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Edited by MITESH SHRESTHA

Knicks legend Earl Monroe headlines high school opening ceremony

MITESH SHRESTHA | WSN

On Oct. 6, the Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School celebrated its opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The school is the first specialized high school in the nation that dedicates itself to preparing its students for different career paths in basketball.

By MITESH SHRESTHA Sports Editor

The star-studded guest list of NBA commissioner Adam Silver, New York Knicks president Leon Rose, NBA Players Association executive director Michele Roberts and a smattering of former NBA greats did not divert the attention of onlookers at the new Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School from the stream of students entering the gymnasium. Adorned in pristine white polos, they settled into the rows of seats in the middle of the gym amid the clicks of cameras and murmurs from the audience.

The pageantry surrounding the ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated the 124 students that made up the initial freshman class for the EMNRBS. Like its namesake, trailblazing Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Earl Monroe, the school is innovative in its own right. The school represents the first speciality high school in the nation dedicated to preparing its students in the different career paths that exist in basketball. After completing the general education course, students have the opportunity to major in fields like law, design, business, broadcast journalism and kinesiology. The school’s curriculum emphasizes field experience, as each student is matched with an individual mentor and an internship related to their interests.

The ceremony was an emotional affair. It represented a culmination of an arduous eight-year-long campaign to realize Monroe’s and founder Dan Klores’ dream. The idea started with Klores, who saw an opportunity to connect new generations to a sport that was integral to his life.

“I’m a basketball guy, [I’ve] written about the game, played the game, coached the game, made movies about the game, the game is my safety net,” Klores said. “Look at what the game can give you: You can take these skills and transfer them to everything. That’s the dream but who’s going to help you?”

Initially connected by Silver two decades ago, Monroe and Klores developed a friendship while working on the 2008 Peabody Award-winning documentary Black Magic. They found a common bond in their shared love for basketball. When Klores decided to move forward with the idea for the school, he reached out to Monroe, who had experience working on a similar concept in the Earl Monroe Academy — a summer program centered around education through the context of basketball — during the 1980s.

The process of bringing this idea to fruition was not easy. Klores presented his idea to education administrators for review, bouncing around at the different levels before reaching the governor’s office to formally initiate development. From there, it became a matter of settling all the bureaucratic and administrative decisions. Klores formed a board of trustees. The first trustee he chose was the late NBA commissioner David Stern, who coined the school’s slogan “a ball and a book can change the world.” However, development continued to meet further obstacles. Issues with developers, tragedy in the form of the untimely passing of key contributor Lewis Katz, last minute staff changes and the pandemic nearly brought Klores to his breaking point. But, in the end, Klores was able to see his dream through.

“I don’t integrate good feelings easily; I’m very critical of myself; I don’t watch any of the movies I’ve made, so it feels good I have to say,” Klores said.

However, he recognizes the work that still needs to be done for the school to reach its full potential. Klores aims to hire four full-time literacy interventionists who will not only work with students on an intimate level, but provide parents of students with nightly adult literacy classes as well.

The school plans to move from Pelham Bay, Bronx, to its permanent location in Mott Haven, Bronx, in 2024. The total student body will reach 440, made up of kids from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. While there’s still work to be done, there’s optimism for the potential impact the foundation of this school will have beyond New York City.

“That’s what we’re hoping for, [to be] that role model for other schools, other cities,” Monroe said. “Certainly what we’re doing now is kind of setting the table for these other schools.”

ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM

ARTS

Edited by SASHA COHEN and ANA CUBAS

Review: Latest ‘Amélie’ musical fails to live up to the film

‘Call of Duty: Vanguard’ beta revives the first-person shooter

SAIGE GIPSON | WSN

“Amélie,” the musical adapted from the 2001 film, recently reopened at the Criterion Theater in the West End after a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For some, the musical falls short of capturing the essence of the beloved film.

By SAIGE GIPSON Staff Writer

LONDON — The most recent attempt at a musical-theater adaptation of the 2001 film “Amélie” disappoints. JeanPierre Jeunet’s romantic comedy depicted a French woman who, having had a childhood secluded from society, lives alone in Paris and changes people’s lives with her kindness — the musical follows the same plot and characters, but lacks the charm that made the film so beloved.

The first musical adaptation of “Amélie” premiered on Broadway in 2017 but closed shortly after. Critics said the show “lacked flavor” and disliked the score and staging of the musical.

The show reopened in the United Kingdom in 2019 and arrived on the West End in 2021. Writers Daniel Messé, Nathan Tysen and Craig Lucas revised the orchestrations and added new songs. Director Michael Fentiman changed the show’s presentation, making actors play their own instruments for the musical accompaniment. Unfortunately, the show closed shortly after opening due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After receiving three Laurence Olivier award nominations, the show recently reopened at the Criterion Theater in the West End. The reopening was momentous since it coincided with the 20th anniversary of the release of the original film, a hit in the United Kingdom. It remains the highest-grossing French film in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and received five Academy Awards.

Despite the changes, the musical still lacks the endearing, playful elements and characters that appealed to fans of the film. The musical’s exclusion of these aspects makes it seem as though it were halfheartedly created for the sole purpose of profiting off of the cherished film.

The “Amélie” musical neglects exposition, making it unclear as to why the quirky characters act the way they do. Little time is spent introducing the notoriously rude grocer Collignon (Johnson Willis); in the second act, Collignon is confusingly confronted about his meanness, despite having been portrayed merely as a mild-mannered, slightly grumpy old man.

Similarly, the titular character Amélie (Audrey Brisson) and her love interest Nino (Chris Jared) are given almost no stage time together. This makes the final song of the musical — in which the two characters finally fall in love — perplexing. The musical reveals so little about Amélie and Nino that audiences are left wondering how they could ever relate to each other.

Most musicals depict romance through their songs, but the numbers in “Amélie” fail to fully express characters’ emotions, acting more as filler or mere dialogue. “Sister’s Pickle,” the first song in which Amélie shows interest in Nino, fails to reveal why she likes him or even how she knows him.

While the film version of “Amélie” is deliciously colorful and picturesque, the West End’s production is shockingly dull. The film would lend itself well to a vivid fairytale style like that of “Wicked” or “Peter Pan.” But “Amélie” remains more serious, shying away from the film’s childlike whimsy. The musical’s attempt at sophistication contradicts the film’s heavy emphasis on imagination and curiosity, as well as the importance of imagination to adults.

Amélie’s imagination and curiosity about human nature comes from a childhood in which she was isolated by her parents. In the film, an omniscient narrator reveals Amélie’s daydreams, highlighting the adolescent, creative qualities that have remained with her in adulthood. These qualities spur Amélie’s desire to help the people of Paris. The musical adaptation forgoes the narrator and fails to establish Amélie’s childlike qualities, neglecting themes that are central to the film and the plot of the story.

The production somewhat attempts to recreate the film’s childlike naiveté by using puppets and anthropomorphized figs in a scene where they come to life and terrorize Collignon. But both elements are out of place in the dull, serious scenery of the musical.

Unlike the heartwarming film, the musical leaves audiences feeling empty and distant from its eccentric characters. The musical production follows the same plot as the film, but otherwise maintains neither the style nor emotions of the original. It seems as though the creators only wanted to exploit the film’s popularity. Their adaptation falls short of the beloved original.

Contact Saige Gipson at arts@nyunews.com

By BRIAN SAVINO Contributing Writer

It’s mind-blowing that developers have churned out a new “Call of Duty” game almost every year since 2003. As November approaches, fans are dutifully preparing for the latest addition to the franchise, but this year’s release is anything but traditional.

“Call of Duty: Vanguard,” developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision, will be released on Nov. 5 as the newest installment in the long-running “Call of Duty” franchise. The multiplayer beta — a pre-release opportunity for the public to try the game’s multiplayer mode — was available for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC at different time intervals until Sept. 22. Though the beta contained some gameplay mechanic issues, it felt exciting and novel, with potential for the upcoming release if Sledgehammer Games takes community feedback seriously.

“Vanguard” shines in its deviations from rigid historical accuracy. The ability for players to use up to 10 attachments that alter a weapon’s characteristics was certainly not possible during World War II, and this is promising — it shows that Sledgehammer Games is willing to experiment. As long as they maintain the bleakness consistent with WWII, the developers should further push the game’s historical boundaries by adding more extreme elements to the final game, such as laser weapons and interstellar locations. There are also realistic ideas that the developer could include that players have not seen before, such as the Japanese experimental Model 2 submachine gun and U.S. Vultee XP54 aircraft. Hopefully, the full game brings novel additions that differentiate the game from its predecessors.

Although numerous weapons in the beta, such as the BAR assault rifle, have featured in past “Call of Duty” installments, the gameplay mechanics make everything feel fresh. Features like being able to slide across the ground or sprint quickly by sacrificing weapon use make the game feel fast-paced. Meanwhile, the weapons themselves require skillful control and flexible positioning, which keeps the battles intense and stimulating. While playing, content did not feel recycled — rather, it truly felt like a reimagining of the weapons with a modern twist.

However, the beta displayed substandard power balancing between weapons. The StG44 assault rifle and MP40 submachine gun are so dominant that they flooded nearly every match, dissuading the use of other weapons. This is an issue in numerous first-person shooter games and it is exactly the type of problem that a beta is meant to identify. The revolving shotgun outputs inconsistent damage, even at the close ranges where it should excel, and the STEN submachine gun is simply too weak in comparison with other options. With only a few viable weapons, games quickly began to feel repetitive and stagnant, even though the beta technically offered plenty of guns for players to choose from. Sledgehammer Games must bring all the weapons in the game to a midpoint power-wise by improving the beta’s weaker options and tuning down the overbearingly powerful ones. By doing this, the final game will contain the maximum amount of content for players to use, which will keep the game exciting and varied.

It is worth noting that the snipers are extremely slow. “Call of Duty” is known for its quickscoping — when a player rapidly zooms in with a sniper and eliminates an enemy immediately when the crosshairs appear. It feels like “Vanguard” is now trying to push snipers to be more traditional, longrange entities. Some attachments can decrease scope-in time on snipers, but not by much. In fact, some players removed the scope from their sniper rifles altogether in order to regain the ability to zoom in quickly. Given that the mechanic is such a vital and fun part of “Call of Duty” history, Sledgehammer Games should slightly increase the zoom-in speed for snipers to make them more viable for quickscoping.

For the most part, the maps are well-paced and lend themselves to varied gameplay options: Players can rush through buildings and take part in close-quarters battles or stay back and pick enemies off from long ranges. Even on a small map like Hotel Royal, which is set on a French rooftop at night and lends itself to high-intensity gameplay, there are longer sightlines that allow players to slow down if they wish. Map designs are well thought-out and give players numerous route options — on Eagle’s Nest, set in a hideaway, there is always a different path to take if one contains too many enemies to deal with.

Playing a six-versus-six game on the Red Star map, set in a destroyed Russian city, is excruciatingly slow. It is a struggle to find even one enemy per minute, which dampens the exhilaration that usually came with other smaller maps or modes with more players in the beta. Frankly put, Red Star should only support 10-versus-10 game modes in the final game — it flows well with that many players.

The spawns — areas to which players return when they are eliminated — are a weak spot in “Vanguard.” During the beta, players constantly spawned directly in front of enemies and spawns often did not change when enemies were bombarding them. After running away from the map’s center and reaching a seemingly safe area, an enemy would appear out of nowhere and take players by surprise due to these issues. This was a pervasive problem in the beta and the developers must make spawns consistent and safe in order to promote fairer and less frustrating gameplay.

The “Vanguard” beta certainly had some issues, but they are fixable. Sledgehammer Games has shown their ability to make something traditional — a WWII first-person shooter game — feel brand-new and exciting. If they are able to incorporate player feedback, the final version of “Vanguard” has the potential to be one of the most memorable games in the franchise.

MANASA GUDAVALLI | WSN

“Call of Duty: Vanguard,” the newest installment in the “Call of Duty” series, will be released on Nov. 5. The multiplayer beta, which allowed players to try the game’s multiplayer mode before release, proves to be promising despite a few issues.