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Philip Kaufman's Twisted walks like a thriller and talks like a thriller, but it squawks like a turkey.
But back to deus ex machina. This is a phrase you will want to study and master, not merely to amaze friends during long bus journeys but because it so perfectly describes what otherwise might take you thousands of words. Imagine a play on a stage. The hero is in a fix. The dragon is breathing fire, his sword is broken, his leg is broken, his spirit is broken, and the playwright's imagination is broken. Suddenly there is the offstage noise of the grinding of gears, and invisible machinery lowers a god onto the stage, who slays the dragon, heals the hero, and fires the playwright. He is the "god from the machine."
--
Review of Twisted (27 February 2004)

 

Roger Ebert

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In spite of all the dishonour,
the broken standards, the broken lives,
The broken faith in one place or another,
There was something left that was more than the tales
Of old men on winter evenings.

 

Thomas Stearns (T. S.) Eliot

 

He is broken, far from free
Words were spoken, 'tween him and me:
"I had friends, yes, I was admired
I'm so old now, feel so tired."
Well he walks to the gate and he looks behind
at life in rewind
And wishes he had known these things
while still alive.

 

Happy Rhodes

 

Whatever happened to me in my life, happened to me as a writer of plays. I'd fall in love, or fall in lust. And at the height of my passion, I would think, "So this is how it feels," and I would tie it up in pretty words. I watched my life as if it were happening to someone else. My son died. And I was hurt, but I watched my hurt, and even relished it, a little, for now I could write a real death, a true loss. My heart was broken by my dark lady, and I wept, in my room, alone; but while I wept, somewhere inside I smiled. For I knew I could take my broken heart and place it on the stage of The Globe, and make the pit cry tears of their own.

 

Neil Gaiman

 

Then when the movement reached its peak of struggles in God's way (martyrdoms, victories, etc) suddenly it was revealed, "Certainly wine, gambling are impure & the actions of satan so avoid them" [5:90]. He had worked on them for 20 years and prepared the ground. When he went to the street, he saw everyone had broken his jug. Historians have confirmed that the streets were filled with broken jugs and wine holders.

 

Ali Shariati

 

The point is there's a boring homogenisation of popular culture, so really the problem is there's nothing wrong, the machine works too smoothly. I think the pop music machine is much more fun when it's broken. Things are always more fun when they're broken. No one was ever consulted about this. There was never a Senate committee to say we must produce pop music every day since 1953 or whatever. It's time to lay down the gauntlet.

 

Luke Haines