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CLIP IN |
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01:21:04 |
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CLIP OUT |
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01:28:59 |
| SUMMARY |
On the night of the dance benefit, swarms of Bronx residents enter the church and take their seats. Last-minute preparations are underway as Gina surprises Honey with the loan officer, who explains that she does banking for some non-profit arts foundations, and she knows some people who might be interested in funding Honey's project. Meanwhile, at the Daniels residence, Honey's mom is getting ready for a night out, but Honey's dad refuses to reveal the location of their date. Backstage, preparations continue, and Honey frets over several small details before Benny informs her, "Chill out. We got your back." With everyone in their seats, Honey takes the stage just as her parents enter the sold-out venue, and thanks everyone for coming. Honey reminds the assemblage that dancing isn't what these kids do, it's who they are. And so, the neighborhood kids take the stage and dance. The show concludes to wild cheering and a standing ovation, with particularly joyous reactions from the loan officer and Benny and Raymond's mom. Per the audience's demand, Honey returns to the stage for a curtain call and some hugs, notably from Honey's parents and the Tweet. Outside the church, a limo pulls up and Missy Elliott steps out. She roundly chastises her driver for being late and enters the church. Credits. (Really.) |
| ANALYSIS |
At last, Honey reaches its final sequence, a moment of truth for its plucky heroine as well as the neighborhood kids who have placed so much faith in her. As evident from the astonishing turnout for the dance benefit, however, it seems placing their bets on Honey was a wise decision for these tiny dancers, despite the treachery she displayed in the previous clip. And while Honey's dippy optimism is the only reason she's not even slightly haunted by her actions, it must also be credited with altering reality so that this little event is standing room only by showtime. Unfortunately, Honey's inadvertent meddling with time and space has apparently resulted in a series of wild anomalies which defy explanation: first of all, Honey takes the time to make sure an elderly woman has a clear view of the stage, despite the fact that there is absolutely nothing obstructing her view. Next, Gina shows up with the loan officer, introducing her as Mrs. Storm (as well as "my homegirl"); Mrs. Strom explains, "Your friend came by the bank and told me what you're trying to do here," suggesting that her memory has been erased of the day Honey clearly explained the situation to her. Even larger questions are raised when we see the massive expense to which Honey has gone to create her humble dance benefit. The banner on the front of the building alone could not have been cheap, but that's nothing compared to the professional lighting job, lighting operator, construction of an entire stage, and personalized apparel adorned with each kid's name in glittered letters. In fact, the viewer is left with only two possibilities: (1) Honey has been holding out big time, or (2) Honey is throwing this dance benefit for the purpose of funding this dance benefit. Other dimensional rifts become apparent during the actual dance performance, most of which features clearly professional dance training and choreography, and the remainder of which is not dancing at all, as if portions of these kids' performance came from wildly different points on the time-space continuum. Also, several members of this dance troupe appear totally ambiguous in terms of age as well as gender, raising even more concerns about what exactly we're watching, and why Gina isn't their leader instead of Honey. Perhaps the most shocking development in this clip is that the entirety of the dance benefit, from the beginning of the introduction to the end of the curtain calls, lasts only 5 minutes and 49 seconds -- no elliptical edits, no soundtrack changes, no time lapse. Honey is such a consummate saleswoman that she pulls off this expensive coup in less than 6 minutes, and makes every single audience member feel like it was worth the $20 -- approximately $6.67 per minute of entertainment. Honey could sell ice cubes to Eskimos, but why would she bother when she can sell poor people their own children? From the time Honey takes the stage to the time she returns for a curtain call, this and other subplots are resolved solely through the use of cutaway shots: after Honey's mom is convinced of the worthiness of Honey's ambitions, we also see that Benny and Raymond's mom is have the time of her life. While this may be the result of her addiction to narcotics, the point is that she's happy to see her children dancing. Additionally, we catch sight of a woman with her hair in a bun and wearing glasses; such a severe-looking woman must have a mind for business and ready access to capital, so when she leans over and whispers ecstatically to Mrs. Strom, she relays the comment to Honey with a simple double thumbs up. And if Missy thinks she's in a bad mood now, wait until she finds out the benefit was only 6 minutes long and she missed the whole thing. |
© The Slow Roll 2007-08