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Friday, December 1, 2006 12:00 AM

"10 Items or Less"

This intimate, actor-centric movie's bare-boned simplicity is its greatest strength.

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Sunday, December 3, 2006 12:18 PM

Great review

I love Stephanie Zacharek's reviews when she loves a movie. The details she selects to make her points give us a clear picture of little scenes and subtle gestures even as she is showing us their significance. And her prose sings.

The movie title, for those so stuck in 7th-grade-English-teacher or George-Will-wannabe mode that they can't get past it to note the actual review, is a familiar phrase for all those who buy their own groceries--the movie clearly takes its title from the sign hanging over a great many express checkout lanes. Grammatically, "Fewer" is the correct word. But the primary function of language is communication, and "10 Items or Less" clearly communicates its meaning to millions of people every day. Apparently the term also serves as a quick test to see which people seeing the words read them for comprehension and which use them in a snobbish but ultimately ineffective attempt to establish their superiority to the rest of the universe. I wonder if these are the people who get in front of me in one of these lines with 15 items in their shopping basket.

Saturday, December 2, 2006 03:49 PM

Language Change

Ever heard about it?

Friday, December 1, 2006 08:55 PM

LOL!

Tukla, you crack me up.... :)

"the panda eats, shoots, and leaves" - Bang!

Friday, December 1, 2006 11:12 AM

"10 Items or Less"

It's "fewer," dammit! "Fewer"! Aaaagh!

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