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Under the Skin
There have been three Scarlett Johansson movies in a row about the moral complexities of physical attraction and human relations in the virtual age, and beyond: Don Jon, in which she compares unfavorably, in the eyes of a boyfriend, with online porn; Her, in which she is the voice of a sultry operating system who…
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Her
The advance press for Under the Skin, by virtue of playing none-too-subtly upon the presence in the film of Scarlett Johansson in a state of undress, has prompted me to revisit my thoughts on Spike Jonze‘s HER, which I didn’t manage to set down when first I saw it. Johansson, of course, plays the voice…
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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The plays and dramatis personae of Tennessee Williams are basically abstractions of emotions and other states of being. Stanley and Blanche are masculinity and femininity abstracted; in a very real sense they are detached qualities rather than people, even in the limited sense that fictional creations aspire to be. I think of the dreamy sentimentality…