Why does it always have to be about a girl?
Before this week, the last time I was in a movie theater was last May, for Speed Racer on IMAX (which was awesome, I don't care what you critics say).
Paul Blart: Mall Cop was totally worth the wait.
Just kidding. I saw Slumdog Millionaire (finally!) last Saturday, and last night.... The Dark Knight: The IMAX Experience (FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!!!).
My spoilery reviews for both movies under their respective cuts, although I'm pretty sure I was the last person on Earth who hadn't yet seen TDK:
I watched the first half of Slumdog with a lump in my throat, on the verge of tears over the beauty and pain unfolding on the screen. I read a somewhat negative review somewhere protesting the glamorization of Mumbai's slums, but honestly, that early sequence of all those slum kids running from the police was full of so much gritty joy. The camera perfectly captured the vitality of the kids, the chase, and the slums, with their color and chaos and movement. I can also now completely understand why A.R. Rahman is winning so many awards, because his score was perfection, and here's to new Oscar nominee M.I.A. as well. I also loved the second musical montage of Salim and Jamal scamming train passengers to the tune of "Paper Planes." It's amazing how something that used to hilariously conjure images of Seth Rogen in The Pineapple Express could so effectively be claimed (or sort of reclaimed) here. (Also clever: the rolling-down-the-hill transition from kid-Salim and Jamal to preteen-Salim and Jamal.)
And how great was kid Salim? Probably my favorite actor in the bunch. You wanted to throttle him at times, but that was the idea. He's a very mischievous kid, to be sure, even kinda mercenary, but those big saucer-plate eyes don't lie. He's a feisty kid, but when push came to shove, he came through for his little bro in a big way. And that brings me to probably one of my biggest problems with the movie, which is that Jamal had to choose between Salim and Latika as an adult. Sure, what preteen Salim (or however old he was, let's just call him Salim 2) did to Jamal and Latika was crappy (whether it was raping Latika or just giving her over to his new mob boss -- I wasn't sure), but let's not forget that if it wasn't for Salim, Jamal and Latika wouldn't have escaped Maman intact or alive -- twice. Latika was always Jamal's obsession*, whereas Jamal was Salim's. Even though Salim sold his brother out several times, when it came to keeping his brother alive, he never let Jamal down. I just thought Jamal turning his back on Salim was really crappy, especially considering his brother ended up redeeming himself in the end.
*Speaking of which, here is my second beef with Slumdog: why turn it into a love story? I'd understand it as an obligatory subplot, but boiling down this incredible Dickensian fable to a simple love story felt like a cheapening of the premise. Latika was woefully underwritten -- I don't understand why or when Jamal fell in love with her, other than some sort of absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder/hero complex kind of thing. I mean, before he saw her again outside the gate of the mob boss's house, he didn't even know she was going to grow up to look like Freida Pinto! I think the overall story would have been a lot stronger if the brotherly bond hadn't been snapped at the end at the expense of a typical guy-gets-girl resolution. They should have done a lot more with the Three Musketeers as a unit.
That said, I still liked the idea and the overall execution of the movie very much. I give Danny Boyle a lot of credit for making such a realistic-feeling movie set in a country foreign from his (and my) own. I loved the casual incorporation of Hinglish that gave you a feel for how people talk in modern-day Mumbai, without breaking it all down into subtitles to take you out of the movie. And I was nicely impressed with Dev Patel (Jamal), who may not be as gorgeous as his costar but was charming nonetheless. He was awkward and quiet but you could also see a bit of the streets (or should I say, "slums") in him, when he talked back to the host and the police inspector, and when he could withstand all that torture under interrogation. And as much as I'm slamming the romance aspect, he certainly brought the heat with Pinto in the Bollywood-esque dance sequence over the end credits!
What does it say about me that I didn't find The Dark Knight as disturbing as I was warned it would be? First things first: Heath Ledger was indeed remarkable as the Joker. My expectations for him were so high that it would be impossible to surpass them, but he certainly didn't disappoint, either. The best thing about the way he played the Joker was that he didn't care about looking cool or badass. He genuinely looked like Mayhem personified. Sometimes it was hilarious for the audience, sometimes it was creepy for us, because unlike a villain motivated by money or power or revenge, we couldn't predict what the Joker would do, and that's his point. Chaos... is fear. I liked that we got no origin story for the Joker as well. I liked that he mocked the typical woobie birth-of-a-villain backstory in all his different accounts of how he got his Chelsea smile. I liked that Batman and the Gotham PD all tried to find out who this guy was (realism), but all in vain. He simply is, and always was, the Joker.
By contrast, the rise and fall of Harvey Dent was heartbreaking and I suspect why many people left the movie feeling disturbed, that the white knight turned out to be corruptible after all*. Aaron Eckhart was superbly cast, the square-jawed all-American hero who became convincingly scary with rage. I was actually really surprised that Two-face died at the end, but upon further reflection it fits the narrative arc of the film. It was completely right to leave the Joker alive, because, as he says, the Joker and Batman are "destined to do this forever." Dent's storyline, on the other hand, perfectly fit within the theme of the movie. You couldn't really imagine this Two-Face, having seen all that he was before, becoming just another member of Batman's rogues gallery, shuffling in and out of Arkham. The character is too distinct for that.
*The asterisk represents my only quibble with the movie, which is that once again the motivations of the main men all came down to a chick. Really -- all it took for Harvey to lose his mind was killing Rachel Dawes? I always hate that plot device, whether it's best friends splitting up over a girl or someone vowing revenge -- good or bad -- over the death of a love interest. It's okay for explaining away the backstory of a peripheral character, but for something as significant as Harvey's downfall, it should have been over much more than that. At least more loved ones. Or show his ideals slowly cracking as the death toll of public figures mounts. It felt like he was indefatigably noble all the way up until Rachel blew up.
Back to things I liked: I thought that the movie was going to be all about Joker, but I felt like the team-up of Batman, Gordon and Dent got really good play. I was especially happy to see so much progress and screentime for the always-excellent Gary Oldman. He simply epitomizes everything James Gordon ought to be, and I love his developing relationship with Batman. Speaking of which, most of what I had heard about the movie made it sound like Christian Bale's Batman was shuffled off to the side in favor of the Joker show, but I was glad to see that was not the case. I liked how the theme of The Dark Knight logically dealt with the consequence of having a hyper-efficient vigilante ruling the city: When you introduce an X-factor into the system of justice and law enforcement, evolution dictates that out of the other side will come a complementary resisting force, something that is also not of the usual order of things. I had chills at the end when Batman and Gordon realized what had to be done with Harvey and "the hero that Gotham needs." It was sad but felt necessary and if that was what depressed most people, I didn't feel the message was that bleak at all. For one, as a Christian it's no surprise to learn that people are sinful by nature. Also, even though Harvey turned out not to be the savior that Gordon and Batman hoped for, and they had to tell the public a lie, I don't think the Joker was right in proving that everyone was corruptible. Harvey may have been, and that's a big deal, but I was seriously heartwarmed by the outcome of the prisoners' dilemma on the two ferries. Those two groups of passengers, civilians and criminals, not to mention Gordon and Batman himself, showed that people still exist who are willing to make the difficult but moral choices, even when they require great sacrifice.
Diary of a Mad Asian Woman (in attempting to recap every week, I'm realizing I do a whole lot more than sleep late, surf the Internet and play The Sims (although I still do a lot of that too)):
Saturday: Woke up early to meet Matt at Le Pain Quotidien for breakfast. Just as he was rushing off to catch a train, I got a text from Lesley looking for something to do, so we decided to go see Slumdog Millionaire. I had a couple of hours to kill and some e-mail to check and was trying to figure out the location of the nearest public library when I realized, duh, my office is in midtown, so I headed a few blocks to check my e-mail, watch a little bit of the Obama express and, I won't lie, an episode of The Real World: Brooklyn's excellent new season (seriously. I'll probably write a whole post on this at some point, but it's a total throwback to the original non-drunken orgy premise of the series). Then I met Lesley at Kips Bay for Slumdog, we walked to 2nd Ave Deli for a late lunch, and then it was time for me to head down to Astor Place to meet Sarah's friend Ama for coffee, which turned into bubble tea at Saint's Alp. Finally, dinner party at Ting's in Stuyvesant Town, where we played Guitar Hero, Deal or No Deal on DVD (I know -- it's surprisingly compelling for a game of zero strategy and total chance) and Taboo into the wee hours.
Sunday-Monday: Worked. After Monday's close, I took the PATH train to Hoboken for a dinner party at Neil and Noopur's impressive, fantastic condo. Hoboken is seriously nice, you guys. And not terribly inconvenient, either. The Parmars' condo has a shuttle van that picks you up right outside the PATH station, and takes you along the Hudson River shoreline with a jaw-dropping view of Manhattan. At dinner we had home-cooked Thai and played a round of Colosseum (is there a term for games like this, and Settlers of Catan, which I have still not played but keep hearing amazing things about? Like, boutique board games?).
Tuesday: Inauguration Day! anyway413 and I went over to jzderf and laurafew 's apartment to watch the ceremony. I feel so lucky not only not to have to work on Tuesdays, but also to have friends who also do not have to be in an office on Tuesdays. I'm also thankful for friends who live in Astoria and have huge flat screen HDTVs. We got to see Chief Justice John Roberts screw up a historical moment in hi-def! Thanks, Chief Justice Roberts!
But seriously. John and Laura's apartment is SO NICE! And it has awesome fun stuff like a PS3 (that goes ON THE INTERNET) and all these other technological hookups. Combined with my experience at Neil and Noopur's the night before, I wonder if my life will feel that "together" if/when I get married and my life "starts," so to speak. In the meantime, I'm just happy that my friends can lead such blessed lives (and that they are generous and share their beautiful homes with the rest of us!).
Anyway, around 5:30 p.m. (when the parade was just starting) we were all starting to feel inauguration fatigue (which I think you could definitely see on the faces of the First Family as well), so we ventured into Manhattan. John went to dinner with some of his friends, so Annie and I went back to her apartment in the East Village and watched some more parade. Then after John's dinner, I met back up with him and his friends. He had an extra ticket to Animal Collective at the Grand Ballroom (where I go to church!), which I took off his hands at a discount, which we both later felt bad about (for different reasons) once we realized tix to the sold-out show were going for upwards of $100 on Craigslist. Anyway, I've heard lots of Internet hipster buzz about AC, but I hadn't heard them before. They are experimental/electro-fuzz with some tribal beats and have some very devoted fans. I'd compare them to Lonely China Day or more abrasive Mew or maybe Portishead. Here's my favorite AC song, one of their less esoteric jams:
My favorite part is when the refrain kicks in around the two-and-a-half-minute mark: "I don't mean to seem like I care about material things like a social status / I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls"
I would say that AC is probably best suited for: night driving, headphones in the dark, and in a darkened theater with a bunch of very devoted fans. The Grand Ballroom is on the seventh floor of the Manhattan Center, and during some fan favorites, the floor literally bounced with the rhythm of all of those vibing bodies. It was pure sensory delight, the rainbow LED lights onstage tinting the fog and pot smoke slowly curling over the crowd, the pulsating music, the heads bobbing in unison, bringing you up and down and up and down.
(I was also very impressed that the Manhattan Center manages to get all the beer and pot smoke out of the carpet by the time Sunday morning rolls around every week!)
Wednesday: Slept in. Played Animal Crossing on Wii. Played The Sims 2. Ah, glorious slacking off.
Thursday: I went online to look up ticket info on Friday's rerelease of The Dark Knight on IMAX and came across a press release about a Batman Begins/TDK IMAX double feature that very night, in three theaters only: one in LA, one in Chicago, and one in our very own Lincoln Square. Some frantic Fandangoing, e-mailing and texting later, I had ticket (two IMAX movies for the price of one!) and two buddies to go with: Anthony and Lindsey.
I don't know if Warner Brothers was planning on letting word spread through the blogosphere or what, but we were three of maybe a dozen people in the huge theater. No matter. That just pretty much guaranteed our choice of seat, and five hours of sweet Chistopher Nolan Batman bliss. It was totally worth it to hold off (an entire half year!) on watching TDK, eschewing bootleg downloads, DVD releases and even (spit!) regular movie screenings to get to watch Nolan's two masterpieces back to back on an IMAX screen.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop was totally worth the wait.
Just kidding. I saw Slumdog Millionaire (finally!) last Saturday, and last night.... The Dark Knight: The IMAX Experience (FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!!!).
My spoilery reviews for both movies under their respective cuts, although I'm pretty sure I was the last person on Earth who hadn't yet seen TDK:
I watched the first half of Slumdog with a lump in my throat, on the verge of tears over the beauty and pain unfolding on the screen. I read a somewhat negative review somewhere protesting the glamorization of Mumbai's slums, but honestly, that early sequence of all those slum kids running from the police was full of so much gritty joy. The camera perfectly captured the vitality of the kids, the chase, and the slums, with their color and chaos and movement. I can also now completely understand why A.R. Rahman is winning so many awards, because his score was perfection, and here's to new Oscar nominee M.I.A. as well. I also loved the second musical montage of Salim and Jamal scamming train passengers to the tune of "Paper Planes." It's amazing how something that used to hilariously conjure images of Seth Rogen in The Pineapple Express could so effectively be claimed (or sort of reclaimed) here. (Also clever: the rolling-down-the-hill transition from kid-Salim and Jamal to preteen-Salim and Jamal.)
And how great was kid Salim? Probably my favorite actor in the bunch. You wanted to throttle him at times, but that was the idea. He's a very mischievous kid, to be sure, even kinda mercenary, but those big saucer-plate eyes don't lie. He's a feisty kid, but when push came to shove, he came through for his little bro in a big way. And that brings me to probably one of my biggest problems with the movie, which is that Jamal had to choose between Salim and Latika as an adult. Sure, what preteen Salim (or however old he was, let's just call him Salim 2) did to Jamal and Latika was crappy (whether it was raping Latika or just giving her over to his new mob boss -- I wasn't sure), but let's not forget that if it wasn't for Salim, Jamal and Latika wouldn't have escaped Maman intact or alive -- twice. Latika was always Jamal's obsession*, whereas Jamal was Salim's. Even though Salim sold his brother out several times, when it came to keeping his brother alive, he never let Jamal down. I just thought Jamal turning his back on Salim was really crappy, especially considering his brother ended up redeeming himself in the end.
*Speaking of which, here is my second beef with Slumdog: why turn it into a love story? I'd understand it as an obligatory subplot, but boiling down this incredible Dickensian fable to a simple love story felt like a cheapening of the premise. Latika was woefully underwritten -- I don't understand why or when Jamal fell in love with her, other than some sort of absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder/hero complex kind of thing. I mean, before he saw her again outside the gate of the mob boss's house, he didn't even know she was going to grow up to look like Freida Pinto! I think the overall story would have been a lot stronger if the brotherly bond hadn't been snapped at the end at the expense of a typical guy-gets-girl resolution. They should have done a lot more with the Three Musketeers as a unit.
That said, I still liked the idea and the overall execution of the movie very much. I give Danny Boyle a lot of credit for making such a realistic-feeling movie set in a country foreign from his (and my) own. I loved the casual incorporation of Hinglish that gave you a feel for how people talk in modern-day Mumbai, without breaking it all down into subtitles to take you out of the movie. And I was nicely impressed with Dev Patel (Jamal), who may not be as gorgeous as his costar but was charming nonetheless. He was awkward and quiet but you could also see a bit of the streets (or should I say, "slums") in him, when he talked back to the host and the police inspector, and when he could withstand all that torture under interrogation. And as much as I'm slamming the romance aspect, he certainly brought the heat with Pinto in the Bollywood-esque dance sequence over the end credits!
What does it say about me that I didn't find The Dark Knight as disturbing as I was warned it would be? First things first: Heath Ledger was indeed remarkable as the Joker. My expectations for him were so high that it would be impossible to surpass them, but he certainly didn't disappoint, either. The best thing about the way he played the Joker was that he didn't care about looking cool or badass. He genuinely looked like Mayhem personified. Sometimes it was hilarious for the audience, sometimes it was creepy for us, because unlike a villain motivated by money or power or revenge, we couldn't predict what the Joker would do, and that's his point. Chaos... is fear. I liked that we got no origin story for the Joker as well. I liked that he mocked the typical woobie birth-of-a-villain backstory in all his different accounts of how he got his Chelsea smile. I liked that Batman and the Gotham PD all tried to find out who this guy was (realism), but all in vain. He simply is, and always was, the Joker.
By contrast, the rise and fall of Harvey Dent was heartbreaking and I suspect why many people left the movie feeling disturbed, that the white knight turned out to be corruptible after all*. Aaron Eckhart was superbly cast, the square-jawed all-American hero who became convincingly scary with rage. I was actually really surprised that Two-face died at the end, but upon further reflection it fits the narrative arc of the film. It was completely right to leave the Joker alive, because, as he says, the Joker and Batman are "destined to do this forever." Dent's storyline, on the other hand, perfectly fit within the theme of the movie. You couldn't really imagine this Two-Face, having seen all that he was before, becoming just another member of Batman's rogues gallery, shuffling in and out of Arkham. The character is too distinct for that.
*The asterisk represents my only quibble with the movie, which is that once again the motivations of the main men all came down to a chick. Really -- all it took for Harvey to lose his mind was killing Rachel Dawes? I always hate that plot device, whether it's best friends splitting up over a girl or someone vowing revenge -- good or bad -- over the death of a love interest. It's okay for explaining away the backstory of a peripheral character, but for something as significant as Harvey's downfall, it should have been over much more than that. At least more loved ones. Or show his ideals slowly cracking as the death toll of public figures mounts. It felt like he was indefatigably noble all the way up until Rachel blew up.
Back to things I liked: I thought that the movie was going to be all about Joker, but I felt like the team-up of Batman, Gordon and Dent got really good play. I was especially happy to see so much progress and screentime for the always-excellent Gary Oldman. He simply epitomizes everything James Gordon ought to be, and I love his developing relationship with Batman. Speaking of which, most of what I had heard about the movie made it sound like Christian Bale's Batman was shuffled off to the side in favor of the Joker show, but I was glad to see that was not the case. I liked how the theme of The Dark Knight logically dealt with the consequence of having a hyper-efficient vigilante ruling the city: When you introduce an X-factor into the system of justice and law enforcement, evolution dictates that out of the other side will come a complementary resisting force, something that is also not of the usual order of things. I had chills at the end when Batman and Gordon realized what had to be done with Harvey and "the hero that Gotham needs." It was sad but felt necessary and if that was what depressed most people, I didn't feel the message was that bleak at all. For one, as a Christian it's no surprise to learn that people are sinful by nature. Also, even though Harvey turned out not to be the savior that Gordon and Batman hoped for, and they had to tell the public a lie, I don't think the Joker was right in proving that everyone was corruptible. Harvey may have been, and that's a big deal, but I was seriously heartwarmed by the outcome of the prisoners' dilemma on the two ferries. Those two groups of passengers, civilians and criminals, not to mention Gordon and Batman himself, showed that people still exist who are willing to make the difficult but moral choices, even when they require great sacrifice.
Diary of a Mad Asian Woman (in attempting to recap every week, I'm realizing I do a whole lot more than sleep late, surf the Internet and play The Sims (although I still do a lot of that too)):
Saturday: Woke up early to meet Matt at Le Pain Quotidien for breakfast. Just as he was rushing off to catch a train, I got a text from Lesley looking for something to do, so we decided to go see Slumdog Millionaire. I had a couple of hours to kill and some e-mail to check and was trying to figure out the location of the nearest public library when I realized, duh, my office is in midtown, so I headed a few blocks to check my e-mail, watch a little bit of the Obama express and, I won't lie, an episode of The Real World: Brooklyn's excellent new season (seriously. I'll probably write a whole post on this at some point, but it's a total throwback to the original non-drunken orgy premise of the series). Then I met Lesley at Kips Bay for Slumdog, we walked to 2nd Ave Deli for a late lunch, and then it was time for me to head down to Astor Place to meet Sarah's friend Ama for coffee, which turned into bubble tea at Saint's Alp. Finally, dinner party at Ting's in Stuyvesant Town, where we played Guitar Hero, Deal or No Deal on DVD (I know -- it's surprisingly compelling for a game of zero strategy and total chance) and Taboo into the wee hours.
Sunday-Monday: Worked. After Monday's close, I took the PATH train to Hoboken for a dinner party at Neil and Noopur's impressive, fantastic condo. Hoboken is seriously nice, you guys. And not terribly inconvenient, either. The Parmars' condo has a shuttle van that picks you up right outside the PATH station, and takes you along the Hudson River shoreline with a jaw-dropping view of Manhattan. At dinner we had home-cooked Thai and played a round of Colosseum (is there a term for games like this, and Settlers of Catan, which I have still not played but keep hearing amazing things about? Like, boutique board games?).
Tuesday: Inauguration Day! anyway413 and I went over to jzderf and laurafew 's apartment to watch the ceremony. I feel so lucky not only not to have to work on Tuesdays, but also to have friends who also do not have to be in an office on Tuesdays. I'm also thankful for friends who live in Astoria and have huge flat screen HDTVs. We got to see Chief Justice John Roberts screw up a historical moment in hi-def! Thanks, Chief Justice Roberts!
But seriously. John and Laura's apartment is SO NICE! And it has awesome fun stuff like a PS3 (that goes ON THE INTERNET) and all these other technological hookups. Combined with my experience at Neil and Noopur's the night before, I wonder if my life will feel that "together" if/when I get married and my life "starts," so to speak. In the meantime, I'm just happy that my friends can lead such blessed lives (and that they are generous and share their beautiful homes with the rest of us!).
Anyway, around 5:30 p.m. (when the parade was just starting) we were all starting to feel inauguration fatigue (which I think you could definitely see on the faces of the First Family as well), so we ventured into Manhattan. John went to dinner with some of his friends, so Annie and I went back to her apartment in the East Village and watched some more parade. Then after John's dinner, I met back up with him and his friends. He had an extra ticket to Animal Collective at the Grand Ballroom (where I go to church!), which I took off his hands at a discount, which we both later felt bad about (for different reasons) once we realized tix to the sold-out show were going for upwards of $100 on Craigslist. Anyway, I've heard lots of Internet hipster buzz about AC, but I hadn't heard them before. They are experimental/electro-fuzz with some tribal beats and have some very devoted fans. I'd compare them to Lonely China Day or more abrasive Mew or maybe Portishead. Here's my favorite AC song, one of their less esoteric jams:
Click to viewMy favorite part is when the refrain kicks in around the two-and-a-half-minute mark: "I don't mean to seem like I care about material things like a social status / I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls"
I would say that AC is probably best suited for: night driving, headphones in the dark, and in a darkened theater with a bunch of very devoted fans. The Grand Ballroom is on the seventh floor of the Manhattan Center, and during some fan favorites, the floor literally bounced with the rhythm of all of those vibing bodies. It was pure sensory delight, the rainbow LED lights onstage tinting the fog and pot smoke slowly curling over the crowd, the pulsating music, the heads bobbing in unison, bringing you up and down and up and down.
(I was also very impressed that the Manhattan Center manages to get all the beer and pot smoke out of the carpet by the time Sunday morning rolls around every week!)
Wednesday: Slept in. Played Animal Crossing on Wii. Played The Sims 2. Ah, glorious slacking off.
Thursday: I went online to look up ticket info on Friday's rerelease of The Dark Knight on IMAX and came across a press release about a Batman Begins/TDK IMAX double feature that very night, in three theaters only: one in LA, one in Chicago, and one in our very own Lincoln Square. Some frantic Fandangoing, e-mailing and texting later, I had ticket (two IMAX movies for the price of one!) and two buddies to go with: Anthony and Lindsey.
I don't know if Warner Brothers was planning on letting word spread through the blogosphere or what, but we were three of maybe a dozen people in the huge theater. No matter. That just pretty much guaranteed our choice of seat, and five hours of sweet Chistopher Nolan Batman bliss. It was totally worth it to hold off (an entire half year!) on watching TDK, eschewing bootleg downloads, DVD releases and even (spit!) regular movie screenings to get to watch Nolan's two masterpieces back to back on an IMAX screen.