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The Heat Is On

The Madness of King George

The History Boys

The Crucible

The Lady in the Van


            The film starts out with the audition of 18-year-old Jody Sawyer (Amanda Schull) for the American Ballet Academy, or ABA. She is cited as having bad feet and turnout, yet she makes it anyway.Upon arriving to the academy in New York City, she meets Cooper Neilson (Ethan Steifel), a famous ballet dancer returning to New York to teach at the academy. Once in her dorm room, Jody meets her two roommates, Eva Rodriguez (Zoë Saldana) and Maureen Cummings (Susan May Pratt). Eva and Jody immediately hit it off but Eva and Maureen have difficulty in getting along mostly because of their different backgrounds. Eva comes from a poor family in the Dominican Republic, while Maureen comes from a wealthy family in upstate New York which they both look down on each other with scorn. Jody and Eva leave to find a place where Eva can smoke and they run into Erik (Shakiem Evans), a gay dancer who introduces them to his friends.In Erik's room, Jody and Eva meet fellow dancers Sergi (IIia Kulik), a Russian ballet dancer who has been at the academy for many years, and Charlie (Sascha Radetsky), a newcomer who has instant chemistry with Jody.After a montage of breaking in point shoes, there is an introduction to the classes by the head of the company, Jonathan Reeves (Peter Gallagher) whom was a former ballet dancer himself over 20 years ago. During ballet practice, Jodi's bad turnout is noticed by one of the head teachers, Juliette Simone (Donna Murphy).As the girls pause in a doorway to watch the boys, famous ballet dancer Kathleen Donahue (Julie Kent) passes by and they take notice. After she is gone, Maureen tells them that Kathleen and Cooper broke up not too long ago when she left him to marry Jonathan. Since then Cooper had been in London and "screwing everything in tights".Maureen goes to meet her mother (Debra Monk), a former ballerina herself who works at ABA to discuss her possible rivals at getting into the American Ballet Company (ABC). It is clear that Maureen is under intense pressure from her pushy and domineering shrew of a mother to succeed in ballet and encourages her to "do what it takes" to succeed... even if the lines of ethics and morals are crossed on more than one occasion.There is a pas de deux class, where Charlie and Jody are partners.That night, the advanced students and teachers of ABA are at the ballet to see a show. First is a segment from Swan Lake, and then Romeo and Juliet danced by Cooper and Kathleen.After the show, the students have baskets of things to sell while a party goes on. People complement both Kathleen and Cooper on their ballet, and Cooper flirts with Jody. Jody and her friends sneak off and find a way on to the Lincoln Center stage. They mess around until Cooper and Kathleen bust into the auditorium. They hide while the adults fight. Cooper thinks they have obvious chemistry while Kathleen says it is just acting and she is happily married and she leaves in a huff.Outside, a young waiter named Jim (Eion Bailey) tries to get Maureen's name and phone number. Smitten and flattered by this nice guy's approach to her, she tells him where she lives at the ABA.A few days later, after another disastrous ballet class, Jody waits in Jonathan's office. He and Juliette tell her that they think ballet isn't the right path for her. Joey is visibly upset. Meanwhile, Jim meets Maureen outside ABA and asks her out on a date. She accepts. Jim introduces himself as a pre-med student at Columbia University and works part-time as a waiter to pay his bills.To ease Jody's stress, Eva decides that she and Charlie, Erik, and Sergi will take her out for a night on the town. They go to a salsa club where Jody and Charlie dance and flirt while Sergi gets hit on by an old barfly after he lies to her by pretending that he works for the Russian Mafia.Elsewhere that same evening, Jim and Maureen go out bowling with Jim's friends. Maureen doesn't know how to bowl (because all she's done is dance her whole life under pressure from her mother). Later, they sit around eating pizza and telling unfunny jokes. Maureen barely eats, but after Jim persuades her to eat something, she does eat a few slices of pizza. Later that night, Jim drops her off at her dorm where she goes inside and throws up in the bathroom.The next day, Jody, Eva, Charlie, Erik, and Sergi are clearly hung over and subsequently get kicked out of ballet class. Their punishment is to clean the mirrors in the studios, and during this they get in to a water fight, while Maureen looks on sadly at being left out of their close-knit group.Jody goes to take a dance class somewhere else in New York, because she is tired of taking criticism for her ballet dancing. During the Broadway dance class, Cooper comes in to assist/dance. After the class, Cooper convinces Jody to come back to his apartment for "dessert". They drink wine. They have sex.The next day, Jody thinks she and Cooper are dating after their one night stand and Kathleen makes fun of him.A few days later, Jonathan announces that the casting for the end of the year workshop is up. Charlie, Erik, and Jody are cast in a new ballet choreographed by Cooper. Maureen and Sergi are the leads in Jonathan's ballet, while Eva is in the corps. She is clearly upset at not getting any lead part.While they practice the ballets, we find out that Cooper's ballet is basically the story of him, Kathleen, and Jonathan. (It's REALLY obvious he's not even trying to hide it).A few days later, everyone, plus Jim and Maureen tagging along, go out to celebrate Erik's birthday. They drive around in a rented white-colored limo and go out on a ferry to the Statue of Liberty. Charlie asks Jody out and she says she's already seeing someone. Meanwhile, Jim finds Maureen vomiting in the ferry lavatory. She tells Jim that her throwing up is the result of sea sickness.The next day during dance rehearsal, Charlie figures out that it is Cooper whom Jody is "seeing". They have a ballet showdown of sorts, but Cooper wins. In Jonathan's ballet, Maureen is having trouble being passionate about the dance.Jody goes to the Lincoln Center to see Cooper (and Kathleen) perform George Balanchine's "Stars and Stripes". Kathleen knows exactly what's going on between him and Jody, but Cooper denies it. After the ballet, Jody waits for Cooper, but he leaves with another girl.The next day in rehearsal, everyone is sullen and Jody gets mad at Cooper for "not being able to make up his mind" in the dance, but she's really talking about their "relationship". Cooper tells her that he does not do relationships. Jody angrily storms out and Charlie goes after her. He convinces her to stay in the dance even though she is mad at Cooper.Another dancer, Emily (Victoria Born), having been hinted for being to fat to dance throughout the movie, packs up and leaves the school.That night, Jim and Maureen have a fight about her bulimia. Angry and frustrated about Jim telling her that she should get professional help for that her career in ballet is destroying her physical and mental health, Maureen breaks up with him and storms out of his apartment, telling him: "I am the best goddamn dancer in the American Ballet Academy. Who the hell are you? Nobody!"A few days later, during rehearsal on stage, Erik suffers an injury, putting him out of the dance. Cooper thinks the understudy isn't good enough and wants to dance the part himself. Jonathan doesn't want him to, but Cooper threatens to pull the ballet.That evening, Maureen goes back to Jim's apartment and she apologizes for mouthing off to him and also tells him about Erik's injury and wishes that it could have been her. They both reconcile.A little later, after returning to the dorms, Maureen tells Jody and Eva that she's thinking about quitting the school because of her frustration at not doing anything else with her life. Both Jody and Eva tell Maureen how lucky she is for being talented and having a lead part in the upcoming ballet and that she should not give up a good thing going for her. Eva tells Maureen that despite their differences between them, she wishes they could trade places. Just when they are about to go to sleep for the night in their respective beds, Maureen asks Eva if they could talk.Performance Night.The first dance, the Italian Symphony, is lead by Anna (Megan Pepin), a girl who is a main contender for one of the spots in the company. The ballet number is a success.The next dance is Jonathan's. Sergi (as well as the theater audience) is surprised to discover Eva in Maureen's place as the lead. Meanwhile, Maureen and her mother have a confrontation in the lobby about Maureen quitting ballet. Maureen says that she is unhappy with her life and wants to leave the academy, while her mother tells her not to. Maureen walks away while her mother is angry still about her "giving up her dream". Maureen yells back at her mother saying that practicing ballet is HER dream, not Maureen's own.The last dance is Cooper's, which is incredibly elaborate and preposterous. It involves motorcycles, fake leather pants, ballet sex, two-second scene changes, red point shoes, and a lot of Jamiroquai. Jody, Cooper, and Charlie perform their well-choreographed moves which is clearly inspired by the Jody-Charlie-Cooper triangle.At the end, Jonathan announces who will make the American Ballet Company. Eva and Anna both do, as do Erik and Charlie. When Jody is called into Jonathan's office with an offer to join the company, she gives a speech and says she is joining Cooper's new company that he is now starting. Everyone congratulates each other outside in the lobby. Jim shows up to be with Maureen after she had told him earlier about quitting ballet. Jody tells Cooper that she is joining his new dance company, but she tells him: "Cooper, you're a great choreographer and a talented dancer. But as a boyfriend... you kind of suck." Joey then goes over to Charlie who congratulates her. Jody asks Charlie to the party that night and they kiss.During the end credits, there is a montage of the group at their current positions.Eva, the recovered Erik, and Charlie are dancing at ABC and practicing their ballet moves during a class.Sergi is seen dancing for a San Francisco ballet company with his girlfriend.Maureen is at college and talking with a group of new friends between classes, looking happy at leaving behind her dance life for good.Jody is dancing as a principal dancer at Cooper's company.
    

Center Stage


            George and Nina seem like the perfect couple. They share a cozy Brooklyn apartment, a taste for tuna casserole dinners, and a devotion to ballroom dancing. They love each other. There's only one hitch: George is gay. And when Nina announces she's pregnant, things get especially complicated. Vince - Nina's overbearing boyfriend and the baby's father-wants marriage. Nina wants independence. George will do anything for a little unqualified affection, but is he ready to become an unwed surrogate dad? By the end of the movie, the meaning of "extended family" gets a real workout, and some relational clichés get spouted, but the finalé brings things together in relatively agreeable - if unorthodox - fashion.
    

Nicholas Hytner

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