Shmuckiness

For that matter, the Realist would be right in there with the AFL-CIO and the NAM and the New York Post and the National Review; I would suggest that a better test of the unanimity principle might be the editorial positions taken by the insiders on whether Khrushchev’s act of cosmic shmuckiness should be followed by Kennedy’s ditto.

“He’s a patent attorney,” Linda explained. / “Does that mean you’ve got the trademark on shmuckiness registered?” Adrienne said. / “Moth-er,” said Linda, “I love him. He loves me. We’re going to be very happy.”

His voice rising in pitch, his dark eyes bulging in rage (Miles’s novel gets rejected), Giamatti is physically explosive in this movie—at one point, in an act of supreme self-loathing, he pours the spit bucket into his mouth and all over his body. The scene is Shakespearean in its emotional violence. When Giamatti goes over the top, he transcends Everyman shmuckiness and attains acting immortality.