Critique - Acting

First, the cardboard clip:

the hand movement from x10 to 15 happen at the same time for both of them, so offset one by 2 frames or so. The screen left hand could be less bent upwards, so that you get a nicer finger silhouette.

You might still be fighting your IK rig. Look at her hips on x32. As it goes down it looks like she's scaling down in terms of proportions. Try to keep the volume consistent. Also, look at her lower body how it travels screen right, but then on x39 it stop and goes just down. But after that she goes forward again around x41, 42. But this time it looks like the lower body stays put and only her chest goes forward.

Her move backwards is too sharp and quick on x100 to x103. Especially 101 to 102 is a big move spacing wise. Plus it's the whole body, there is no staggered movement between the sections of the body and her head.

Same goes with her head on x116. Since it's such a big mass, when she lunges forward from x116 to around 122, it feels too fast.

It would tone down her should movement and add some chest movement during x155 to 161. The screen left shoulder goes to the right, her head goes to the left. Two very big opposing movements while the rest of the body is pretty still. It's touch to move your shoulder in such a broad way without any upper body movement.

I would lock down her left hand fingers a bit more after x146. They seem a bit wiggely and loose. It looks like there is a little spider moving on top of the biceps. :)


Now the Rudeboy:

Great start, very promising! You said it's in a very early stage, so some points you might be already aware of, but I'll mention it anyway.
First, in last class we mentioned that his "tough road" fist gesture is a bit too "acting out words" (plus the movement is super fast over single frames). I think you can sell it through his face alone.
I would angle down his foot a bit more. It's very flat and IK-ish, so it's super locked and seems to rest on the lower frame of the movie. You can also zoom out a tiny bit more if needed.
But overall what sticks out is his head. Your reference was working better because your head is smaller. Seeing it now animated it feels like it's moving too much during the second half of the clip. You lean it to the right during "easy road", over screen left before "... it's a rocky road...". then to the right again. So during this section it's just a big mass moving a lot. I would keep the first one, then nothing during "rocky road" and maybe a little bit during "tough road", but just to accentuate the facial acting.

But again, great start!