acidulous

Sharp observations like these show us glimpses of the acidulous social satirist of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

In “Appropriate,” a young boy innocently runs downstairs wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood that he found stored away in the attic, turning an acidulous domestic comedy into something queasier.

His landmark 1962 essay “White Elephant Art vs. Termite Art” set grandiose self-importance against the power of acidulously burrowing deep into personal passions.

Colin makes acidulous remarks about her morals; she snaps back at him to get a job.

Because the first and most significant thing that will strike your ears from the first second of The Well-Tuned Piano is the acidulous yet soft-focused beauty of the tuning system Young uses in the piece.