikes an eerily familiar note. This is not a movie with slapstick comedy or old sitcom jokes--its comic moments are all natural, springing from painfully real situations. This movie is a must...