Word: use
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...most puzzling aspects of the film is the fact that Fuqua never makes effective use of the film’s actual New York location, excluding several overhead shots of the projects. In fact, the only neighborhood in Brooklyn mentioned in the entire film is Bedford-Stuyvesant, and that is only in passing. On top of using essentially stock characters in the script, Fuqua does nothing to give the film any legitimate New York feel...
Lerner’s dynamic use of punctuation gives an added shape to his sequences. His lines are almost always broken by a caesura, dramatically moderating the flow of his verse. “It cannot save us. But it can remind us / Survival is a butcher’s goal. All hands / To the pathos. Let the credits,” he writes. The poet explains that this is “a structure of feeling / Broken by hand.” Alternatively, Lerner also often leaves out punctuation, leaving sentences unfinished, imitating the rhythm of real conversations...
...use of video is particularly unfortunate when three factory workers visit patriarch Leo Gordon (David Chandler) and his business partner Sam Katz (Jonathan Epstein) to complain about their conditions. The unseen workers lodge their complaints, speaking into off-stage microphones while the screen plays clips of silently talking everymen. The effect is sloppy and confusing. If Fish is trying to equate the three workers with modern employees and their struggles, he certainly does not succeed; it is barely discernable what is actually even happening in the scene...
This disorder carries through with the needless use of live feed video. Many of the instances utilizing live feed seem to be the consequence of ill-conceived staging, such as the conversation between Ben (Hale Appleman) and Kewpie (a moving Karl Bury) in which both actors are seated on the floor with their backs turned to the audience, with large furniture further blocking them from view...
Smith’s one scene as crooked Mr. May is the only instance of a rewarding use of video in the play. Finally, the video’s detached feel makes thematic sense when projecting May’s image—in negative—as he speaks. His black-and-white face effectively reflects both Smith’s doubled role and May’s unfeeling nature...