Word: weirdness
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Woody Allen's new movie, Sleeper, will be all over the country by the time this column is printed, and it sounds amazing: Among other things, Allen plays Blanche opposite Diane Keaton's Stanley in a weird version of A Streetcar Named Desire; Allen wakes up (or, rather, is defrosted) 200 years in the future...
...battles between tribes fighting with spears, clubs, bows and arrows in disputes over land, pigs and women, in approximately that order. A lingering appetite for cannibalism is suspected in the remote interior where Stone Age conditions prevail Witch doctors still thrive and sorcery is practiced. The cargo cults, a weird blend of religious faith and economic frustration, claim 60,000 members. They believe that they can acquire such desirable Western luxuries as radios and canned beer by practicing certain rites like assembling on mountaintops, where they construct mock airplanes and await the gifts from heaven...
Breezy should be an ill wind but is not-not all the time, anyway. It is affecting in its weird little way. Maybe because it is pleasant to find anything animated by the romantic spirit at the movies these days. Maybe because Writer Heims has a saving, cynical sense of humor. Maybe because Eastwood has an easy way with actors that is far easier, more relaxed than his fussy manner with the camera. But probably most of all because Bill Holden, 55, is still an astringent, no-nonsense sort of actor, and his old-pro integrity is matched...
...DOERING, MY teacher, did not believe me. She gave me a weird look--she was puzzled because I had exhibited no signs of mental illness before--and sent me to the back of the room to sit by myself. I was angry and embarrased at her response. "She'll see," I thought to myself. "She'll be sorry when she finds out what really happened." And when the announcement came over the P.A. system, when she did find out the truth, she was sorry. I felt nothing but vindication at the fact that I was right and she was wrong...
...novelty were enough to sustain a movie, The Triple Echo could go far. But novelty is about all it has. Director MIchael Apted is so concerned with making the oddness of the script believable that he never really takes advantage of it. The movie is never weird or funny enough, never frightening or suspenseful. It does not seem especially outlandish either, which is another mistake. Even kinkiness is academic here. Glenda Jackson seems impatient, while Oliver Reed goes about with his cheeks puffed out, as if taking a sobriety test with an imaginary balloon...