{"id":863,"date":"2009-01-26T11:54:06","date_gmt":"2009-01-26T17:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=863"},"modified":"2009-02-04T21:19:29","modified_gmt":"2009-02-05T03:19:29","slug":"turn-rupees-to-scruples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/01\/turn-rupees-to-scruples\/","title":{"rendered":"Turn Rupees to Scruples"},"content":{"rendered":"

Report: Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Why, everyone should see Slumdog Millionaire. It’s a cross between Oliver Twist<\/em> (book and any movie<\/a> version) and WALL-E<\/a><\/em>. Other lead characters: Fagin, Artful Dodger and Eve. The plot: fish-out-of-water-into-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire.<\/p>\n

(Shouldn’t reviews now and then be as short as possible? Complete write-ups, not capsules)<\/p>\n

In short, this is the best best-movie I’ve seen in several years. Consider recent Best Picture Oscars, beginning with last year’s: No Country for Old Men, The Departed, Crash, Million Dollar Baby, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Chicago, A Beautiful Mind, Gladiator<\/em>, and to start the decade, 2000’s American Beauty<\/em> (from 1999, in the nature of awards). Crash and Chicago don’t need to be on the list, though good shows, but the others at the least typify their years, some accomplish much more.<\/p>\n

Slumdog belongs in this crowd. (My Beloved liked it OK but prefers The Curious Case of Benjamin Button<\/a><\/em>.) Slumdog is a complete movie, with every element right: the photography is precise for the scene (close-ups, panoramic, jiggly hand-cam etc.) the music enhances and doesn’t detract, the directing of the flow of the story is clockwork. In performance, it’s an ensemble work, not star-driven. The acting is competent; none stands out, surely director Boyle’s intent. What should be a flaw doesn’t matter: predictability and employment of movie conventions. Will boy get girl? Guess in first half-hour the character who dies in the last reel? Well. … Here is a fable, and fables by definition employ familiar devices. When done right, their magic is in the execution.<\/p>\n

This leads straight into the best quote I’ve seen in days, Igor Stravinky quoting Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in a Jan. 26, 2009, New Yorker article about George Balanchine:<\/p>\n

Everything has been thought of before; the task is to think of it again.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Report: Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. Why, everyone should see Slumdog Millionaire. It’s a cross between Oliver Twist (book and any movie version) and WALL-E. Other lead characters: Fagin, Artful Dodger and Eve. The plot: fish-out-of-water-into-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire. (Shouldn’t reviews now and then be as short as possible? Complete write-ups, not capsules) In short, this is the best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-culture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3502,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2012\/02\/whodve-thunks\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":0},"title":"Who’d’ve-Thunks","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2012 Ben S. Pollock I knew what to expect of The Artist, a \"silent\" film, meaning no talking, though it did have sound effects and music (and beforehand, ironically, the loudest-volume trailers since those running with Avatar). Still, the teenage box office cashier warned My Beloved and me, while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/01\/surpassing-expectations-ltd\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":1},"title":"Surpassing expectations, Ltd.","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock Surpassing expectations by accepting limits Wednesday 4 January 2006. Last issue, The New Yorker praised James Agee. Actually, it was New Yorker movie critic David Denby. (If I don't always agree with Denby, he's about the only current writer who every once in a while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":370,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/11\/solitary-union\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":2},"title":"Solitary Union","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"While the news last week has included the strike of the Writers Guild of America that began Monday the 5th, it hasn't been the most important event. A new attorney general, the same Pakistani dictator, Congress for the first time in George II's 6 1\/2 years overrode one of his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3146,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2011\/09\/making-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":3},"title":"Making Book","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Here it is September, and not only that but mid-September, and I have not posted my periodic list of books absorbed. This will be the second year I have attempted a complete list of books. Some I read, some I hear, as CD sets in the car while commuting. January\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":201,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/06\/production-number\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":4},"title":"Production Number","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Brick heartily endorses renting the DVD version of The Producers -- the Lane-Broderick version. (Of course we vouch for the original. How else would you know that Matthew Broderick deliberately imitates Gene Wilder's voice, inflections and timing when the dialogue is exactly as it was in the original -- and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2263,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/10\/but-seriously-folks\/","url_meta":{"origin":863,"position":5},"title":"But Seriously, Folks","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The following is my column for the October 2010 edition of the monthly newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people.\" -- Robert Benchley To avoid betraying my idol, Mr. Benchley, I'll rationalize. This is not analysis but a lesson\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":889,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions\/889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}