Crossroads (2002)

The teen pop version of 8 Mile would surely fall very short of 8 Mile’s virtuosity, but it would still be much better than Crossroads — which could have been this hypothetical teen pop 8 Mile if only the lead had any resemblance to Britney Spears beyond looking and sounding like Britney Spears. Here’s an uber-sexy fucking bitch with an exceptional voice who couldn’t, aside from playing herself, give a convincing performance if her life depended on it; why not just play to her strengths rather than her weaknesses?

Lucy Wagner (Britney) is the high school senior class valedictorian. This notion is so far-fetched that not even the filmmakers buy it. Before graduation, Lucy’s father, Pete (Dan Aykroyd), asks her if she’s practiced her speech. She hasn’t, at least that we know of. After graduation, someone (too old to be a student, yet dressed in a cap and gown) congratulates Lucy on her “wonderful” speech, which she gave offscreen. Either the director didn’t think the scriptwriter could write a wonderful speech, or didn’t think Britney could deliver it wonderfully. Or both.

This same mystery person who congratulates Lucy on her mystery speech expresses her hope that Lucy will continue to “study music at university” (perhaps they should have made the movie a musical and turned the speech into a big song-and-dance number, which would in fact be better than anything else that actually is in the film); Pete chimes in, replying that “Lucy wants to be a doctor” with “a double major in biology and chemistry.” Aykroyd delivers these lines with the deadpan poise that served him so well in Dragnet; alas, Crossroads isn’t supposed to be a comedy.

Anyway. Eight years ago, as little girls growing up in a small Georgia town, Lucy and her two bestest friends foreverest (shoutout to Dr. Cox) Kit (Zoe Saldana) and Mimi (Taryn Manning) buried a “wish box” and promised to dig it up on the night of their high school graduation.

In the present day, the trio open the box to find that their grown-up dreams still coincide with their little girl dreams, which is a rather depressing thought. Lucy wants to find her mother who abandoned her when she was three years old, Mimi wants to travel to Los Angeles and audition for a record label, and Kit, well, what she wants is pretty much inconsequential.

Lucy does find her mother, but when her mother wants nothing to do with her, Lucy decides to steal Mimi’s dream instead. The question is, why didn’t they make Lucy the character with musical ambitions from the beginning, and forget about the unnecessary and implausible ‘valedictorian/wannabe doctor’ aspect altogether? Dr. Britney makes about as much sense as Bradley Cooper discovering Lady Gaga at a TED talk instead of a drag club in A Star is Born.

Related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIFoNmw5ubM

I am writing an open #letter to all #political sides as an #introduction to #hope I wish to turn #hurt away from and closer into as such through #affirmative #action accordingly if at all possible.

Let me start out by saying, that I #believe in the #power of real human prayer as #unbound #energy finding its way through us. And in turn, I'm no #religious #person by and large, but I am going to send this #prayer out there anyways because I feel it needs to be #said as is.

This will be a prayer covering several #topics of conversation that I #feel are important and significant enough to relay as one broadcast.

#extremism

To all #people I #pray that:
You realize living on your own #political #island sounds great in theory, be it on the #left or the #right of the spectrum. Or even at the #top or #bottom of it as well. But being unable to find or care for the #center of it, leaves you #vulnerable to #attack more so than anything else. And that is not a state of things I #desire for you to have to #live by.

#awareness

I pray that:
As #individuals you #collectively and #personally #understand that there are differences between the #perception of how you come across to others, and how others #perceive you in turn. It is okay to have a #difference of opinion, but to be #blind sighted by this, leaves you open to being #weaponized and I do not #wish that for you to have to #experience at all.

#sovereignty
I pray that:
You can #recognize how someone wants to be able to experience #respect without having to diverge or divulge your #interest in a #potential #conflict as such. In order for us to be able to #trust each other, we have to #remember how to #treat one another as #equals rather than constantly #competing for #dominance based on denying that there #exists a spectrum of #agreeability at play that we are all apart of.

#CommonSense
I pray that:
We keep building upon #frameworks that do not need to become a totally separate #foundation that exists just to serve you. But rather, exist as #modular #blocks that can join and detach from one another as already built #structures full and complete. This way, we are not trying to conflict over what block we have to share space with someone else in prioritizing. Because the entire thing is ours to shape in our own way. And so as a #metaphor, I feel it is #important to attach to the idea of having a sense in common, as opposed to a common sense where applicable, of things that cause us to #fight over how #relevant it is to most of us around the #actual or #planned #change currently in motion.

#battles
I pray that:
We are able to tell when to be #still and when to #move upon any #focus that #captivates us in part. Whether it exists as apart of a #whole or not. Doing so will help us make the best #impact #possible for the change we want to make a #reality for the #cause we are #concerned for.

And ultimately, I pray that we can move past the blatant need to have an #existential #crisis be on full display at the #crossroads of #agendas being carried out as they are each in turn, #instigated by #georegional #tribalism that serves nobody accept to put #humanity as a whole last, not first, as I intend to do.

All of these things are #real and can be #fixable and #doable as such. And I want to make sure, that this reality does not have a chance to get far out of #control the way it currently has.

For it is #outcomes like this, that #incomes should never have appropriately #manifested into #place that I want to #avoid and keep #preventable from ever #happening again.

To me, I find it very #unfortunate that we are living through #times of such blatant #hardship that should not have to be so unnecessary in today's day and age. For in this latest #protest #style #news #video we see this very inteersection of mounting, preventable #activities #culminating all at once in a display of #violent #behaviour best #repurposed for other #interests in my #opinion acordingly.

#posted by #YouTube #reactor and #media #podcaster #RebelNews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjT3kK5lHKk

In #America #israel and #Canada or anywhere else in our #world we should not have to worry about #migration #problems at home #effecting the #symptom of #indifference at the #core of #ineffective #deference as such. Rather, if we simply #agree to #adapt our time towards #focusing on the #things we can #bear #witness to as our own #personal #legacy then I say we have done enough for our #community be it or we tied to a particular #faith or not.

I say this, in my own #human name for all it is worth. Because that is who I am now, and if any #guardian #angel believes this to be #true then all I ask, is that you add yours to this prayer and pass it forward.

Thank you for your #attention to this #matter as such. I #appreciate it and you very much for the #blessing that you are.

So, it's a bit old, but I never saw this coming.

It turns out not all #America #First #people are entirely #senseless when taking into consideration, #serious long term issues.

Specifically, things like a #environment #risk regarding #plastic and its more aptly named #microplastic variants.

According to this #research, the #science is saying that we have to take this a lot more seriously.

Now I am no #alarmist, but I do believe in medium term #red #alerts and this seems to be very much like one.

So were all the #climate #activist types right after all about an aggressive #carbon push to reduce it?

If the leading #might is #right voices are now admitting that this #doctrine as a #regime is now failing, with multiple levels of the #deception revealing and unveiling themselves piece by piece. We now stand at a very significant #crossroads as such.

As far as I know, #news wise this post is a bit old, but still highly relevant in the scientific discussion around #health and human well being. A topic of conversation that sstill peaks my #interest no matter who strategizes new theories upon it to date.

I'm all for saving the #planet but can we please agree to go all the way, and not say it's fine if we only do so in part?

https://www.infowars.com/posts/jagged-little-pills-why-microplastic-research-needs-to-get-real/

US dollar at crossroads | Expert Forex Outlook

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