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watching-pictures-move · 1 year

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Steven Seagal is... OUT FOR JUSTICE!

In the crossover event of the season, @thechurchofsplatterdaysaints and @watching-pictures-move have decided to join forces and tackle the human ponytail himself, Mr. Steven Seagal, starting with the 1991 John Flynn-directed classic, Out for Justice. There will be twice the bone-breaking, twice the indignant speechifying, twice the atrocious outfits, twice the weird cosplaying as members of other cultures. You can find @thechurchofsplatterdaysaints's thoughts on Out for Justice HERE. We hope you have as much fun reading about it as we did revisiting and writing about it. Enjoy!

Among its many qualities, Out for Justice has an all-timer title card. Seagal is sitting in a van with his partner on a stakeout when he notices a pimp beating on his hoes. Because he is presumably an honourable man (not in real life, and maybe not onscreen either), he decides to blow this bust that was likely several months in the making and dishes out some of the justice of the title on the pimp. Because Seagal is a foot taller than the pimp, he handily brushes off any swings the guy takes at him, and then tosses him through a windshield. Freeze frame. “Steven Seagal,” over the hole in the windshield, between the guy’s limp torso and Seagal’s scowling face. Cut to black. “Out for Justice.”

The movie is, in my humble opinion, Seagal’s best movie, in large part because it most entertainingly solutions for his shortcomings. Seagal can be an awkward physical presence (we’ve all seen that clip of him running in Above the Law), but this movie gets a lot more mileage out of the way he towers over his co-stars, like a spectre of death descending upon them, his hands kept busy with weapons both improvised and deliberate so he doesn’t flail them around awkwardly. The movie gives him a convincing streetwise swagger, and while his disinterested line readings and slipping Italian accent could be the source of laughs (and the latter certainly is), they place him intriguingly between both sides of the law. He gets scenes where he pleads with his captain Jerry Orbach to let him use less conventional methods. “I'll feed you every dope-diggin' dive he's got, but let me do it my way. You just give me an unmarked and a shotgun, alright?” In a first for movies about loose cannon cops, Orbach agrees after a few seconds of deliberation.

These alternate with scenes where he pals around with the local mob guys, alternately paying his respects and insulting them depending on his mood. Seagal at this point was cosplaying as a man with connections to the Sicilian mob (something that was truer of producer Julius Nasso), and he tries to sell this by lovingly reminiscing about the time his mob relation left some poor bastard in the trunk of their car while taking him to the movies, his Italian accent disappearing for large stretches of dialogue only to pop up when you least expect it. (That’s just Seagal keeping you on your toes.) The movie originated as a heftier story about the mob, and traces of this ambition can be felt in the Arthur Miller quote that opens the movie, and the smoky widescreen cinematography that wrings a certain grim atmosphere from the Brooklyn streets. Squint at some of the shadowy wood-paneled interior scenes and you see hints of Gordon Willis’ work on The Godfather. Given that this is a movie about Seagal beating the bejesus out of half of Brooklyn’s population, the finished film lacks such depth, but these elements do give a certain weight to the violence that transpires.

Less successful are the attempts to position Seagal as a family man and animal lover (he finds an abandoned puppy and christens it “Coraggio”, which is the strongest his Italian accent gets during the entire movie), although we do get a scene where Seagal tells the grocer he won’t buy dog food from New Jersey (“I don’t want no radioactive stuff”) and a hilariously out of place punchline to end the movie ("Is that a police dog or what?"). The scenes with his wife, a nice Italian girl who had the misfortune of having Seagal inflicted on her and is looking to get a divorce, have a really uncomfortable energy, especially when they have a heart to heart conversation him sitting on the couch and her kneeling in front of him. Moments like this, and other scenes where he speaks crudely to women, intimidates them or jerks them around, are where Seagal’s real life sleaziness seeps in. I understand that this may make parts of the movie hard to watch for some, but I do think these scenes carry a certain meanness that works with the overall movie. This is a cruel world, and that extends to our supposed heroes.

But the movie’s masterstroke is the villain. Seagal has never agreed to lose a physical altercation, so a more physically imposing villain would be a non-starter. Instead the movie pairs him with a villain who’s crazier and totally unpredictable, a totally demonic William Forsythe who goes on a crack-addled violent rampage seemingly with a death wish. Within the first few minutes, he not only offs Seagal’s partner in broad daylight in front of his friends and family, but then shoots a motorist in the head over a roadside argument. Anything can happen.

Because Forsythe is a maniac and Seagal is ruthless, the violence here gets pretty unhinged. Every altercation is a twist on Newton’s third law: every action has a disproportionately gruesome reaction. (The movie had to be edited down from an initial MPAA rating of NC-17.) Pull out a meat cleaver on Seagal? Expect some fingers lopped off. A shotgun is within reach? There’s a good chance somebody’s losing a knee. And don’t even think about picking up that corkscrew. The most entertaining stretch of the movie has Seagal insult every single jag-off in a bar and then take them out one by one with the help of some billiard balls in a towel, in a bone-crunching twist on Eddie Murphy’s star-making shakedown of a redneck bar in 48 Hrs. (Among his opponents is Dan Inosanto, sparring partner of Bruce Lee, referred affectionately by the other patrons as “Sticks”. In real life Inosanto could likely kick Seagal’s ass, but the scene is still a lot of fun.) And the final confrontation is less a fight scene than the systematic destruction of the villain’s body.

And holding all this together is a constant state of movement, with both the villain and Seagal driving around Brooklyn wreaking violent havoc, the movie exploding unpredictably into violence every few minutes. All bets are off.

#film #movie review #out for justice #steven seagal #john flynn

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kinetic-elaboration · 3 years

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April 25: 2x16 The Gamesters of Triskelion

Finally watched some more Star Trek. I feel like it’s been forever...

Today’s ep is The Gamesters of Triskelion, which is... okay. It’s not terrible but I think its best aspects are the most familiar: the type of alien, the moral values at play; and its weakest are its most unique.

I think Spock likes it when Kirk says “mind the store.” What a folksy human thing to say!

Plus now that he’s Captain he gets to sit in the chair.

This conversation between Spock and Scotty is hilarious. “I’m assuming you mean they disappeared in an unusual way??” “Uh, yeah?? Do you think I’m dumb?”

This alien looks like Lady Gaga c. 2010

Kirk is being very Dramatic today.

Come on, Spock, gotta get your man.

You know Spock is worried when he mentions hope. That is, as McCoy says, a human emotion.

“Collars of obedience.” Kinky.

Stylish pink jail.

I’m really feeling this Spock and Bones interaction today. That’s a great eyebrow lift.

If the random alien is leaving, Uhura must have been his ass down.

“Nourishment interval.” We need to bring this into our modern vocabulary.

Not one, but TWO ladies in command gold today (one at Communications, and one at Spock’s station).

Wild aquatic fowl.

I feel like this episode is another example of a writer putting her alien sex fantasy on television. Like, a hardcore alien sex fantasy. The obedience collars, the training harness, the whipping, the weird flirtation between Chekov and his “training thrall”--herself a very androgynous alien, just to throw some gender play in there.

Kirk turning up the charm again. I missed Charming!Kirk. I mean, picking up a silver platter to use as a mirror and saying “That’s beautiful”? This man has no shame.

I feel like this episode shows how Spock’s logic is actually a very effective life strategy. He’s facing a very mysterious situation with high stakes--literally his best friend/soulmate/captain lost, plus two more crewmen--but he isn’t defeatist like McCoy or defensive like Scotty. He just follows the evidence, even when the evidence seems wild. And he was right.

Detective Kirk time!

“Are they computers?” He’s hoping so, since he’s very good at defeating computerized enemies.

Could it be instead another example of aliens who have transcended their physical bodies?

He is really laying the charm offensive on thick here.

I get how people have vague memories of TOS and remember Kirk as slutty, because certainly there are lots of shots of him kissing ladies, but like... 90% of the time he's using charm as a weapon, like he doesn't like Lady Gaga, he just wants to get off this planet.

“Love, for one thing.” Time for Kirk to be a Romantic Nerd again. He sure does love love!!

See imo just as it’s ridiculous for him to limit love to being one of the most important things on Earth, since he barely even spends any time on Earth and his general thesis is about what all intelligent creatures can care about besides their basic needs being met by “Providers,” I think it’s silly to limit love to being between men and women. And just as he’s kinda lying about the Earth thing, I think he’s lying about the heterosexual thing.

People in love “live together, help each other, make each other happy.” I love his definitions of love!! Like with Edith, he center helping each other in the definition.

McCoy and Scotty think they can take on Spock lmao. The Captain’s life is at stake; he’s not fooling around. And he’s right too so y’all can shush!!

Honestly, that leaning down to talk quietly to them--I know it’s because he doesn’t want to say the word “mutiny” too loud where other people can hear him, but it really reads like he’s mocking them.

Shauhna is harassed at work.

Spock’s like ‘screw a landing party, I will retrieve my space husband by myself... and I guess McCoy can come too.’

McCoy’s voice was the one Kirk heard but he still calls out to Spock.

Mmm, yes, disembodied alien brains.

I like the painted background behind them, too. Which is apparently stolen from Devil in the Dark. S2 needs more painted backgrounds.

“You think YOU’RE competitive? A race that does nothing but gamble? Well you’ve never met humans lol.”

Since when has Kirk ever competed for a woman? Hardly a competition when he always wins.

“Fresh thrall” something so... ugh about that phrase.

Ah, yes, an Andorian.

I’m starting to feel like this is Spock’s Pre-Reform Vulcan Sex Fantasy.

I feel like Shauhna will eventually become the leader of the Triskellion people. My mom thinks it would be cool for Kirk to meet her again in the future. I feel like there’s a fanfic in there somewhere...

“I didn’t lie, I just...lied.”

Honestly, don’t bother leaving everything to these disembodied colorful brains, just take Shauhna with you and enlist her in Starfleet. Or at least, like, high school.

...And after all that she STILL has a crush on Kirk. The man is too powerful.

What, no return to the Enterprise? No Kirk appearing shirtless on the bridge? No everyone acknowledges that Spock was right the whole time? No awkward little joking time?

I guess perhaps Kirk is embarrassed.

So overall... again, B basically.

As far as commonly used tropes in Star Trek go, this one is actually one of my favorite ones. I like it more than “godlike man must be defeated” and probably even more than “computer runs society,” though not as much as “old Earth tech becomes sentient.” But generally speaking “aliens transcend corporeal bodies by becoming too smart” is a good trope and I like seeing the different spins on it: the Organians, who can choose corporeal bodies if they want and are incredibly peaceful; the aliens from Return to Tomorrow, who wish they still had bodies; the aliens from The Cage/The Menagerie, who do have bodies but can’t do much with them, who must rely on aliens they capture to do physical work on the planet’s surface for them; and these aliens, who are so bored they must rely on arbitrary wagers using enslaved aliens just to have something to do. There’s something sort of... sad but fitting about that fate. Understandable, awful, pathetic. Still, I wouldn’t call this my favorite take on the trope.

But the specifics of the story, outside the “brain-aliens trope,” I didn’t like so much. The BDSM kink stuff mixed in with like actual slavery made me super uncomfortable. I know it’s based on Ancient Rome but like... even though it was a clear bread and circuses situation, that was not what I was thinking of tbqh.

This is a good episode for showcasing Star Trek Values, which overall I would say are my values. I do see how some people today would criticize them for being a little... well. How to say it. Colonizer-savior. I completely disagree that this is the reading that should be given to them and in fact I think it’s a bad faith reading but people are the way they are and certain things are in vogue sometimes and not others, so. I just mean that when Kirk says that they (the Federation, one would assume) have helped other civilizations “progress” or whatever word he uses, it sounds a little like they came in and made alien societies better using their own values. But I would say that what we actually see, in specific examples throughout the series, is the Federation wanting the civilizations it interacts with to be free, in fact requiring members state to be free, and that is really the one value a free society can impose on others or require of others--choosing slavery or dominion is choosing to relinquish all future choices, and thus cannot be allowed by any society that values freedom. That catch-22 that we see so much now. So, my point is, I think the values Kirk epitomizes for the show are freedom, self-determination, and a certain conception of progress, too: the ability to grow and develop, the avoidance of stagnation. And certainly this episode shows a clear case: having everything provided for you in exchange for being the professional playthings of a bunch of disembodied brains is objectively bad! Surely we can all agree on that. But this obvious example is used as an excuse for Kirk to speechify on the topic of what a utopian future will look like, what the best of humans can be, and what the rest of the universe could be like if it learns from our best traits (and not our worst). Which is overall something I find very comforting.

I’d just been thinking, at the beginning of this episode, that I think S1 is a better Kirk season than S2. S2 has too many episodes that problematize his leadership or his heroism, or that barely even use him--even episodes like The Trouble With Tribbles that outright mischaracterize him imo. But this episode really was Classic Kirk and I appreciated that. We see him being charming, smart, selfless, strong, creative, romantic... coming in at the end to embody the utopian values of the series.

Spock was so well characterized and so smart and so heroic, too, that he kinda was the mvp for me, though... Don’t take away my Kirk stan card lol. Spock was just so In Command... You can see how he could become a captain later, even if being in command never really interested him much.

I don’t entirely get why Kirk bargained for the thralls to all stay and make their own government (or to be trained in self-governance by their enslavers... a whole different issue tbqh), given that it’s already been established that most/all of them have been kidnapped from other planets. Should they not be... returned?

And if most/all of them are 2nd or later generations, that’s a whole other complex issue that could perhaps use third party mediators or something...

I also wondered about Shahna's origins. Was she the descendant of another civilization that is native to the planet, or is it just that her people were kidnapped so much earlier that she herself, personally, has never lived anywhere else?

I think it both makes more sense and is a more fitting ending if it’s the first. It makes sense to me that the first peoples enslaved by the brains were natives of the planet: more convenient that way. Also, I think we need to see more alien planets with more than one humanoid or human-intelligence level species.

And, if her people are native to the planet, having them become leaders of their own right again and not just possessions of the glowing brains is more powerful. Otherwise it's kinda sad: yes, they can form their own government here, but they've still been robbed of their real history and their real homeland, which they don't even remember.

Also as my mom pointed out, it’s not clear the brains themselves are native to the planet. They could have been invaders--the last real thing they did before they started wagering fake money--and Shauhna’s people the natives.

I really did like Shahna a lot and I hope she becomes the leader of whatever government they set up and eventually does get to travel into space.

Imo this was one of those TOS eps where the potential back story and the hints of world building are more interesting than the actual story.

Also apparently the actor who played Galt was trying to walk in a gliding manner so it wouldn’t be clear what he was hiding under those robes and... I have to say, definitely wheels.

Next up is A Piece of the Action, one of my favorites. Great plot, great fun, great sci fi concept, great Kirk material!

#the year 2021 #2021: star trek #star trek tos #2021: fandom thoughts

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nodesiretogrowup · 4 years

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ok, I think I’m ready for my in depth recap/analyse/review of today’s episodes, one by one

hopefully this shows up in the tag because my last few posts haven’t for some reason

Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!:

Frank-This season is about legacy. The first word we hear-LEGACY

The graduation ceremony took me back to my Girl Scout days. And is pretty accurate to the graduation ceremonies I did in scouts, though they had more levels. And the names of their ranks made more sense than the Girl Scout ones. Not sure how the Boy Scout ones work.

Poor Donald. Though from what we see in this episode, it might be better to not be a Woodchuck. They’re a bit...intense.

RETURN OF THE FANNY PACK

Launchpad’s notes were great. He totally wrote them, hence the grape jelly stain

THE LITTLE BABY SCOUTS ARE SO CUTE

The title is a lie. They’re trying to become Senior Woodchucks. And the challenge itself was called the Junior Woodchuck Wilderness Challenge

Poor Huey, that’s always awkward

DUCKTALES SAYS GAY RIGHTS

LENA SAYS GAY RIGHTS

Lena cheering Violet on was ADORABLE

The “I’m with Dad” shirts...chef’s kisses. I now want them to make NEVERENDING DAD JOKES

Vi’s little blush DAAAWWW

Why would Huey have seen her at scout events? I thought Violet had just moved to Duckburg, though I might be remembering wrong. Even then, Duckburg is a fairly large city she might have gone to events closer to where she lived

That fold out sash is DOPE

“DEWEY’S BROTHER!” Ouch, Launchpad.

Huey’s little wave

PROUD MAMA DELLA MODE ACTIVATED

DELLA’S IN THE THEME SONG! We all knew it would happen, but still. I NEED more Della/Launchpad interactions. They look like they’ll have a fun dynamic

He probably isn’t, but I’m gonna pretend that little asian scout is Russel from Up

Webby is a good friend

When Launchpad took Huey’s guidebook it reminded me a lot of whenever someone took the Journals away from Dipper. Complete with self doubt

Dewey is a horrible pep-talker

“Show the other nerds that you are king nerd.” Louie is actually a pretty good pep-talker. He could be a motivational speaker

I like Violet’s quirk of calling the others by their full name (ie Webbigail, Huebert)

Lena takes her new big sister role SERIOUSLY

I really like that the person Scrooge looks up to is a woman. And him sharing a room with his parents was a nice touch

“Story about Scrooge as a kid in 3..2..” Louie knows the formula (probably why he just accepted the sitcom lol)

The bee one made me laugh because alliteration...and bees

How did that map/painting work? It looked like she was actually holding it but the picture still looks fine after Scrooge peels the map off

“OOO, TWIST” I love you Della

I love the Tittertwill and its song and dance. I want it as my ringtone. And I want plushies. STAT

“I’m speechifying” I’m gonna use that next time someone interrupts me

I hope someone gets a good screencap of that post. I want to see what all is on there

Violet trash-talking is ADORABLE. She wants to fit in

“CALL HIM A CLOWN!”

When they tried handshaking...too cute! I don’t really like shipping the kids because of how young they are and that they haven’t had much experience in the crush/romance department...but Huey and Violet are adorable and I think they both have crushes on each other

I kind of wonder what Launchpad was doing while everything was going on. Also he looks SO HOT in that uniform

I didn’t notice it the first time, but all three groups took a different path. Neat

I got upset when Huey used his water bottle to make a compass. Now that lid is dirty and the rest of your water will spill

Violet dots her i’s with a Mickey. The note also made me think of the halfway there joke in an episode of Spongebob

“Do you feel appropriately razzed?” This girl is too sweet

Huey going back to pick up the note so he doesn’t litter

The little growls Donald was doing while swatting at the mosquito were cute. Also FUCK MOSQUITOS

Dewey INSTANTLY forming a connection with the bird is great

“Aw, they’re both cute” My thoughts exactly

“It’s JUST a mosquito, you should give it some of your blood”

I like that over the episode we see Huey continue to forgo the rules to try and boost his chance of winning while Violet follows them

WHY THE FUCK IS THERE LIGHTNING RAIN?!

In Huey’s panic he forgets what he knows. I feel like that’s gonna come back

“That was the smack-talking” Vi is extra adorable in this episode

Webby’s disappointment in the lack of actual giants, cute

Donald and Della should start a slapstick comedy duo

“YOU WANT US TO FOLLOW YOU ON A BRAND NEW ADVENTURE, WELL LET’S GO”

I love when Huey sings

Huey needs to see a therapist cuz that shit ain’t normal

I like him giving the guidebook a soothing, southern voice. Did anyone else think of Ratatouille when the book showed up? Like how Remy imagined Chef Gusto

“Well that’s a pickle of a different color” Oh southerns and your weird expressions

My sister kept saying that the bear looked like it was mixed with a hyena and I can totally see it. Maybe he’s a lost Wuzzle lol

“THAT BEAR DON’T CARE FOR BOOK LEARNIN"

“I’m the food"

VIOLET HAS A KNIFE

Even though I knew it would happen, I was still very disappointed in Huey for not helping Violet. That’s a dick move

“CURSE MY FLAWLESS SLAMS”

God, poor Donald

WHY DO YOU WANT YOUR FAMILY TO DIE, SCROOGE?

I love how blunt Louie is

“EVERYONE FOLLOW THAT BIRD” *Blue Bird of Happiness flashbacks*

WHY THE FLYING FUCK IS THE LAST MARKER IN A GODDAMN ACTIVE VOLCANO?!

“Where you go I cannot follow” I love JW

“I DON’T KNOW, I’M GONNA THROW THIS ROCK” That’s how I solve my problems

HUEY’S LOSING HIS GODDAMN MIND

“I’m so mad I can’t even aliterrate”

“I’m cold and terrified, sounds like an adventure to me”

“Poppycock, whoever told you that?” “YOU”

“So let’s rewrite history” That was last season, Dewey

Scrooge doing the song and dance was great

“WHAT IS HAPPENING?!” “I DON’T KNOW, WHY ARE YOU IMAGINING THIS?!” That’s some fucked up shit right there

“Wait, there’s a failure badge?” I would like one

I’m glad they clarified that the challenge isn’t a one time only thing because I was confused

I like that this show included the lesson that it’s ok to fail. I still struggle with that to this day

Violet opening up to Huey is sweet. And offering to share the win. She’s a good noodle

“I thought this would be more climatic” BITCH YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ACTIVE VOLCANO! WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?

“I RESPOND TO AUTHORITY” And she just pats him on the head

“LAUNCHPAD?!” “LAUNCHPAD?!” “Hey, I’m Launchpad” COMEDY GOLD

I KNEW DELLA WAS GONNA BE THAT MOM! I NEED MORE OF IT!

“YEAH, CUZ YOUR A...” “Lena, please”

Launchpad giving Huey one of his failure badges is kind of adorable. Though I thought you could only earn one of each badge. Then again they have a failure badge so normal scout rules probably don’t apply here

Dude, that DEATH GLARE Della gives Launchpad. Something tells me this isn’t over yet. I hope this means Della is gonna see Launchpad as her Sitcom Nemesis while he’s completely unaware of it. Like DW and Gizmoduck

The Sabrewing family is ADORABLE and MOST BE PROTECTED AT ALL COSTS

JW returning as a ghost. I’m not sure if that’s funny or dark

I feel like the Duck family finding the journal is...unfair in a way. Like Violet got to become the Senior Woodchuck but Huey and his family are gonna find tons of treasure/get rich and famous

I think we’ve got some future episode titles in there

I thought Goldie said she found the fountain of youth, why was it in the journal

“MY NAME IS DEWEY”

OMG FOWL!!! I think it’s funny that Phantom Blot is still wearing his FunZone mascot costume

And now we know what this season’s goal is

Seeing Della with her family was great. Like everyone has said, it feels like she was meant to be there the whole time. Her and Donald were great. It was nice to see them being all sibling-y. I heard that this wasn’t intended to be the season opener but you could of fooled me. This sets up everything so nicely for the season. Huey is going to question who he is and what defines him. We have a list of treasures to be discovered. And we see the FOWL are after those treasures too. This was a solid season opener that has me excited for the journey ahead.

#ducktales #dt spoilers

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compareandcontrast975 · 4 years

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Essay Writing On Anti Corruption

Essay Writing On Anti Corruption With a private account, you possibly can read up to 100 articles each month free of charge. Practice speech patterns and vocabulary that may be international to you. And we’ll eventually steer the conversation to the guts of the matter. Alternatively, we’ll steer it away from the guts of the matter if our goal is to conceal data. This provides you with the opportunity to really get to know your characters. Put simply, dialogue is narrative conveyed via speech by two or extra characters. Effective dialogue should do many things without delay, not just convey info. It should set the scene, advance motion, give perception into each character, and foreshadow future dramatic action. Yes, you need your characters to keep away from awkward subjects (or, once they can’t do that, to lie). So that the motion of the scene and the dialogue being spoken becomes the one same factor. Oftener than not, great story moments hinge on character exchanges, that have dialogue at their coronary heart. Even very quick dialogue can help drive a plot, showing more about your characters and what’s happening than longer descriptions can. Do the same in a block of dialogue, and your characters will seem to be speechifying rather than speaking. It’ll feel to a modern reader like you wish to turn the clock back to Victorian England. And achieve that by moving into their shoes, so to talk, earlier than you try to put phrases in their mouth. Even if two fictional characters are having a dialog while sitting still in a featureless room without windows, they'll nonetheless cough or scratch or choose threads off their clothes. Boring them is prone to have the opposite impact, which is why it’s so essential to make your dialogue move fantastically. One necessary rule of novel writing is to keep the readers studying. Another trick is to stay to simple dialogue tags – like said and asked. We all enter into conversations knowing what we wish to get out of them. And the best way we often obtain that is by broaching a topic obliquely. In real life, all of us speak differently to totally different individuals, and it’s no different with a personality in a novel. You could have already developed the characters earlier than beginning to write your novel. You’ll know who they're and what makes them tick. Just be sure that the words a character says are a natural extension of their personality. Not a really attractive matter – but an essential one to get proper nonetheless. Tolddialogue, however, is where you summarize a conversation using regular prose. The husband, however, desperate to move this dialog onto safer floor, will start talking about his latest business deal. Every line of dialogue alters the emotional panorama ultimately. But right now, I need to focus on the best way that dialogue needs to create its personal emotional beats. Using tags similar to exclaimed, interjected or screeched makes the dialogue sound amateurish. The solely caveat is that some people are extra lengthy-winded than others – in the actual world and in novels. But rules are meant to be damaged, at least occasionally. … then do check out my article on punctuating dialogue appropriately. So you actually don’t want me to let you know the mechanics of tips on how to set out dialogue on the page. Last however not least, a take a look at the nuts and bolts of the way to punctuate dialogue correctly.

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chicagoindiecritics · 4 years

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New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: MOVIE REVIEW: Irresistible

(Image courtesy of Focus Features)

IRRESISTIBLE— 3 STARS

Jon Stewart’s new film Irresistible holds a broad and powerful mirror up to the lies and guises of America’s election economy. Right when you think an outspoken personality like the beloved former host of The Daily Show is going to shout from his now-taller cinematic pontiff a chosen side or favorite, he remarkably doesn’t. This is an even-handed farce of finger-pointing where both political sides have dirty hands and the media in the middle is wholly and equally complicit. Stewart unleashes this cringing astonishment in a surprising movie that pulls your leg and also very rug right out from underneath you.

The political labels are coming at you for full exposure. If that’s a porcupine you try to avoid (astounding social acrobatics if you’ve got them), good luck. However, if you need a way into Irresistible consider the lyrics of heartland rocker and political centrist (who knew) Bob Seger’s 1978 hit “Still the Same.”

You always won, every time you placed a bet

You’re still damn good, no one’s gotten to you yet

Everytime they were sure they had you caught

You were quicker than they thought

You’d just turn your back and walk

You always said, the cards would never do you wrong

The trick you said was never play the game too long

A gambler’s share, the only risk that you would take

The only loss you could forsake/The only bluff you couldn’t fake

And you’re still the same/I caught up with you yesterday

Moving game to game/No one standing in your way

Turning on the charm/Long enough to get you by

You’re still the same/You still aim high

There you stood, everybody watched you play

I just turned and walked away/I had nothing left to say

‘Cause you’re still the same/You’re still the same

Moving game to game/Some things never change/You’re still the same

The simple song is a recurring background musical motif that echoes the deception happening from the red and blue directions of this movie with pure white citizens being manipulated in the middle. Between the insincere sameness of the bets, charms, aims, bluffs, tricks, and more, line after line of Seger’s ditty nails a piece of the duplicitous characters in Stewart’s film.

The guileful gamblers of Irresistible are political strategists Gary Zimmer and Faith Brewster played by the twosome of Steve Carell and Rose Byrne. Each are fantastically introduced during the 2016 national election in front of small gatherings of faceless press with their eager microphones, flashbulbs, and cameras. Letting you know exactly what kind of outrageous people they are and the type of movie that contains them, both proudly proclaim their job is to lie straight into faces. Their matching responses are delivered precisely as if it were one of the sterilized and scripted soundbites we tend to expect. Instead, it’s the veracity we never hear but should be able to decipher.

LESSON #1: SPIN WITHOUT SHAME— With their finely stretched fabrications, Gary and Faith relish this cruddy combat, veiled as “working with” not “working for.” Truth be told, they don’t value the people they’re collaborating with or studying. Both spin doctors blow off teachable moments with zero regrets under twisted mantras that state “people have to do shitty things in the service of the great good.” That’s the slime of supposed dignity they wash their hands through and shine their smiles with. If you don’t know the type, you’re falling for the fake shine.

The post-election hangover of Donald Trump’s historic Presidential victory has left the Democratic pusher Gary crushed and desperate to expand the base of the party so lacking in rural American support. When a low-ranking staffer shows Zimmer a viral video of a former Gulf War Marine Colonel named Jack Hastings (Academy Award winner Chris Cooper) standing before a city council meeting speechifying needed support for welfare programs in the small (and fictitious) town of Deerlaken, Wisconsin, his eyes light up. He sees “a Democrat that just doesn’t know it yet,” “Bill Clinton with impulse control” and “Bernie Sanders with bone density.”

Gary is so convinced he can make something of this utilitarian unicorn he travels to the swinging Badger State to turn him into a mayoral candidate. The completely city-slicking 2%-er who is used to getting his ass kissed and avoiding carbs jumps right into his awkward elbow-rubbing in the land of beer, streusel, cheese curds, and Carthartt. After coaxing Jack to challenge the incumbent Mayor Braun (veteran character actor Brent Sexton), word travels faster than the town’s dialup internet among the kindly denizens and a race is on.

LESSON #2: DOES EACH PARTY HAVE A TYPE?— Here come the warped “liberal” and “conservative” labeling assignments that demand side-choosing. Why? That’s because a duel between analytics and polling (personified by smarmy supporting turns from Topher Grace and Natasha Lyonne that could fill their own spinoff movie of competitive banter) reveal an alarming amount of trends and descriptors in every person. Chris Cooper, with his silvered mop and down-home cadence, is perfectly cast to be a principled fellow not bound by any porch-rocking. Anchored by his astute daughter and unofficial public barometer Diana (Mackenzie Davis), his character is fluffed up to become someone and something he is not purely for the sake of appearances. That created image moves needles, television graphics, and checkbook covers.

The full orchestra of Gary’s war drums draws national media attention to this humble hamlet as well sparks the invading arrival of the vapid bitch Faith to back Mayor Braun. Armed with their micromanaged minions, mucky millions, and salacious scalpels for scandal, the two rivals thrown down an oral sex wager to whomever’s candidate can win this parliamentary pissing contest. Let the zany pandering and placating begin.

LESSON #3: PATRONIZING IS A TWO-WAY STREET— Echoing Lesson #1, Gary and Faith’s professions are that of micromanaging shit shows. Inconsequential things are inflated to manufactured influences. The strategists do not care to connect unless there is an angle of personal or professional gain. The by-products of the wannabe geniuses thinking they are above their targets are perverted presumptions and massive condescension, with an emphasis on the “con” prefix. Not every hayseed is a mark. Plenty of fat cats are as well.

LESSON #4: THE INSANITY OF THE MONEY IN POLITICS— With the one-upmanship of “spend to start” and “spend to stop them,” the rinky dink stuff is soon over. Framed in comedic setups and montages, frivolous millions are poured into Deerlaken and the PAC influences crop up next. At a fancy fundraising party in New York, the out-of-his-element Jack mildly unloads on how stupid the preening glad-handing stage is. Even that emboldened and honest truth doesn’t change the deep-pocketed donors. No one bats an eye and that’s not good. The course of all this is a financial food chain all its own, one where, during the very telling end credits of Irresistible, a research subject poeticizes “money lived happily ever after reveling in its influence in politics.” The real question should be what shady sunset does the money ride off into.

LESSON #5: COMPARING THE END RESULT TO THE PROCESS— On the eve of the climactic election, Zimmer comes right to Hastings telling him his chase is about extremely simple math behind all the streamers, fireworks, and media mound. The goal is to outvote the other person by merely one vote. Screw all the analytics and polling when the ballots open. In his experience, the tawdry theatrics are forgotten when there’s a winner to celebrate. That is all the more reason why the perceived importance of the result, even for a small-town mayoral election, is maddeningly worth the quality of the chase.

LESSON #6: WHERE IS THE BLAME?— The cog of the dramatized machine in Irresistible that comes out the cleanest and most dutiful is John Q. Voter. The “fickle mob” public are the ones who must be discerning enough not to snort the spin or guzzle the cable TV conjecture. It would be easy just to slap a “satire” label on this movie and take none of it seriously. That would be a mistake. Stewart and company play us all because we, the people, deserve to be played. Yet, it still has a stance begging whoever is watching not be a part of any future blame. Color that as hope out of the shocking sarcasm.

There are places in Irresistible where the mockery is as thin as a pesky mosquito’s wings as it draws patriotic blood and passes on diseased ideas. Other spots are as thick as quicksand made with indomitable behaviors that seem insurmountable to rescue if this was the real thing. Preposterous is the point. If you think you have the movie all figured out when it debuts on streaming platforms on June 26th, you have another thing coming.

Bring it all back to Seger. The grand game is exposing the hypocrisy and Irresistible builds to the swindle of swindles to make this very valuable point, one prominently placed now in an election year. If you have an open mind, which can be a challenge for far too many folks on the swinging national pendulum of personal politics, you may come to enjoy the razor sharp cut of your Stewart’s biting jib. Irresistible becomes an immediate pre-election time capsule and a deserving place for rubbing our nose in our own shit, forcing us to see our gullibility, inaction, and ignored responsibilities before history repeats itself… again.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#891)

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cwdcshows · 4 years

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Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Five

Alright, let's get this over with. As if I'm not in a bad enough mood watching this shit after the last episode, now Dish has to be fucking stupid; so that when I cue up Part Five, now all of a sudden my DVR controls won't respond properly. If I try to hit pause, it skips forward; and if I try to skip back, it fucking skips forward and it's doing that with all of my programs - not on any other tvs in the fucking house, mind you, just mine. So now I gotta bring this up using the fucking CW seed or whatever their streaming option using Roku is. And is if to answer why it urks me to have to go so round about to watch the last installment, apart from just regularly being disappointed in Dish; it's being stuck watching stupid ass commercials and the first one up is some asshole dancing in a sprinkler so he can take selfies of himself..... Fucking Dish...

Well, Kara got lucky that she didn't accidentally blow her sister's head off... Yeah, of fucking course Lex is getting the Nobel peace prize in whatever fucking Back-To-The-Future-II-esque nightmare this new earth is going to turn out to be that the heroes now have to fix. Someone going back and get the fucking sports almanac from Lex and fix this shit. Huh, I honestly had my doubts that they'd actually have the balls the merge all of the earths into one; and of course with a nearly full episodes ahead, that may not stay way, but it still raises an interesting prospect that I had pretty much discounted. A Commercial Aside - I think the Liberty Mutual commercial with the who keeps flubbing his lines has finally broken me... it's just so stupid, and yet, having done community theatre and some voice work, I've had more than my share of moments where I can't get the right fucking words out of my mouth; and between him wanting to enter from the water and saying "Libtery Biberty".... I give up... Oh, yeah, "Nash" Wells is supposed to be part of this; and its at this point that I think the writers just remembered this as well.... Why the hell is J'Onn communicating with Sara and Ray telepathically in the bar? It seems more conspicuous that they seem to be answering questions no one else heard him ask; and when he uses his power his eyes turn red. But more importantly, he didn't say anything that didn't need to kept quiet. What memories did J'Onn give everybody exactly? I mean, surely he didn't have some sort of cloud back-up for everyone's individual memory; so a lot of what he's passed along to them would be from his perspective, right? You know, J'Onn helping bring the major players back up to speed is one thing; there's arguably nothing wrong with that, but the way he's going about it is kind of questionable. I mean, he's going into other people minds and monkeying around; and the blunt way he gave Caitlin's memories back struck me is kind of creepy. Like, under any other circumstance, that wouldn't be cool to just walk and, boom, here's some thoughts and memories you didn't have before, including ones that make you hate this guy you were treating a second ago. Hope that's cool, but you can definitely trust that everything I just implanted in your brain is fine and on the up and up. Don't get me wrong, it's a shortcut to give back the necessary characters the knowledge they need to have; because they couldn't be bothered to actually have them present at the logical point in the story where they would have gotten to keep their memories organically. So instead we're just going to do a deus ex machina to reset everyone's memories to where they need to be; and we're going to do that as quickly and with as little thought as possible, because we had five fucking episodes to tell this story and we're terrible at our job.... Wait a second....God dammit, wait just one fucking minute...God dammit.... now there's only one earth and one version of all or most of these characters.....so now the one and only fucking Wells is Nash God damn fucking Wells???? God damn it! This is even more of a reason why, if they were going to make a Wells Pariah, which I will admit is a generally cool concept if they had bothered to actually fucking use either Wells or Pariah; then they should have made it Harry Wells from Earth 2, so that we'd have already had some history and established background for the characters and also so that when the dust settles, assuming this whole one earth dynamic sticks, that the one Harrison Wells that remains is the Harrison Wells that should get to remain. The one anyone actually fucking cares about and has actual history on the show. And what about that history? How do they explain the clusterfuck that is Harris Wells/Harry Wells/HG Wells/Sherloq Wells and now "Nash" Wells? Is it just going to be one going with a split fucking personality? How about the Wells who was actually indigenous to Earth 1 and killed by Thawne? He just gets supplanted by Nash, because Nash just happened to be around during the Crisis? Sigh......I know this is technically the "Legends" installment of the crossover, but.....augh...did they have to drag fucking Beebo into this.....? You know what, fuck it, bring on the Beebo! For that matter, I want them to find a real, living fucking alien or demon creature that the Beebo doll turns out to have been modeled on; he's not malevolent or anything, more like a baby Yoda or Gizmo who starts traveling with the Legends. He can be Mick's pal or something. "Is this seriously happening right now?" Hey, that's my line, stay in your lane Diggle. Okay, just how powerful is Mick's fire gun? Because anything shooting out a beam of fire that's like two city blocks long and does significant damage to something as big as a giant ass Beebo, is pretty much going to just disintegrate anything else of average size or closer proximity. Does he have a "Stay Puff Marshmallow Man" setting? "Hey, Kate's here too!" Way to blurt out the secret identity of one of the other masked heroes, Kara.... How do they have time for this? Not only this C-line story bullshit, how the fuck did Sara have time to change and get out into the field with Barry? I mean, I get him going to get her, but what, did he dress her too? Because that's just weird. I'd have laughed my ass off if the Mick of New Earth was a teetotaler. So 30 minutes in and they've finally teed up the climax of the Anti-Monitor res-surging and whatever they're going to try and do to stop him. Yeah, they definitely knew what they were doing when they were pacing this shit out..... I guess they got tired of shelling out money for bad Martian Manhunter CGI and decided to go with practical effects for his suit at least. Still don't know why they don't bother trying to do make-up for his martian appearance. Okay, couple of things - first, the Anti-Monitor's an idiot for not just mowing down the capes while they were speechifying. Second, bullets? We're going to stop this universal threat who has his own personal force field.... with bullets...Sure..... And third, "For Oliver"? ....I....... No. Just no. I get the sentiment you're going for and it just doesn't work for me; especially since I have little faith that this is actually the last we've seen of him. Not to mention that I'm not sure half the people there even know Oliver well enough to really give a shit, even if he did sacrifice himself to reboot time. It'd be like someone shouting, "For Mike!" "Yeah, for Mi...wait, who the fuck is Mike?" Thank God it wasn't Nightwing who sacrificed himself for the universe; it'd be a little more awkward if all the heroes charged yelling, "For Dick!" Well guys, I guess you know what you need to do....

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It's really too bad they don't know any other speedsters that could help out; or you know, other heroes of any kind. Like a guy who knows actual magic or a guy who can turn into steel.... Man, by the way Ray, Ryan and Wells reacted, you'd think Barry was some sort of screw who was likely to..... yeah, I'm kind of surprised he didn't accidentally press the button and shrink himself into oblivion..... What the fuck was up with the overly dramatic music underscoring Supergirl's super-slow flying towards the Anti-Monitor? Were we supposed to think she was about to sacrifice herself to save Superman? Was she not aware of the plan they were about to attempt? Was Ray's arrival meant to be this event's "On your left" moment? What would have been better is if there had been a situation where it was clear that what Kara was about to attempt in order to save her cousin could be fatal and right before she makes contact, Routh-Superman swoops in joins her, either helping her double the blow, thus, somehow reducing the potential injury by spreading it out; or taking her place to save her and the other Superman, even at the possible expense of himself. And of course it fucking works on the first try, no hitches; they come up with this last ditch plan to stop this veritable god and it just fucking works..... Oh yeah, I forgot about Lyla... what the fuck, so they're not even going to bother picking up the story thread of the Anti-Monitor somehow possessing her and using her to kill the Monitor? Well shit, they brought back "baby" Sara. And somehow JJ's still there too. Are they twins? Because unless they're twins, this isn't really baby Sara at whatever age she'd be now; it's some other kid they conceived and happened to name Sara. Can I just say, as an older brother I can almost guarentee JJ didn't actually want his sister to come play with him. I mean, it's not impossible that this coincides with the five minutes a week that twp siblings that age will to share and not get into a fight over both wanting to use burnt sienna at the same time, but the odds of those five minutes being consecutive are astronomical. Wait, how does Superman not know he has two sons? He wasn't at the dawn of time (for some asinine reason). Or, I'm guessing, this was just contrived dialog to reveal yet another change that instead of Superman having just one kid he now has two; and we're supposed to think that he had to ask to clarify what Lois meant by "the boys" because that's also his nickname for her boobs? Honestly, they dicked us around too much with Oliver's fate for me to care or believe he's actually dead; no matter what they show us, regardless of any world wide moment of silence or whatever they're doing. There's still two whole episodes of Arrow left of that series and we're to believe that Stephen Amell doesn't appear in either of them? And if they're going to try and make it seem like he's gone and not have him appear at all in the next Arrow episode and then hold out for one last goodbye with him appearing at the very end, probably with fucking Felicity, it's too late; they've tried to milk this twice already and both times have fallen flat and a third times is definitely not going to land. I don't care if he lives or dies anymore; I think it's stupid to kill him off and they've lost all credibility that I just can't believe any claims of him truly being dead at this point. O......kay....... So the multiverse was reborn, yet for some reason, some of the Earths got merged, but not all of them. So what's on Earth 38? Or whatever Earths Black Lightning or Nash Wells were originally from? Hmm, I get the whole Justice League tableau they're going for, but there's just something that looks silly about these guys just....really enjoying their office chairs; and in the middle of a run down hanger, no less - it lacks an iconic look and looks more slapped together. And I get the Superfriends Easter egg at the end, but seriously, this abandoned Star Labs research facility that "no one knows about", what, had an alien monkey or whatever sitting in a crate with a single banana for however long the last time anybody stopped by? What’s with the the lack of mention of Mia, William and Connor in this final installment. What the fuck happened to them? I kind of get the idea that with the rebooted history, and Crisis being undone, they wouldn't have been brought to the past in the first place, but that just seems to make a lot of their arc pointless. And it seemed to be setting up the whole Green Arrow and the Canaries thing, setting it in the present and Oliver giving Mia her own suit. All of which is pointless if it's been undone and they have to go to the trouble of setting that all up some other way. God, this crossover sucked

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newyorktheater · 5 years

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Taylor Blackman as Emett Till, in the musical “Till”

The three shows reviewed below from this year’s New York Musical Festival are all, each in its own way, naïve…or one of the near synonyms for the word naïve, each of which offers a different spin — a different judgment — on the same quality: innocent, fresh, childlike, simple, unsophisticated, ignorant.

Leaving Eden

‘Leaving Eden” tells the Adam and Eve story with a twist – two twists.

First, the couple has been expanded to a threesome, adding in the character Lilith. Lilith is not in the Bible, but the Lilith legend was so popular that her image is included both in the Sistine Chapel and Notre Dame Cathedral. Lilith is said to have been Adam’s original wife, born of the same earth as he, but she refused to be subservient, so she was banished, and a far more pliant Eve was created out of Adam’s rib.

As this story unfolds, “Leaving Eden” pairs it with a parallel modern-day story of Adam and Lilith, who are a couple, and Eve, who is their lesbian friend. If I understood correctly, modern Lilith recently had a miscarriage, followed by a hysterectomy. Now, after a period of mourning and looking into adoption, Lily and Adam enlist Eve to be a surrogate mother.

The promise of the added Lilith was intriguing enough for me to see a show I normally would have avoided. To be upfront about it: I could live a happy life free of regrets if I never again saw a new show inspired by the stories of Peter Pan, Frankenstein, or Adam and Eve. Each coincidentally – or maybe not coincidentally – focuses on naïve/innocent/ignorant characters.

I wish I could report that “Leaving Eden,” with a competent score by Ben Page and book and lyrics by Jenny Waxman, made me overcome my aversion. But the script has some awful writing — forced rhymes, unintentional howlers, awkward couplets like

Why are man and woman in two different factions? Why are naughty bits more critical than the spirit of our actions?

And the presence of Lilith did nothing to reduce the faux-naïve coyness that afflicts so many of these “In The Beginning” stories. Their Nautilus bods discreetly draped in Tarzan and Jane attire, Adam and Lilith sing as if they’re Dick and Jane:

And I saw some good, and I saw some bad and I met creatures that made me feel happy and sad

Together they discover rain, and fire (“It is good… but sometimes… fire is bad. So is it good or bad?”/”It is…well, I guess it is both?”), and learn the meaning of death. For the first time, they experience dreams at night…and sex. Lillith realizes she doesn’t like being on the bottom all the time, and sings some double-entendres that are less clever than crude:

I wanna try it on top

I’ll till your share of the crops

I’ll use your tool if you’ll drop it

You’ll beg me never to stop…

The modern-day scenes, which more or less alternate with the ancient ones, at first held my attention. I wanted to know what would happen next, and it struck me that “The Joys of Parenthood,” an ironic song in which the characters imagine their future bratty kids, suggested what the musical could be like if the modern story were more developed. But the creative team seemed to tire of the story they were telling, and “Leading Eden” dissolves into the musical equivalent of speechifying by Ancient and Modern together, facing the audience and looking grimly triumphant.

Leaving Eden ended its run July 21.

Till

I saw “Till” on the day that Emmett Till would have celebrated his 78thbirthday. Instead, he was murdered at the age of 14, the victim of inarguably the most famous lynching in the history of the United States.

A six-member all-black cast sings the gospel-inflected score by Leo Schwartz, with a book by Schwartz and DC Cathro that tells the story of Emmett Till starting shortly before his visit to his relatives in Money, Mississippi. We first see Emmett (impressively portrayed by Taylor A. Blackman) in Chicago as a church-going, fun-loving teen, something of a clotheshorse and a prankster, but devoted to his mother Mamie (Denielle Marie Gray.)

Meanwhile, Carolyn Bryant, introduced in her husband’s General Store in Money, Mississippi, is shown talking about the Marilyn Monroe movie “The Seven Year Itch” with her sister-in-law. Later we meet her husband Roy, who’s gruff and adulterous (All three wear odd half-masks and white gloves to indicate that their characters are Caucasian, a costume choice that feels like a mistake.)

It’s only in the last 20 minutes of the 90 minute musical that we see a version of the events (the details of which are still much disputed 64 years later) that led to his death. Emmett buys gum from Carolyn Bryant in her store, putting the money in her hand rather than on the counter, and then goes back outside to hang out with his cousins, who are playing a game of checkers. Unnerved, Carolyn goes out to her car to fetch her gun, at the same time that Emmett lets out a whistle. The other black teens panic.

“You whistled at a white woman, Emmett! “ his cousin Maurice says.

“I did not,” Emmett replies. “I whistled at the game. Besides, what does it

matter? What if I did whistle at her? She never been whistled at?”

“Not by a colored boy! It matters down here, Emmett. “

Roy eventually finds out, and, enraged, goes to Emmett’s uncle’s house, and drags Emmett away, hands bound.

Back in Chicago, Mamie gets a phone call, and collapses.

The musical ends with rousing back-to-back numbers, Mamie singing “I Want Him Back,” where she insists on an open casket to show his brutalized body, and then “Come and Follow Me,” accompanied by the ensemble in choir robes, in front of a series of projections – portraits of Rosa Parks, Medger Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barack Obama. Cast members briefly portraying each of these real-life figures recite quotes about Emmett Till. (MLK: “The

death of that child had a profound impact on my life…” )

Why is Emmett Till so important? Why does his lynching so stand out from the reportedly more than four thousand in the country over some 60 years before his?

The answer to that question strikes me as the heart of the Emmett Till story, and the reason why a stronger and more sophisticated musical could surely have been written that begins with his lynching rather than ends with it, replacing some of the mundane scenes and songs of the Tills’ everyday life (which can feel like filler) with the rich details of the aftermath. We don’t learn in “Till,” for example, that his two killers actually went on trial – not usual for a lynching in the South — but were then acquitted by an all-white jury….and then a year later, they sold their story to Look Magazine, confessing to the killing. We don’t see what is evident in old video footage of Mamie Till in Civil Rights documentaries — her strength, dignity and resolve as she attends the trial, and calmly, straightforwardly answers questions from unsympathetic Southern interviewers. The story of Emmett Till is really as much the story of Mamie Till as it is of her son.

Till will be performed one more time, today, Sunday, July 28 at 9 p.m. at Signature Theater Center

Flying Lessons

Isabella, a bored, smart eighth grader, is assigned a final paper for the school year – write about an inspiring figure from history.

”Like, how am I supposed to choose someone who inspires me when I don’t even know who I want to be or what I want to do?”

Suddenly, two choices appear before her, as in a dream – Amelia Earhart and Frederick Douglass. Over the course of “Flying Lessons,” the two narrate and re-enact their respective stories, interspersed with scenes of Isabella’s fights with her mother and her life at school with her classmates and teacher Ms. Young.

There is much that is wonderful in this show, including a soaring, eclectic score by Donald Rupe and Cesar De La Rosa delivered by a terrific nine-member cast. I hope and expect that “Flying Lessons” will take flight in the future, in one form or another. But it needs to be rethought.

Book writer, lyricist and co-composer Donald Rupe began “Flying Lessons” in response to a grant to produce a show for the eighth grade students of Osceolo County, Florida. This is how I know that Isabella is supposed to be in eighth grade. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be clear. The dynamics of Isabella’s tensions with her mother, as well as the hopes, fears and (G-rated) sexual awakenings of her three solidly etched classmates make the show seem geared for high school or older. But sometimes the characters are so naïve and the tone so childlike that it feels a better fit for elementary school. At the performance I attended, I talked to the parents of a six-year-old, who loved the show so much she was there for a second time.

Similarly, the show is divided into three distinct storylines, maybe four, that are sometimes an uneasy fit. It seems just odd that the stories of Earhart and Douglass are shoehorned together. In a musical called “Flying Lessons,” wouldn’t it make more sense to pair Earhart with, for example, the real-life women from the movie “Hidden Figures” who worked for NASA, or other female aviation pioneers? And the stories of the historical figures can feel like an interruption to the scenes in the classroom, which are funny and touching and don’t focus on Isabella.

The best solution may be to split up “Flying Lessons” into separate musicals – one telling the story of Amelia Earhart (and possibly other aviation pioneers), another Frederick Douglass, both 30 minutes long and aimed at young children; a third about Isabella, her mother, her teacher and her classmates, aiming for a higher age group.

Flying Lessons will be performed one more time, today, Sunday July 28 at 5 p.m., at Signature Theater Center.

NYMF Reviews: Leaving Eden. Till. Flying Lessons. The three shows reviewed below from this year’s New York Musical Festival are all, each in its own way, naïve…or one of the near synonyms for the word naïve, each of which offers a different spin -- a different judgment -- on the same quality: innocent, fresh, childlike, simple, unsophisticated, ignorant.

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