The horrendous unending nightmare of abuse that Precious suffers, made somehow worse by her agonisingly poignant daydreams of red-carpet celebrity, suddenly gives way to easier-going and even faintly sitcom-ish class scenes with a pre-packaged cast of unthreatening kids in the new school, tricked out with all manner of picturesque street-cred mannerisms.
It's witty and beautifully timed, combining everything from the latest tablet technology to old school tricks like a slit in the back screen to allow him to be "swallowed" by his own projected head.
Know the old school tricks, the ones that fool parents into thinking their children are sick.
Rance helps him restore his faith in old school magic tricks, and not be swayed by new magicians such as Steve Gray (Carrey) who practice shock magic.
His covers of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and "Femme Fatale," by the Velvet Underground, felt like more than shtick, though, and at the beginning of "California Dreamin' " by the Mamas & the Papas, he turned away from the microphone, faced the back wall and let go a mighty howl — an old-school trick to grab attention, and it worked.
This middle-school trick can make your breasts look bigger, but it should be seen as an absolute last resort.
Kurt has a knack for disappearing in an actual puff of smoke, like a rabbit in an old-school magic trick, and he also has a long and snaky tail, something that Sally Bowles would have been only too pleased to incorporate into her act.
As creepy as Willem Dafoe was, playing Schreck in "Shadow of the Vampire," about the making of this German silent, he's a grade-school trick-or-treater compared with the real thing.
They appeared to be refraining from the old-school tricks of promising earmarks and other goodies that are anathema to the anti-Washington new members.
The deputy prime minister conceded while the Nationals may not have the best social media campaign or the ability to nab newspaper front pages, the party did have old-school tricks.
"Haven't we evolved beyond high-school tricks?" That said, she calls her husband at work every few days just to say thanks for letting her spend a few years at home with the kids -- a gesture Ms. Doyle would surely approve of.
