#that is a CRUCIAL moment in julie and luke’s story
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olieolieoxnfree · 4 years ago
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So Kenny Ortega might be a genius, but the best parts of Julie and the Phantoms all came from the cast.
Owen improv’d the best joke in the show
Charlie suggested pulling the piano out into the crowd in Edge of Great
Owen put the pyro at the end of the bridge in Now or Never
Charlie added the conversational guitar riffs in Edge of Great
Part of being a genius seems to be recognizing when someone else’s idea is better than yours, paired with the lack of ego to implement it without hesitation.
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xtruss · 3 years ago
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Italy 🇮🇹 Wins Euro 2020, Beats England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 In Penalty Shootout
— BY STEVE DOUGLAS | July 11, 2021
LONDONr (AP) — Italian soccer’s redemption story is complete. England’s painful half-century wait for a major title goes on.
And it just had to be because of a penalty shootout.
Italy won the European Championship for the second time by beating England 3-2 on penalties on Sunday. The match finished 1-1 after extra time at Wembley Stadium, which was filled mostly with English fans hoping to celebrate the team’s first international trophy since the 1966 World Cup.
“It’s coming to Rome. It’s coming to Rome,” Italy defender Leonardo Bonucci shouted into a TV camera amid the celebrations, mocking the famous lyric “it’s coming home” from the England team’s anthem.
For England, it was utter dejection again — they know the feeling so well when it comes to penalties — after Gianluigi Donnarumma, Italy’s imposing goalkeeper, dived to his left and saved the decisive spot kick by 19-year-old Londoner Bukayo Saka, one of the youngest players in England’s squad.
That was England’s third straight failure from the penalty spot in the shootout, with Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho — players brought on late in extra time seemingly as specialist penalty-takers — also missing.
As Saka and Sancho cried, Donnarumma was mobbed by his teammates as they sprinted toward him from the halfway line at the end of the second penalty shootout in a European Championship final.
Then Italy’s jubilant players headed to the other end of the field and ran as one, diving to the ground in front of the Italian fans who have witnessed a rebirth of their national team.
It was less than four years ago that Italy plunged to the lowest moment of its soccer history by failing to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in six decades. Now, they are the best team in Europe and on a national-record 34-match unbeaten run under Roberto Mancini, their suave coach who has won an international trophy in his first attempt to add to the country’s other European title — in 1968 — and its four World Cups.
Mancini joined his players on the podium as Italy captain Giorgio Chiellini lifted the Henri Delaunay trophy to the backdrop of fireworks and tickertape.
“It was impossible even to just consider this at one stage,” Mancini said, “but the guys were just amazing. I have no words for them.”
For England, it’s the latest heartache in shootouts at major tournaments, after defeats in 1990, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2006 and 2012. They ended that losing streak by beating Colombia on penalties in the round of 16 at the 2018 World Cup, but the pain has quickly returned.
“The boys couldn’t have given more,” England captain Harry Kane said. “Penalties are the worst feeling in the world when you lose. It’s been a fantastic tournament — we should be proud, hold our heads up high. It’s going to hurt now, it’s going to hurt for a while.”
England’s first major final in 55 years had all started so well, too, with Luke Shaw scoring the fastest goal in a European Championship final by meeting a cross from opposite wing back Kieran Trippier with a half-volley that went in off the post in the second minute.
It was Shaw’s first goal for England and it prompted a fist-pump between David Beckham and Tom Cruise in the VIP box amid an explosion of joy around Wembley, which had at least 67,000 fans inside. Maybe more, given dozens of ticketless England fans managed to barge their way past stewards and police and into the stadium in unsettling scenes before kickoff.
That was the only time Italy’s famously robust defense was really opened up in the entire 120 minutes.
Indeed, after Shaw’s goal, England barely saw the ball for the rest of the game.
Italy’s midfielders dominated possession, as widely predicted before the match, and England simply resorted to dropping deep and getting nine or even all 10 outfield players behind the ball. It was reminiscent of the 2018 World Cup semifinals, when England also scored early against Croatia then spent most of the game chasing its opponent’s midfield before losing in extra time.
Italy’s equalizer was merited and Bonucci was the unlikely scorer. He put the ball in from close range after a right-wing corner was flicked on to Marco Verratti, whose stooping header was tipped onto the post by goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
England managed to hold on for extra time — the way three of the last six European finals went — and actually had the better of the final stages.
Just not the shootout, again.
After the misses of Rashford — he stuttered up to the ball and then hit the post — and Sancho, whose shot was saved by Donnarumma again down to his left, Jorginho had the chance to win it for Italy.
Incredibly, the midfielder who converted the decisive penalty in a shootout win over Spain in the semifinals also failed to score as Pickford tipped the effort off the post.
It was Donnarumma who then made the crucial saves and within minutes he had also been named player of the tournament, the first goalkeeper to be so honored.
So instead of coming home, the trophy is headed to Rome.
“We’d heard it day in, day out from Wednesday night — we heard it would be coming home to London,” Bonucci said. “I’m sorry for them, but the cup will be taking a nice flight, making its way to Rome so Italians all over the world can savor this.”
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aion-rsa · 3 years ago
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How Ted Lasso Sneakily Crafted its Empire Strikes Back Season
https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
This article contains Ted Lasso spoilers through season 2 episode 8.
Perhaps you’ve heard, but Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso was the subject of some dreaded Discourse recently. 
Since the Internet is infinite and we privileged few in the media have nothing but time, a handful of features came out weeks ago essentially questioning what Ted Lasso season 2 was even all about. Many of these features were well-written, well-argued, and fair, but when filtered through Twitter’s anti-nuance machine (i.e. Twitter itself), every feature boiled down to the same reductive take: Ted Lasso season 2 doesn’t have a conflict. 
In some respects, this take was the inevitable reaction to the metanarrative surrounding Ted Lasso in the first place. Despite drawing its inspiration from a series of somewhat cynical NBC Sports Premier League commercials, the first season of Ted Lasso was all about the transformative power of kindness. 
Or at least that’s what we critics declared it to be. And I don’t blame us. Awash in a flood of screeners about antiheroes, dystopias, and the end of the world, the simple kindness of Ted Lasso seemed revolutionary. They made a TV show about a guy who is…nice? They can do that? But the inherent goodness of its lead character was always Ted Lasso’s elevator pitch, not its thesis. 
There’s been a darkness at the center of Ted Lasso since its very first moment, when an American man got on a flight to London in a doomed attempt to save his marriage. And, as season 2’s brilliant eighth episode rolls around, it’s become clear that that darkness is what the show has really been “about” this whole time. 
Season 2 episode 8 “Man City” (the title is referring to AFC Richmond’s FA Cup match against opponent Manchester City but also stealthily reveals that this installment will be all about men and their respective traumas) is quite simply the best episode of Ted Lasso yet. It also might be the best episode of television this year. Near the episode’s end, right before AFC Richmond plays a crucial FA Cup match against the mighty Manchester City, coach Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) finally comes clean with his coaching staff. He’s been suffering from panic attacks of late. His assistant coaches hear him, accept him, and then head off to the pitch where Man City absolutely obliterates their team.
Man City destroys AFC Richmond. They annihilate them. Embarrass them. Stuff them into a locker and steal their lunch money. The final score is 4-0 but it might as well be 400-0. The coaching staff is rattled but the players are hit even harder. Richmond’s star striker and former Man City player Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) is forced to endure watching his scumbag father cheer for his hometown team from the Wembley Stadium stands at the expense of his son. 
After the game, Jamie’s father, James (Kieran O’Brien), enters the locker room where he drunkenly accosts him for being a loser and demands that Jamie grant access to the Wembley Stadium pitch for him and his scumbag friends to run around on. When Jamie refuses, his father pushes him, so Jamie reflexively punches him right in the face. James is dragged out of the locker room by Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), leading a stunned and traumatized Jamie Tartt standing in the middle of the room, as if in a spotlight of pure pain, surrounded by teammates too afraid to even approach him. And then something amazing happens…
Here’s the dirty secret about television: there’s a lot of it. Due to the sheer number of TV shows released each year, even the best of them are destined to become little more than memories long-term. Sometimes all you can ask from multiple episodes and seasons of television is to provide you with one moment, one line, or one warm feeling to carry with you into the future. I don’t know how much I’ll remember from Ted Lasso 30-40 years from now when I’m immobile and reclined in my floating entertainment unit, Wall-E style. But I know I’ll at least remember the moment that Roy hugs Jamie.
The great Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) – a character so disconnected from his own emotions that some fans are convinced he’s CGI – embraces the one person in the world he is least likely to embrace. As Roy and Jamie wordlessly hug, it’s hard to tell which man is more shocked by the moment. Ultimately, however, it might be Ted Lasso himself who is hit hardest. Shortly after seeing Roy play father to the younger Jamie, Ted quickly exits the locker room and calls sports psychologist Dr. Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles) on his Apple TV+-apporved iPhone. 
“My father killed himself when I was 16. That happened. To me and to my mom,” Ted says, weeping. 
And that, my friends, is what Ted Lasso is all about. Pain. And dads. But mostly pain. 
None of us can say that Ted Lasso didn’t warn us it was coming. To go back to the discourse of it all real quick – I don’t blame anyone for not picking up on the direction that this show was so clearly heading in. Ted Lasso is, first and foremost, a sitcom. The beauty of sitcoms is that you welcome them into your home to watch at your own pace and your own terms. If having Ted Lasso on in the background so you can occasionally see the handsome mustache man who smiles while you fold your laundry is the way you’ve chosen to engage with the show, then great! Just know that season 2 has been operating on a deeper level this whole time as well.
Let’s take things all the way back to the beginning – back to before season 2 even began. You’ve likely heard the old philosophical thought experiment “if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Well Jason Sudeikis’s interviews leading up the season 2 premiere beg an equally as interesting hypothetical “how many times can one man mention The Empire Strikes Back before someone notices??”
Sudeikis referred to Ted Lasso season 2 as the show’s “Empire Strikes Back” multiple times before the premiere including in his local Kansas City Star and his technically local USA Today. The show even explicitly mentions the second Star Wars film in this season’s first episode when Richmond general manager Higgins (Jeremy Swyft) tells Ted that his kids are watching the trilogy for the first time. Sudeikis (who co-created and produces the show) and showrunner Bill Lawrence clearly want us to take the idea that Ted Lasso season 2 is The Empire Strikes Back seriously. And why would that be? 
Think of how ESB differs from its two Star Wars siblings in the original trilogy. This is the story that features arguably the series most iconic moment when Luke Skywalker discovers his dad is a dick on a literal universal level. It also has the only unambiguously downer ending of any original trilogy Star Wars film. Luke is thoroughly defeated in this installment. Having one’s hand chopped off by their father and barely escaping with their life is definitely the Star Wars version of a 4-0 defeat. 
The Empire Strikes Back can safely be boiled down into two concepts: 
Dads are complicated.
Everything sucks.
When viewed through those two conceptual prisms, so much of Ted Lasso season 2 begins to make more sense.
Episode 1 opens with the death of a dog and then leads into a classic Ted Lasso speech that could serve as this season’s mission statemetn. After recounting the story of how he cared for his sick neighbor’s dog, Ted concludes with: “It’s funny to think about the things in your life that can make you cry knowing that they existed then become the same thing that can make you cry knowing that they’re now gone. Those things come into our lives to help us get from one place to a better one.”
Things like…a father who you didn’t have nearly enough time with? Following episode 1 (and following just about every episode this season), Bill Lawrence took to Twitter to assuage viewers’ fears about a lack of central conflict this season. He had this to say about Ted’s big speech.
Look, Merrill. It was thought out, but the speech he gives after (Written by Jason himself – I loved it) is the core of the season, but we knew some people might bum out.
— Bill Lawrence (@VDOOZER) July 27, 2021
Sorry, truly. Ted’s speech after (which I love, but am obviously biased) is a big part of the season. But it sounds like you had a crappy thing happen recently.
— Bill Lawrence (@VDOOZER) July 28, 2021
It’s not. But Ted’s speech has big relevance. Stick around!
— Bill Lawrence (@VDOOZER) July 26, 2021
He also had this to say about dads.
Effin Dads, man. Love mine so, but he’s struggling a bit.
— Bill Lawrence (@VDOOZER) July 27, 2021
“Effin dads” and our complicated relationships with them are all over Ted Lasso season 2. In the very next episode, Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh) tells Ted “You know, my father says that every time you’re on TV, he’s very happy that I’m here. That I’m in safe hands with you.”
Ted smiles at this bit of info but not as warmly as you might expect. Because to Ted, a dad isn’t a reassuring presence but rather someone you love who will just leave when you need him the most. That’s why he’s been trying to be the perfect father figure this whole time. That’s why he did something as extreme as leaving his family behind in Kansas while he heads off to London. If giving his wife space was the only way to preserve the family and remain a good dad, then he was going to give her a whole ocean of space.
Moreover, Ted hasn’t just been trying to serve as a father figure to his son this whole time but to everyone else as well. Sam’s comment to Ted reminds him that not everyone has a good dad, which encourages him to bring Jamie into the fold in the first place.
As time goes on, however, the stress of being the consummate father to everyone in his orbit begins to wear on Ted. Throughout the entirety of this season, Ted Lasso appears to be trying to be Ted Lasso just a bit too hard. His energy levels are too high. His jokes go on too long. The same life lessons that worked last year aren’t working this year. AFC Richmond opens with an embarrassing streak of draws before Jamie’s immense talents set things straight.
It all culminates in this season’s sixth episode when Ted has his second panic attack in as many years. This time it’s in public during an important game. The experience sends Ted running through the concourse of the stadium until he somehow ends up in the dark on Dr. Fieldstone’s couch, instinctively, like a wounded animal. 
It’s certainly no coincidence that this panic attack occurs on the same day that Ted received a call from his son’s school asking him to pick him up, not realizing that he’s an ocean away. In that moment, Ted can’t help but remember what it’s like to be left behind by his own father and subconsciously wonder if he’s doing the same. 
Though the shallow waters of Ted Lasso season 2 may have appeared consequence free for half its run, beneath the surface was a tidal wave of conflict. Just because the conflict wasn’t taking place between a happy-go-lucky football coach and a villainous owner doesn’t mean it wasn’t there.
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Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin is terrible at meeting deadlines but great at writing. According to him (and William Faulkner, from whom he borrows the quote), the only conflict worth writing about is that of the human heart with itself. That’s something that The Empire Strikes Back understood. And it’s something that Ted Lasso season 2 does as well.
The post How Ted Lasso Sneakily Crafted its Empire Strikes Back Season appeared first on Den of Geek.
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awesome-moon-stone · 5 years ago
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@stelledue
Since shortly after release weekend, I’ve been corresponding with someone who worked closely on the production of TROS and works for one of the major companies I cannot disclose here. I have verified the source to my satisfaction. To protect the source, I am rewording what we spoke about over the last two weeks and am submitting it to you in bullet point format I have written based on what they told me. The TLDR is that they were upset with the final product of TROS and wanted to share their perspective on how it went down and where it went wrong.
The leakers for TROS had an agenda and are tied to Disney directly. My source confessed that they have an agenda as well in that they struggle with ignoring what’s been happening to someone who they think doesn’t deserve it.
JJ always treated everyone on and offset with respect so my source’s agenda is that what Disney has done to JJ and how much they screwed him over should be something people are at least aware of, whether you like him as a filmmaker or not.
Disney was one of the studios who were in that Bad Robot bidding war last year. Disney never had much interest in BR as a company but they did in JJ because they saw WB (who JJ went with in the end) as a major threat.
JJ is very successful at bringing franchises back like Mission Impossible, Star Trek and Star Wars. WB is struggling with DC and aside from Wonder Woman, DC is still seen as a bit of a joke in its current state by the GA.
WB wants Abrams for some DC projects. My source said that this generation’s Star Wars is the MCU, and Marvel’s biggest threat is a well operational DC. They want to keep DC in the limbo that they’re in right now. Abrams jumpstarting that franchise with something like a successful, audience-pleasing Superman movie makes them nervous. Their goal is to make JJ look bad to potential investors/shareholders.
My source mentioned this shortly after the premiere: “The TROS we saw last night was not the TROS we thought we worked on”.
JJ was devastated and blindsided by this. He’s been feeling down over the last 6 months because of some of the ridiculous demands Disney had that changed his movie’s story. While the scenes were shot, a lot of the changes were made in post-production and the audio was rerecorded and altered. My source said they’ve never seen anything like this happen before. He’s the director and he wasn’t in the know about what they were doing behind his back.
Apparently, JJ felt threatened over the month leading up to the premiere.
Rian was never meant to do IX despite some rumors that he was.
JJ was brought back by Iger, not KK. Disney insisted on more fan service, less controversy.
JJs original agreement when he signed on was indicating he would have way more creative control than he did on TFA. It became evident this wasn’t the case only a couple of weeks into shooting when the trouble with meddling started.
JJ wanted to do some scenes he thought were important but Disney shut it down citing budgetary reasons.
May 2019: JJ argued that those scenes were crucial. He had to let go of one of the scenes. The other scene he insisted on was approved at first. He did reshoots and additional photography in July. The new scene was shot at BR in October.
The “ending that will blow your mind” was a part of this. Older actors were included like Hayden, Ewan and Samuel and anyone who wasn’t animated. The force ghosts weren’t meant to be voices because they shot that footage on camera. The actors were in costumes. Rey was supposed to be surrounded by the force ghosts to serve as sort of a barrier between her and the Sith surrounding them.
My source thinks but can’t 100% confirm that this is because of China. It’s an office talk of sorts. Some VFX people claimed they got a list of approved shades of blue they could use on the Luke force ghosts. Cutting this out was when the bad blood turned into a nightmare for JJ because the movie he was making was suddenly unrecognizable to him in almost every way.
My source knows JJ well enough to know that he’s just not the yelling type but apparently in a meeting he yelled something along the lines of “Why don’t you just put ‘directed and written by Lucasfilm’ then?” My source wasn’t present for that exchange but knows some who were.
Disney demanded they shoot some scenes that would have things in it for merchandise. “They fly now” is one of them. It’s also JJ’s least favorite scene. At a November screening of a 2:37 cut, he cringed, groaned and laughed when the scene was on.
My source says that JJ was most likely not joking when he said “you’re right” in the interview where they asked him about TROS criticism.
JJ’s original early November cut was 3 hours 2 minutes long.
In January, JJ suggested that they turn this into two films. My source told me this well before Terrio mentioned it in an interview a couple of days ago. When Disney said no, JJ was content with making this 3 hours long.
Over a period of 9 months JJ started realizing that one by one his ideas and whole scenes were being thrown out the window or entirely altered by people who have “no business meddling with the creatives”.
They were not on the same page when it came to creative decisions and it became obvious that Disney had an agenda in addition to wanting to please shareholders. Disney could “afford messing up IX for the sake of the bigger picture” when it came to protecting things unrelated to IX.
The cut JJ eventually and hesitantly agreed to in early December was 2:37 minutes long. It wasn’t the cut we saw which he wouldn’t have approved of (and which is 2:22 long). Apart from the force ghosts, there were other crucial and emotional scenes missing. The cut they released looked “chopped and taped back together with weak scotch tape” (JJ's words).
The movie opened with Rey’s training. Her first scene with Rose was shortly after Rey damaged BB-8 during the training. Rose made a silly joke about how Poe is going to kill her for damaging BB-8. There was a moment where Rey took a minute to process what just happened when she saw that vision during training. She looked distressed and worried. The next scene was noise as the Falcon was landing and Rey runs over there. Those two women who kissed at the end were visible in this shot and they were holding hands. One of them ran towards the Falcon as it landed.
Kylo on Mustafar scene was 2 mins longer. There was a moment where Kylo seemed a bit dizzy and his vision was shown as blurry for a second. Almost as if time half-stopped while everyone in the background was slow-mo fighting. Kylo hears Vader's breathing, then shakes his head and time goes back to moving at a normal pace and he jumps right back into the battle (the scene from the trailer where he knocks that guy down which did end up in the movie later).
They cut some of the scenes from the lightspeed skipping segment. Some of the planets that were cut were Kashyyyk, Naboo, and Kamino.
The scene where the tie fighters are chasing them through the iceberg - those corridors were inspired by a video game JJ used to play in the 90s called Rebel Assault 2 (the third level in the game with the tunnels on Endor specifically).
Jannah was confirmed to be Lando’s daughter.
Rey not only healed Kylo's face scar but she killed Kylo when she healed Ben. Kylo ceased to exist when Rey healed him. My source mentioned that some people assume it was Han Solo who healed him but that isn’t true and that wasn't Han Solo. That was Leia using her own memories as well as Ben's to create a physical manifestation of his own thoughts to nudge him towards what he needed to do. That was her own way of communicating that with him. And it wasn't possible without her dying in the process. She made the ultimate sacrifice for her son and this flew over people's heads with the Disney cut.
The late November cut (the last cut JJ approved of) had scenes with Rose and Rey still. JJ wanted to give her a more meaningful arc. Disney felt that that was too risky too. My source mentioned that Chris Terrio said that it was because of the Leia scenes but this is only partially true because she had four other scenes including two with Rey/Daisy that Leia was not in.
Finn wanting to tell Rey something was always meant to be force sensitivity. In the 3 hour cut, it’s explicitly stated. There was a moment when Jannah and he were running on top of that star destroyer and Finn needed to unlock or move something and he force-moved it and acted surprised when it happened. This was replaced with a CGI’d BB-8 fixing whatever he needed to fix on there.
Babu Frik was nearly cut because some execs at Disney thought he would be the new Jar Jar. They are really surprised that people love him this much. He was JJ's idea and was created in collaboration with some artists and puppeteers. The personality was all JJ.
There were a bunch of scenes where Rey and Kylo (separately) went through quiet moments of reflection to deal with what they were going through. On her part, her going through the realization that there's something sinister about her past. Him going through regret and remorse but trying to shut it out. My source said that the Kylo scenes were especially amazing because of Adam's performance and how he managed to portray that inner turmoil. It provided much more context and added deeper meaning to both his battle with Rey and the final redemption arc at the end. It didn't happen so suddenly and it was more structured than what we got.
The Kylo/Rey scene where he dies was at least 4 minutes longer with more dialogue. Ben was always supposed to die. Source also added that if he wasn’t, then that might’ve been in an earlier draft which they haven’t read. The first draft they read included Lando (the first few didn’t). The Reylo kiss and Ben’s death was not part of the reshoots. It was a part of the re-editing. Even the cut that JJ thought was coming out earlier this month had a longer version of that scene than what was shown in the theatrical cut.
JJ was against the Reylo kiss (or Reylo in general). This was Disney's attempt to please both sides of the fandom.
JJ was not happy with where TLJ took the story. The final result is a mix of that story and the story told by Disney and whoever they tried to impress (“certainly not the fans”). JJ is gutted over the final result. Star Wars means a lot to him. He had to sacrifice large chunks of the story in TFA but he was promised more creative control on TROS and instead the leash they had him on was only tightened as time went by. A source said that this is the one franchise and the one piece of his work that he didn't want to mess up and instead it turned into his worst nightmare. When he found out that he was blindsided with the cut they presented, he said "what the fuck??" when Kylo was fighting the Knights of Ren at the end and the Williams music that was used for it was not what he wanted at all. He seemed to think it was out of place.
JJ's cut still exists and “will always exist”. We most likely will never see it unless “someone accidentally leaks it.”
Ok, so there you have it. If there are questions, I will try to follow up with my source but it’s up to them if they want to share more so I cannot guarantee an answer.
Edit: I forgot one thing that the source wanted included, concerning FinnPoe in TROS:
The source asked about FinnPoe after seeing Oscar Isaac's comment about how Disney didn't want it to be a thing. This is true. JJ fought to make this happen. This is why Oscar is blaming Disney. It's not just a random throwaway comment. He knows for a fact that it was Disney because these discussions happened. The main cast is insanely close with JJ and are just as pissed, though seemingly more outspoken about it than JJ. During TFA, Disney was hesitant to hire John Boyega because a woman was front and center so they deemed that risky enough so bringing in a male lead who's black made them nervous. JJ fought to make that happen for about nine months before getting approval. The same issue came up when JJ fought to have Finn&Poe in TROS but he lost that battle as he lost many creative battles for this film. Many people, JJ included, came to the realization during this production that the story really is told by shareholders/investors instead of the creatives or anyone at Disney specifically. He tried to make a lot of things happen and was shut down because of this. They had him on a leash and many blame TLJ for the stricter creative approach.
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cbshearer · 5 years ago
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Since shortly after release weekend, I’ve been corresponding with someone who worked closely on the production of TROS and works for one of the major companies I cannot disclose here. I have verified the source to my satisfaction. To protect the source, I am rewording what we spoke about over the last two weeks and am submitting it to you in bullet point format I have written based on what they told me. The TLDR is that they were upset with the final product of TROS and wanted to share their perspective on how it went down and where it went wrong.The leakers for TROS had an agenda and are tied to Disney directly. My source confessed that they have an agenda as well in that they struggle with ignoring what’s been happening to someone who they think doesn’t deserve it.JJ always treated everyone on and offset with respect so my source’s agenda is that what Disney has done to JJ and how much they screwed him over should be something people are at least aware of, whether you like him as a filmmaker or not.Disney was one of the studios who were in that Bad Robot bidding war last year. Disney never had much interest in BR as a company but they did in JJ because they saw WB (who JJ went with in the end) as a major threat.JJ is very successful at bringing franchises back like Mission Impossible, Star Trek and Star Wars. WB is struggling with DC and aside from Wonder Woman, DC is still seen as a bit of a joke in its current state by the GA.WB wants Abrams for some DC projects. My source said that this generation’s Star Wars is the MCU, and Marvel’s biggest threat is a well operational DC. They want to keep DC in the limbo that they’re in right now. Abrams jumpstarting that franchise with something like a successful, audience-pleasing Superman movie makes them nervous. Their goal is to make JJ look bad to potential investors/shareholders.My source mentioned this shortly after the premiere: “The TROS we saw last night was not the TROS we thought we worked on”.JJ was devastated and blindsided by this. He’s been feeling down over the last 6 months because of some of the ridiculous demands Disney had that changed his movie’s story. While the scenes were shot, a lot of the changes were made in post-production and the audio was rerecorded and altered. My source said they’ve never seen anything like this happen before. He’s the director and he wasn’t in the know about what they were doing behind his back.Apparently, JJ felt threatened over the month leading up to the premiere.Rian was never meant to do IX despite some rumors that he was.JJ was brought back by Iger, not KK. Disney insisted on more fan service, less controversy.JJs original agreement when he signed on was indicating he would have way more creative control than he did on TFA. It became evident this wasn’t the case only a couple of weeks into shooting when the trouble with meddling started.JJ wanted to do some scenes he thought were important but Disney shut it down citing budgetary reasons.May 2019: JJ argued that those scenes were crucial. He had to let go of one of the scenes. The other scene he insisted on was approved at first. He did reshoots and additional photography in July. The new scene was shot at BR in October.The “ending that will blow your mind” was a part of this. Older actors were included like Hayden, Ewan and Samuel and anyone who wasn’t animated. The force ghosts weren’t meant to be voices because they shot that footage on camera. The actors were in costumes. Rey was supposed to be surrounded by the force ghosts to serve as sort of a barrier between her and the Sith surrounding them.My source thinks but can’t 100% confirm that this is because of China. It’s an office talk of sorts. Some VFX people claimed they got a list of approved shades of blue they could use on the Luke force ghosts. Cutting this out was when the bad blood turned into a nightmare for JJ because the movie he was making was suddenly unrecognizable to him in almost every way.My source knows JJ well enough to know that he’s just not the yelling type but apparently in a meeting he yelled something along the lines of “Why don’t you just put ‘directed and written by Lucasfilm’ then?” My source wasn’t present for that exchange but knows some who were.Disney demanded they shoot some scenes that would have things in it for merchandise. “They fly now” is one of them. It’s also JJ’s least favorite scene. At a November screening of a 2:37 cut, he cringed, groaned and laughed when the scene was on.My source says that JJ was most likely not joking when he said “you’re right” in the interview where they asked him about TROS criticism.JJ’s original early November cut was 3 hours 2 minutes long.In January, JJ suggested that they turn this into two films. My source told me this well before Terrio mentioned it in an interview a couple of days ago. When Disney said no, JJ was content with making this 3 hours long.Over a period of 9 months JJ started realizing that one by one his ideas and whole scenes were being thrown out the window or entirely altered by people who have “no business meddling with the creatives”.They were not on the same page when it came to creative decisions and it became obvious that Disney had an agenda in addition to wanting to please shareholders. Disney could “afford messing up IX for the sake of the bigger picture” when it came to protecting things unrelated to IX.The cut JJ eventually and hesitantly agreed to in early December was 2:37 minutes long. It wasn’t the cut we saw which he wouldn’t have approved of (and which is 2:22 long). Apart from the force ghosts, there were other crucial and emotional scenes missing. The cut they released looked “chopped and taped back together with weak scotch tape” (JJ's words).The movie opened with Rey’s training. Her first scene with Rose was shortly after Rey damaged BB-8 during the training. Rose made a silly joke about how Poe is going to kill her for damaging BB-8. There was a moment where Rey took a minute to process what just happened when she saw that vision during training. She looked distressed and worried. The next scene was noise as the Falcon was landing and Rey runs over there. Those two women who kissed at the end were visible in this shot and they were holding hands. One of them ran towards the Falcon as it landed.Kylo on Mustafar scene was 2 mins longer. There was a moment where Kylo seemed a bit dizzy and his vision was shown as blurry for a second. Almost as if time half-stopped while everyone in the background was slow-mo fighting. Kylo hears Vader's breathing, then shakes his head and time goes back to moving at a normal pace and he jumps right back into the battle (the scene from the trailer where he knocks that guy down which did end up in the movie later).They cut some of the scenes from the lightspeed skipping segment. Some of the planets that were cut were Kashyyyk, Naboo, and Kamino.The scene where the tie fighters are chasing them through the iceberg - those corridors were inspired by a video game JJ used to play in the 90s called Rebel Assault 2 (the third level in the game with the tunnels on Endor specifically).Jannah was confirmed to be Lando’s daughter.Rey not only healed Kylo's face scar but she killed Kylo when she healed Ben. Kylo ceased to exist when Rey healed him. My source mentioned that some people assume it was Han Solo who healed him but that isn’t true and that wasn't Han Solo. That was Leia using her own memories as well as Ben's to create a physical manifestation of his own thoughts to nudge him towards what he needed to do. That was her own way of communicating that with him. And it wasn't possible without her dying in the process. She made the ultimate sacrifice for her son and this flew over people's heads with the Disney cut.The late November cut (the last cut JJ approved of) had scenes with Rose and Rey still. JJ wanted to give her a more meaningful arc. Disney felt that that was too risky too. My source mentioned that Chris Terrio said that it was because of the Leia scenes but this is only partially true because she had four other scenes including two with Rey/Daisy that Leia was not in.Finn wanting to tell Rey something was always meant to be force sensitivity. In the 3 hour cut, it’s explicitly stated. There was a moment when Jannah and he were running on top of that star destroyer and Finn needed to unlock or move something and he force-moved it and acted surprised when it happened. This was replaced with a CGI’d BB-8 fixing whatever he needed to fix on there.Babu Frik was nearly cut because some execs at Disney thought he would be the new Jar Jar. They are really surprised that people love him this much. He was JJ's idea and was created in collaboration with some artists and puppeteers. The personality was all JJ.There were a bunch of scenes where Rey and Kylo (separately) went through quiet moments of reflection to deal with what they were going through. On her part, her going through the realization that there's something sinister about her past. Him going through regret and remorse but trying to shut it out. My source said that the Kylo scenes were especially amazing because of Adam's performance and how he managed to portray that inner turmoil. It provided much more context and added deeper meaning to both his battle with Rey and the final redemption arc at the end. It didn't happen so suddenly and it was more structured than what we got.The Kylo/Rey scene where he dies was at least 4 minutes longer with more dialogue. Ben was always supposed to die. Source also added that if he wasn’t, then that might’ve been in an earlier draft which they haven’t read. The first draft they read included Lando (the first few didn’t). The Reylo kiss and Ben’s death was not part of the reshoots. It was a part of the re-editing. Even the cut that JJ thought was coming out earlier this month had a longer version of that scene than what was shown in the theatrical cut.JJ was against the Reylo kiss (or Reylo in general). This was Disney's attempt to please both sides of the fandom.JJ was not happy with where TLJ took the story. The final result is a mix of that story and the story told by Disney and whoever they tried to impress (“certainly not the fans”). JJ is gutted over the final result. Star Wars means a lot to him. He had to sacrifice large chunks of the story in TFA but he was promised more creative control on TROS and instead the leash they had him on was only tightened as time went by. A source said that this is the one franchise and the one piece of his work that he didn't want to mess up and instead it turned into his worst nightmare. When he found out that he was blindsided with the cut they presented, he said "what the fuck??" when Kylo was fighting the Knights of Ren at the end and the Williams music that was used for it was not what he wanted at all. He seemed to think it was out of place.JJ's cut still exists and “will always exist”. We most likely will never see it unless “someone accidentally leaks it.”Ok, so there you have it. If there are questions, I will try to follow up with my source but it’s up to them if they want to share more so I cannot guarantee an answer.Edit: I forgot one thing that the source wanted included, concerning FinnPoe in TROS:The source asked about FinnPoe after seeing Oscar Isaac's comment about how Disney didn't want it to be a thing. This is true. JJ fought to make this happen. This is why Oscar is blaming Disney. It's not just a random throwaway comment. He knows for a fact that it was Disney because these discussions happened. The main cast is insanely close with JJ and are just as pissed, though seemingly more outspoken about it than JJ. During TFA, Disney was hesitant to hire John Boyega because a woman was front and center so they deemed that risky enough so bringing in a male lead who's black made them nervous. JJ fought to make that happen for about nine months before getting approval. The same issue came up when JJ fought to have Finn&Poe in TROS but he lost that battle as he lost many creative battles for this film. Many people, JJ included, came to the realization during this production that the story really is told by shareholders/investors instead of the creatives or anyone at Disney specifically. He tried to make a lot of things happen and was shut down because of this. They had him on a leash and many blame TLJ for the stricter creative approach. via /r/saltierthancrait
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newssplashy · 6 years ago
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NEW YORK — The woman with the raw, luminous face has a story she wants to tell you. No, that’s not quite right. It’s a story she has to tell you, though the hard urgency of her narrative won’t be obvious at first. It is obvious she’ll deploy all the tools at her command — charm, aggression, the illusion of immediate intimacy — to keep your attention.
Because this woman is portrayed with unswerving focus by Carey Mulligan, one of the most compelling stage actresses of her generation, there is never any question of her not succeeding in this mission.
For the more than 100 uninterrupted minutes that make up Dennis Kelly’s “Girls & Boys,” in which Mulligan is the entire cast, you are unconditionally hers.
This is true even when you start to suspect that there is both more — and, fatally, less — to her character’s story than meets the eye. Afterward, when you’re out of the coercive range of Mulligan’s gaze, you’ll find yourself thinking that Kelly is one lucky playwright to have had her as his interpreter.
“Girls & Boys,” which opened on Wednesday night at the Minetta Lane Theater under the seamless direction of Lyndsey Turner, is a dark tease of a tale that never quite rises to its own, earnest ambitions. Despite its anodyne title, “Girls & Boys” considers the relationship between the sexes to explore the ways in which each is wired to create and destroy.
Or as Woman (that’s how Mulligan’s character is identified in the program) says, “I think a lot about violence.” She continues, “I just think it’s such a fundamental part of our species that how can you understand us without understanding it?”
There are reasons, needless to say, that she poses this question, including one of devastating relevance to her. Woman has done her research, and she conversationally folds in evidence that is academic as well as anecdotal, sociological as well as personal. Somehow, though, the answers never add up, nor do the details that convincingly define a life torn asunder.
Kelly — best known here for his impeccably quirky, Tony-winning book for the musical “Matilda” — has written a careful and intelligent script that covers many bases but lands on few of them with full impact. It begins as a fond portrait of a love affair and ends as a cold assessment of a tragedy, while implicitly wondering how one might have led to the other.
Mulligan’s character is a documentary maker and mother of two who describes the signal events of her adult life with a bright candor that she has clearly learned suits her. This comes across in both her account of how she won a hotly coveted job in television without much in the way of a résumé or experience and of how she met and fell for the man who would become her supportive husband.
These aspects of her life are described directly to the audience as Mulligan stands on an empty stage with nothing but her expressive frame and face to define the busy world she is conjuring. These scenes alternate with others in which she is dealing with the often tedious demands of her two young children, Leanne and Danny.
But while Es Devlin’s superb set, delicately lighted by Oliver Fenwick, has shifted to reveal a completely detailed living area, rendered in monochrome, Mulligan is again called upon to fill in blanks. Though Woman’s children are never seen, she tends to them with a present-tense and vividly precise physicality.
And in the play’s most chilling moment, as her character is balancing her attentions between a little boy who wants to play war and a girl who wants to play architect, Mulligan looks at us and says matter-of-factly, “I know they’re not here.”
That the boy is instinctively military, while the girl is drawn to more constructive and intellectual pursuits, posits a gender-based contrast in sensibilities. So does Woman’s account of a documentary she worked on, about an academic who basically theorizes that women should be running the world.
That theorist, by the way, is as a man. And the account of his behavior while collaborating on the documentary is evidence of Kelly’s welcome refusal to present any argument in pure black and white.
This is also true of Woman’s account of what led to the terrible events at the play’s center. Yet it is in this most crucial, central story that the script falters, lapsing into the conventions of true crime shows and police procedurals in which a forensic expert tries to explain imponderable acts.
Not that you’ll be entirely conscious of this failing while you’re watching Mulligan, though it may quietly nag at you. Audiences who know only her screen work (“Mudbound,” “The Great Gatsby”), haven’t experienced the full measure of the uncanny emotional translucence she emanates on stage.
That quality was what made her the best Nina I’ve seen in Chekhov’s “The Seagull” (on Broadway in 2008), and it infused her harrowing study of a schizophrenic in “Through a Glass Darkly” (off-Broadway in 2011). In “Girls & Boys,” she is required to shadow her natural, revelatory radiance.
But every so often, even in the midst of a jokey anecdote, Mulligan’s Woman stretches her long neck and tilts her chin upward. Her face fleetingly becomes one that has been stripped nearly to the skull by pain and guilt.
And you realize anew, with a startling pang, that this person doesn’t at all want to be talking about what she’s talking about. But, as Mulligan makes so achingly clear, she doesn’t have a choice.
Production Notes:
‘Girls & Boys’
Through July 22 at Minetta Lane Theater, Manhattan; 800-982-2787, minettalanenyc.com. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes.
By Dennis Kelly; directed by Lyndsey Turner; sets by Es Devlin; costumes by Jack Galloway; lighting by Oliver Fenwick; video by Luke Halls; sound by David McSeveney; general management by FGTM/Joe Watson; movement director, Joseph Alford; production stage manager, William H. Lang; company manager, Bobby Driggers; artistic producer, Kate Navin. Presented by Minetta Lane Theater and Audible.
Cast: Carey Mulligan (Woman).
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Ben Brantley © 2018 The New York Times
via NewsSplashy - Latest Nigerian News Online,World Newspaper
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romancatholicreflections · 7 years ago
Text
19th Nov >> Sunday Homilies and Reflections for Roman Catholics on the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time -Year A
Gospel text : Matthew 25:14-30      
vs.14  Jesus spoke this parable to his disciples: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man on his way abroad who  summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them. vs.15  To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one, each in proportion to his ability. Then he set out. vs.16  The man who had received the five talents promptly went and traded with them and made five more. vs.17  The man who received two made two more in the same way. vs.18  But the man who had received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. vs.19  Now a long time after, the master of those servants came back and went through his accounts  with them. vs.20 The man who had received the five talents came forward  bringing five more. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘you entrusted me with five  talents; here are five more that I have made.’ vs.21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant;  you have shown you can be faithful  in small things, I will trust  you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.’ vs.22 Next the man with the two talents came forward. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘you entrusted me with two talents; here are two more that I have made.’ vs.23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant;  you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.’ vs.24  Last came forward the man who had the one talent. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered; vs.25 so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have  it back.’ vs.26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have  not sown and gather where I have not scattered? vs.27 Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would  have recovered my capital with interest. vs.28 So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the five talents. vs.29 For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away. vs.30 As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.'”
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We have four commentators available from whom you may wish to choose . Scroll down to the required author.
Michel DeVerteuil:       Lectio Divina with the Sunday Gospels – Year A
Thomas O’Loughlin:    Liturgical Resources for the year of Matthew
John Littleton :              Journeying through the Year of Matthew
Donal Neary :                 Editor of the Messenger
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Michel DeVerteuil Lectio Divina with the Sunday Gospels- Year A www.columba.ie
General Comments
This Sunday’s passage continues last Sunday’s. It too is a long parable telling us “what the kingdom of heaven is like”, i.e. “what it is like” to experience grace coming into our world. Most people find this parable difficult because of the master’s seemingly exaggerated anger; also he is very hard on the third servant who was already less gifted than the others. If this is “what the kingdom of heaven is like”, then it is “bad news” indeed.
We must find an interpretation  therefore which is both faithful to the text and also brings “the good news of the kingdom” to all, but in particular to the “little ones” (those with “only one talent”) of our communities.
The key to such an interpretation is to remember Jesus’ situation when he gave this teaching. As with last week’s passage, he was at the end of his public ministry, frustrated at the hardness of heart of the leaders of the people. The Mosaic tradition had taught generosity of spirit and compassion for the oppressed; the leaders had let this glorious tradition become their personal possession, an excuse for meanness and exclusiveness, a way of protecting their positions of privilege.
Jesus is highly indignant at what they have done with God’s gift – rightly so. We need to enter into his feelings. The God of the bible (Old and New Testament) is so passionately committed to the cause of the poor that when they are ill treated, “his anger flares”, as the first reading of the 31st Sunday reminded us. Nowadays we Christians tend to “soothe” God’s anger, whereas we should be asking for forgiveness that we are so passive (so lacking in anger) at the  injustices of the world.
The “property” in the parable then, is not personal wealth. To interpret it like that makes the parable a teaching on being good capitalists! The master then becomes a go-ahead CEO angry that his company has not made the profit it should have. The “property” in the parable is God’s precious gift intended to multiply and be life-giving for all. Its true purpose is distorted by the servant’s meanness (this is why he is called “good-for-nothing”).
The parable then is giving two messages. – To those who have been made to feel excluded from the kingdom (“tax collectors and prostitutes”) Jesus brings the “good news” that this is totally against God’s will.  In fact God is very angry that they are being  excluded. – To his disciples he issues a stern warning: do not fall prey to a similar narrow mindedness. The history of the Church (like our individual stories) tells us how right he was to warn them. We all fall into the trap of seeing our talents as our personal possession that we can do what we like with. God’s will is that we see them as gifts to be shared so that they can be multiplied.
We remember examples of something similar happening. – The teaching of Jesus, so full of potential for transforming the world and yet so often “hidden under a bushel”. Christians have “dug a hole in the ground and buried it”. – Nature, which God has made so bountiful, now becomes a matter for personal greed with the resultant scarcities. – Family traditions of openness to all, allowed to degenerate into snobbishness and racism. – Individual talents (physical, mental, spiritual) intended to be a blessing for families and societies, become things to be bought and sold. We celebrate the “Jesus person” who made us conscious of this betrayal.
The parable is not all negative. It shows another possibility – the first two servants, trusting and free spirited,  and experiencing abundance. We celebrate people who have followed that path, communities too and social moments.
             Jesus: our greatest talent.
The master is also someone we can celebrate. He is  the kind of leader who does not cling to power. He entrusts his “property” (his cause) to those who work with him without counting the risk.
This parable is crucial teaching for our modern Western culture which glorifies mistrust as not merely necessary but actually beneficial. This aberration has affected the way we Christians now tend to see Jesus – our first concern becomes to “protect” his message against our “competitors” notably the adherents of other religions. Our faith then makes us mean spirited and elitist – we are no longer life-giving for the world.
Verse 29 is a teaching found in other contexts, e.g. Matthew 13:12 and Luke 8:18. We are free to meditate on it by itself therefore.  Here again, the saying seems unfair but if read creatively turns out to be a little gem of wisdom. This “thing” that when people “have it” they are “given more” whereas when people “don’t have it” even the little they have is “taken away”, is trust. People who have no trust in themselves, in others or in life, end up losing “even what they have”. On the contrary, people who have that kind of trust end up being “given more”.
The  verse invites us to celebrate Jesus the teacher (and those who have played a similar role in our lives): – he reassures those who trust that they are on the right track; there is not the slightest trace of cynicism in him, on the contrary his message is, “go ahead and trust”. How we need teachers and leaders like that! – he issues a stern warning to those who have no faith. “Learn to believe in yourself”. Jesus doesn’t molly coddle people, “Get off your butt and stop pitying yourself! Otherwise you will lose everything you have.”
Scriprture Prayer Reflection
“If at times we are inclined to feel discouraged, let us not be dismayed.  The human will remains the great force the Creator designed it to be.” … President Hassanali of Trinidad and Tobago, speaking to the nation after the attempted coup, July 1990
Lord, we thank you for the gift of free will. It is this that enables us, even when we are discouraged, to receive what life brings us, like servants being entrusted with a certain amount of talents by their master, to go off promptly and make something of our opportunities, and when the time for accounting comes, to come forward cheerfully and show what we have accomplished.
“If someone tells me that he doesn’t believe in God, I ask him to describe the God he doesn’t believe in, and I nearly always have to tell him that I do not believe in such a God either.”     …….Lord Hailsham
Lord, forgive us Church people that we have given others a wrong impression of you. Many have heard that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered. As a result, they are afraid, afraid to take risks, to trust themselves or to trust life. And so the talents you have given them, they dig a big hole in the ground and hide them. Humanity suffers, and so do they.
Lord, when we get into positions of authority we become afraid to trust people. Teach us to be like Jesus. He walked the earth for some years, instructed his little community, then, when he had lived his appointed time, he entrusted his mission to his followers giving each of us talents according to our ability; then he set out on his journey back to you, knowing that he would return after a very long time and go through his accounts with us, that even though some would hide their talents in the ground, others would trade with them, and his word would multiply indefinitely.
Lord, a mark of our civilization is that everyone is afraid to fail. That is because we demand too much of one another. We expect to reap where nothing has been sown, and to gather where nothing was scattered. Then people do not take risks and do not make of their talents what they could.
Lord, help us to face old age with trust in you and in ourselves, knowing that you give us responsibilities each one of us in proportion to our ability, and once we are faithful in the small things you ask us to do, you will trust us with greater things, and we will join in your happiness.
“Our deeds do not simply disappear into the black hole of time. They are recorded somewhere and judged.”   …President Havel of Czechoslovakia
Lord, we thank you for those who keep alive in our society the idea of judgement, that you have entrusted your propert to us, and you will come back to go through your accounts with us.
“We are not on earth as museum keepers, but to cultivate a flourishing garden of life and prepare a glorious future.” …Pope John XXIII
Lord, we thank you for good Pope John and for all those who have made humanity more free, urging us to see life in positive terms, reminding us that the only thing which seems to make you angry is when we are afraid to use the talents you have entrusted to us as if the world were ruled by a hard man who reaps where he has not sown and gathers where he has not scattered.
Lord, trust is the most precious of your gifts. It is the kind of thing that when we have it we are given more and end up having more than enough; but if we do not have it, then even the little we have is taken away. We pray that we adults may hand on that gift to our children.
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Thomas O’Loughlin Liturgical Resources for the Year of Matthew www.columba.ie
Introduction to the Celebration
Friends in Jesus Christ, we are all called to build the kingdom of God, but no two people have exactly the same task in this divine project which we call ‘creation’. Each of us is called to bring God’s love, presence, light and peace into a particular world in which we are the centres. This is our vocation; this is the unique set of talents that has been entrusted to each of us by God. Today our thanksgiving focuses on these sets of talents that each of us has been given; and repentance is for those times when we as in­dividuals have hidden our talents and failed to build the kingdom, and our prayer is that we will each follow our unique vocation more closely in future.
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newssplashy · 6 years ago
Text
Opinion: Review: Carey Mulligan tells a harrowing tale of 'girls & boys'
NEW YORK — The woman with the raw, luminous face has a story she wants to tell you. No, that’s not quite right. It’s a story she has to tell you, though the hard urgency of her narrative won’t be obvious at first. It is obvious she’ll deploy all the tools at her command — charm, aggression, the illusion of immediate intimacy — to keep your attention.
Because this woman is portrayed with unswerving focus by Carey Mulligan, one of the most compelling stage actresses of her generation, there is never any question of her not succeeding in this mission.
For the more than 100 uninterrupted minutes that make up Dennis Kelly’s “Girls & Boys,” in which Mulligan is the entire cast, you are unconditionally hers.
This is true even when you start to suspect that there is both more — and, fatally, less — to her character’s story than meets the eye. Afterward, when you’re out of the coercive range of Mulligan’s gaze, you’ll find yourself thinking that Kelly is one lucky playwright to have had her as his interpreter.
“Girls & Boys,” which opened on Wednesday night at the Minetta Lane Theater under the seamless direction of Lyndsey Turner, is a dark tease of a tale that never quite rises to its own, earnest ambitions. Despite its anodyne title, “Girls & Boys” considers the relationship between the sexes to explore the ways in which each is wired to create and destroy.
Or as Woman (that’s how Mulligan’s character is identified in the program) says, “I think a lot about violence.” She continues, “I just think it’s such a fundamental part of our species that how can you understand us without understanding it?”
There are reasons, needless to say, that she poses this question, including one of devastating relevance to her. Woman has done her research, and she conversationally folds in evidence that is academic as well as anecdotal, sociological as well as personal. Somehow, though, the answers never add up, nor do the details that convincingly define a life torn asunder.
Kelly — best known here for his impeccably quirky, Tony-winning book for the musical “Matilda” — has written a careful and intelligent script that covers many bases but lands on few of them with full impact. It begins as a fond portrait of a love affair and ends as a cold assessment of a tragedy, while implicitly wondering how one might have led to the other.
Mulligan’s character is a documentary maker and mother of two who describes the signal events of her adult life with a bright candor that she has clearly learned suits her. This comes across in both her account of how she won a hotly coveted job in television without much in the way of a résumé or experience and of how she met and fell for the man who would become her supportive husband.
These aspects of her life are described directly to the audience as Mulligan stands on an empty stage with nothing but her expressive frame and face to define the busy world she is conjuring. These scenes alternate with others in which she is dealing with the often tedious demands of her two young children, Leanne and Danny.
But while Es Devlin’s superb set, delicately lighted by Oliver Fenwick, has shifted to reveal a completely detailed living area, rendered in monochrome, Mulligan is again called upon to fill in blanks. Though Woman’s children are never seen, she tends to them with a present-tense and vividly precise physicality.
And in the play’s most chilling moment, as her character is balancing her attentions between a little boy who wants to play war and a girl who wants to play architect, Mulligan looks at us and says matter-of-factly, “I know they’re not here.”
That the boy is instinctively military, while the girl is drawn to more constructive and intellectual pursuits, posits a gender-based contrast in sensibilities. So does Woman’s account of a documentary she worked on, about an academic who basically theorizes that women should be running the world.
That theorist, by the way, is as a man. And the account of his behavior while collaborating on the documentary is evidence of Kelly’s welcome refusal to present any argument in pure black and white.
This is also true of Woman’s account of what led to the terrible events at the play’s center. Yet it is in this most crucial, central story that the script falters, lapsing into the conventions of true crime shows and police procedurals in which a forensic expert tries to explain imponderable acts.
Not that you’ll be entirely conscious of this failing while you’re watching Mulligan, though it may quietly nag at you. Audiences who know only her screen work (“Mudbound,” “The Great Gatsby”), haven’t experienced the full measure of the uncanny emotional translucence she emanates on stage.
That quality was what made her the best Nina I’ve seen in Chekhov’s “The Seagull” (on Broadway in 2008), and it infused her harrowing study of a schizophrenic in “Through a Glass Darkly” (off-Broadway in 2011). In “Girls & Boys,” she is required to shadow her natural, revelatory radiance.
But every so often, even in the midst of a jokey anecdote, Mulligan’s Woman stretches her long neck and tilts her chin upward. Her face fleetingly becomes one that has been stripped nearly to the skull by pain and guilt.
And you realize anew, with a startling pang, that this person doesn��t at all want to be talking about what she’s talking about. But, as Mulligan makes so achingly clear, she doesn’t have a choice.
Production Notes:
‘Girls & Boys’
Through July 22 at Minetta Lane Theater, Manhattan; 800-982-2787, minettalanenyc.com. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes.
By Dennis Kelly; directed by Lyndsey Turner; sets by Es Devlin; costumes by Jack Galloway; lighting by Oliver Fenwick; video by Luke Halls; sound by David McSeveney; general management by FGTM/Joe Watson; movement director, Joseph Alford; production stage manager, William H. Lang; company manager, Bobby Driggers; artistic producer, Kate Navin. Presented by Minetta Lane Theater and Audible.
Cast: Carey Mulligan (Woman).
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Ben Brantley © 2018 The New York Times
source https://www.newssplashy.com/2018/06/opinion-review-carey-mulligan-tells.html
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