In a depressingly familiar -- yet in these parts, utterly new -- routine, visitors were frisked, and bags were examined.
In the past, a car buyer entered a dealership (a place that, free coffee aside, was plenty soul-scorching in its own right) much the way a fish entered a barrel guarded by an armed militia: Jaw gaping, eyes glassy and rolling, tender parts utterly exposed.
Until we, as a society, address these issues, demanding that our children hold themselves to a higher standard is a cynical stance on our part and utterly futile.
Hawkins plays it superbly though: exactly right for the part and utterly at ease with a role that is uniquely demanding.
"Hawkins plays it superbly: exactly right for the part and utterly at ease with a role that is uniquely demanding," writes our own Peter Bradshaw.
"I like sorting through the wacky theories and deciding for myself which part is utterly wacked and whether a kernel of truth might be buried in the dung," she said.
But his performance, for the most part, was utterly compelling, enhanced by a somewhat more languorous reading, on flute, of Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady". Fortune was supported well by his accompanists.
The film is a candid and canny illustration of a nation completely cracked open and torn apart by vehemently differing philosophies, populated by people who, for the most part, seem utterly unwilling or unable to take forceful action in support of whichever viewpoint they subscribe to.
With her blond hair and her big brown eyes, she was the picture of innocence, and she acted perfectly the part of an utterly good little girl.
This is not "left-behind" America, but it is a part we find utterly foreign.
