#cycle22week9

Such a waste…Dustin clearly didn’t try nearly as hard as the others, and end product is just weak. I feel like it is impossible for Dustin to look bad, but here the actions are letting him down. He is noticeably behind the song in those initial few scenes, and then the second scene isn’t much better. Dustin just looks like that cute guy in a club, who is just sort of there, fumbling about. The next two scenes are a bit better, but not stellar. The handspring was somewhat impressive, but since he didn’t land it perfectly just came across awkwardly on film. His best take was probably in the metal sphere; there was a bit of intensity, but everyone else had at least one great shot, and Dustin’s best one was only mediocre. It was clear the judges knew Dustin wasn’t going to be a threat, and just brought him back as they were happy with the top 6 they had. If I was Justin, I’d be so pissed this guy came back and stole 7th place rightfully from you.

I definitely disagree with the choice for first call-out. Mikey’s takes were all flat for me. He didn’t really serve anything unexpected, and his takes sort of all fall in the middle. The hallway scene was probably the strongest for me; he exploded out of the door, and the energy was high, and the movements more fluid. After that it sort of fell apart. The runway walk was strong, but nothing noticeable, and then during the kiss with Hadassah, my eyes were fixed on her. The last scene was probably the most awkward. His movements felt disjointed, and the dance actually fell on the comical side for me.

I’ll start by putting up a bit of a defence for Lacey. I’ve seen a lot of people criticise her for getting such a large role, but I really doubt Tyra actually cared who would get each role. Chances are when it came around to it, they needed someone to be “transformed”, and Lacey’s sweet southern charm works better than Hadassah or Mame. Had Ashley or Courtney still been in the competition, I think they’d have fit the role too, but of those left Lacey was a clear casting. In saying that, since Lacey had such a feature role she needed to turn it out, but she only did okay. The initial scenes were cute. She plays the innocent role very well, and there were some nice light-hearted moments throughout. After the dramatic change she just…doesn’t change. She serves the same cute, flirtatious and soft looks. The runway walk needed to be fierce, but comes across as amateur. I will say the shots in the chandelier-esque thing looked incredible; her bone structure filmed beautifully.

Mikey really excelled in this photoshoot. His close up is convincing as a professional businessman character and he proved that he could actually pull off a short-haired look. His eye contact is super strong even in the wide shot and his bone structure photographed awesomely. He commanding the center of the frame even with a minimal pose and he’s clearly the star of the photo even with Miss J, Hadassah, and Mamé all going crazy around him. Mikey nailed the brief this week and really #closedthedeal on claiming the number 1 spot in my ranking.

I wasn’t too against Mamé getting the FCO this week because she did a very good job in this mess of a photoshoot. Her cropped shot is definitely strong: she looks so sweet and it’s like she’s thinking of what to write next in her love letter. The wide shot is good too since it meets the assignment of contradicting the close-up. I love how relaxed she looks in the setting and she’s bringing a lot of sex appeal to contrast the innocence of her face. However, I feel like she’s not the center of attention and my eyes go to Nyle and Miss J first. If Mamé had owned the full shot more she could’ve possibly been in my top spot this week.

Hadassah’s shot really isn’t even bad, at least for the concept this week. Her face, while slightly blank, is gorgeous and the close-up works well for the “studying hard” posed Instagram post brief. The wide shot isn’t nearly as good though. I appreciate that she’s filling the frame, but her legs look too straight and stiff, plus Nyle is totally stealing the show from the left. Hadassah may be in my top 3 this week but I didn’t have many qualms with her elimination. Despite her improvement I don’t think she was strong enough to make it any farther (although I would’ve been okay with her staying another week over Devin based on their performances this week).

Lacey and Nyle are interchangeable for the other bottom 2 spot: Nyle was mediocre all around while Lacey has a solid full shot but the weakest face besides Devin. The close-up is a disaster. Her eyes are lifeless and the duck lips are painfully bad. Thankfully her pose is pretty good. She’s elongating her body well and I like the way she’s holding the shopping bag. I think she stands out in the scene, but she also had one of the tamer setups in the bunch. Lacey’s bottom 2 placement wasn’t unwarranted and this is my least favorite picture in her portfolio.

Nyle’s been in frontrunner mode the past few weeks so it’s a bummer to see such a mediocre shot like this. I don’t think his face is as vacant as a lot of people seem to think, but his startled/caught off guard expression doesn’t carry well in the wide shot. It also doesn’t work for the close-up since the assignment was to convince the viewer that the cropped shot was something different than the whole picture. I also wish his body was more engaged; he just appears a bit lost in everything that’s happening around him. This is definitely one of Nyle’s weakest performances.