MOVIE REVIEW: Slumdog Millionaire


In keeping with my Washington’s Birthday tradition, I went with my wife to see a movie. I chose Slumdog Millionaire to watch with her because I knew in advance that it would more…intense than she might have thought. As I was discussing on Twitter this week, it was rated R for a reason.

How on earth does a poor young man fare so well on India’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”? He must be cheating! But how? The police use “extraordinary” means to find out, only to discover that there’s an explanation for it all, based on an extremely difficult childhood.

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said: “Slumdog Millionaire is nothing if not an enjoyably far-fetched piece of rags-to-riches wish fulfillment. It’s like the Bollywood version of a Capra fable sprayed with colorful drops of dark-side-of-the-Third-World squalor.” Well, maybe. I know the producers didn’t bill it as such, but as a friend of mine put it, “it took a long time for this ‘feel good’ movie to feel good.”

I think part of the problem was that it took three actors each to play the three main characters and I didn’t always buy the transition from one to the next. One either buys into the sheer level of coincidence or one does not. I guess I never fully engaged enough to buy in. So the “happy ending” seemed less joyous than it should have been; I didn’t feel the payoff. Whether this is a function of the low-key acting styles, especially of Dev Patel, the last lead male, or what, I’m not sure.

This is not that I did not enjoy elements of it. The outhouse scene was memorable. Having had to go to the bathroom while taping a television quiz show, albeit in the United States, I was intrigued by another particular scene. Frankly, I was a bit of a sucker for that original run of Millionaire hosted by Regis Philbin, so I enjoyed the game section on that level. The smelling of a $100 bill will stay with me. The stuff at the Taj Mahal, though, I swear I’ve seen before in some movie or TV show.

My friend David savaged the movie, noting that it was not even the best film made in India last year. He may very well be right, but for the Hollywood community, it’s irrelevant. Hollywood is not savvy to Bollywood cinema.

Ultimately, when I see a movie, I’m ready and willing to suspend my belief that it’s just cinema and surrender to it; just didn’t happen for me. I didn’t hate the film, and I’m not unhappy that I saw it, but I can’t imagine wanting to see it again.
***
Remembering Gene Siskel by Roger Ebert. Recommended highly.
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MOVIE REVIEW: Frost/Nixon


Because Richard Nixon was the first President for whom I could have voted for – I didn’t – he has long held a special role in my life and my heart. In the day, it was nothing but anger and revulsion; since then, a more nuanced view. At the time, I thought he was destined to be one of the United States’ worst Presidents; in hindsight, merely one that was fatally flawed.

I saw the Oliver Stone-directed movie Nixon (1995), starring Anthony Hopkins and Joan Allen, when it came out, with its warts and all. I enjoyed it well enough, but its quirky narrative style sometimes got in the way.

So last weekend, the wife and I did one of those “split date” things, with me going to the movies on Saturday and her on Sunday to see the more “conventional” filmmaker Ron Howard’s take on an event that took place after the Nixon Presidency, but which was necessarily all about it, Frost/Nixon.

I’ve found that a great number of people no longer remember David Frost, the “British satirist, writer, journalist and television presenter” who interviewed Nixon in 1977. There’s no current comparison who fully encapsulates it, but it’d be like Jay Leno or Larry King doing a hard-hitting interview of George W. Bush.

Most people who disliked Nixon wanted the interviews to be the mea culpa that Nixon never gave after the resignation, but felt that Frost was a lightweight who was was not up to the task. So it was that each participant had something to prove. Frost/Nixon turns out to be an intriguing film, not just the one-on-one, but the whole backstory leading up to the main event, including the need to secure the $600,000 for the interview, the slams of “checkbook journalism” and the desire to get the interview right.

Frost/Nixon is another play that was made into a movie. But unlike Doubt, it didn’t feel as stagy. One would not expect a historically-based movie about two guys talking to be so tense and yet so revealing of both men. Frank Langella, who is rightly nominated for best actor, “does” Nixon without being a caricature. In fact, the most revealing scene has Langella saying nothing. But look at his eyes! They spoke volumes about what was going on in Nixon’s mind. But the movie would collapse if Michael Sheen as Frost was not up to the task. Sheen, who played Tony Blair in 2006’s The Queen, ends up being as worthy an acting partner for Langella as Frost was an adversary for Nixon.

Some critics inevitably kvetched about historic inaccuracies here and there, which almost always happens. I wondered if the last scene – which is REALLY funny – actually happened; it matters not. I was entertaned and I learned a few things.

Recommended.

Frost, who has interviewed the last seven U.S. Presidents and six British Prime Ministers (excluding, so far, the current ones) now works for Al Jazeera English.

See part of the Frost/Nixon interviews here (97 minutes) and here (10 minutes).

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E is for Eggs


When I was growing up, the first things I learned to cook were eggs, specifically omelets. I’d get a bowl and break one egg for each person plus “one for the pan”; pour in some milk and then go to the spice rack to season. We used butter or margarine in a heavy black skillet – no stick-free pans back then – over our gas stove; to this day, I dislike electric stoves, for it’s harder to regulate the temperature.

Part of the art of cooking the omelet was to figure out which spices worked and in what amounts, and I was given pretty much free reign. There was a lot of trial and error in the process. Cinnamon, e.g., just didn’t work for me. Generally, I ended up using pepper, garlic salt, onion flakes, a touch of dried mustard. Also a little Worcestershire sauce and occasionally, a touch of Tabasco. Sometimes, grated cheese, usually sharp cheddar. Eventually, I learned the wonders of sauteed mushrooms and onions.

As a single adult, when I had to bring food to parties, for years it was deviled eggs. First thing, one needed to know how to crack open the egg so that the albumen wasn’t carried off on the shell. While running cold water on the egg, crack both ends of the egg, flatter end first. Last time I tried this, it worked almost every time. Then figuring out the right amount of mayo (never that Miracle Whip stuff), mustard and pepper. Always paprika for color.

When my wife was pregnant with our daughter, we were using something called the Bradley method, which involved exercise, diet and a way of empowering parents before the event. One tenet in the diet for the prospective mom: “Every day of the week you and your baby should have two eggs (hard boiled, in french toast, or added to other foods).” Initially my wife found this incredibly onerous, because she glommed onto the two eggs part without noting the parenthetical aside. I’m not saying it was the eggs, but she had a near-perfect delivery of Lydia.

I’ll eat eggs almost any way they’re cooked. They are complementary with so many foods: pancakes and waffles, sausage and bacon, toast and English muffins, cottage cheese. Yes, I’m the one who likes the cottage cheese. Though raw eggs? No, thank you.

But I am otherwise a fan of the Incredible Edible Egg

Eggs and cholesterol.

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20 Men I Admire

Here’s a meme that I found on Mr. Frog’s site and then I was tagged by Jaquandor. You’re supposed to name 20 men you admire. So, here I go. But first a couple of things for the participants:

A. Link back to the blog that tagged you.
B. Link back to the originator of this meme, which is The Dino Lounge.
C. Create your own list of 20 men that you admire and post them on your blog.
D. Tag 5 other people to participate in this meme.
E. If you like, please let The Dino Lounge know that you’ve participated in this meme so he can check out your posting and comment on it.

I was going to wait to do the neat photo montage that Mr. Frog and Jaquandor did, but I find that I was too impatient to learn how.

Initially, I was intimidated by the project because I thought it had to be the 20 men I’d admired MOST. How would I winnow THAT?

I also decided to limit the list to Americans of the last 200 years (except Lennon, because it’s my list). Otherwise, we’re talking daVinci, Copernicus…

I’ve actually met four people on this list: Seeger, Serling, Speigelman and Warren.

Muhammad Ali – a big admirer of Jack Johnson, Ali actually won his court case, ultimately.
Bill Cosby – listened to him forever on records; can quote without prompting.

Frederick Douglass (pictured) – among other things, an early feminist
W.E.B. duBois
Thomas Edison – for the phonograph alone, I’m thankful
Benjamin Franklin – I’m an almanac guy
Woody Guthrie – spoke of America in a most telling way
Thomas Jefferson – wonderfully conflicted guy
Martin Luther King Jr. – the strength of his Gandhian methodology. His April 1967 sermon against the Vietnam war was one off the most pivotal documents in my life.
John Lennon – when we played the Beatles, I WAS John
Willie Mays – the greatest living baseball player
Bill Moyers – opening the dialogue without being disagreeable
Carl Reiner – performer, writer, producer of a lot of entertainment I enjoyed
Paul Robeson – could pick him just on the voice alone

Jackie Robinson – just because
Pete Seeger – his ability to transform music from many cultures is phenomenal
Rod Serling – telling preachy stories about wrong and right without always being preachy
Dr. Seuss – I always especially loved the books where his characters spoke truth to power, such as Bartholemew and the Oobleck, and Yertle the Turtle
Art Speigelman – I loved his RAW magazine; then he created an even more amazing work
Earl Warren – liberties we take for granted, such as right to counsel and Miranda warnings we can credit (or blame, if you’re of that inclination) the Warren Court

I’m not feeling the need to tag, although if Gordon, Rebecca, Uthaclena, Kelly or anyone else wants to, fine.
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The Missing Presidents


I know an astonishing amount of information about the 43 men who’ve served as the 44 Presidents of the United States: party affiliation, terms of office, even, for many, major Cabinet officers.

But I know almost nothing about these fellows:
* Samuel Huntington (March 1, 1781– July 9, 1781)
* Thomas McKean (July 10, 1781–November 4, 1781)
* John Hanson (pictured) (November 5, 1781– November 3, 1782)
* Elias Boudinot (November 4, 1782– November 2, 1783)
* Thomas Mifflin (November 3, 1783– October 31, 1784)
* Richard Henry Lee (November 30, 1784– November 6, 1785)
* John Hancock (November 23, 1785– May 29, 1786)
* Nathaniel Gorham (June 6, 1786– November 5, 1786)
* Arthur St. Clair (February 2, 1787– November 4, 1787)
* Cyrus Griffin (January 22, 1788– November 2, 1788)
Hanson became the first President of Congress to be elected for an annual term as specified in the Articles of Confederation, although Huntington and McKean had served in that office after the ratification of the Articles. There’s even a website seling coins of The Forgotten Founders.

I fully recognize that the powers of the Presidency were far different (i/e., weaker) under the Articles of Confederation than under the Constitution. still, I don’t think they should be totally forgotten.
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The 44 Presidents

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12 Things You Don’t Know About the White House. Actually, I knew four.
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Barack Obama’s historic victory probably ended any chance that someone born during the 1930s will become president. This makes it the only decade from the 1730s to the 1940s that failed to produce either a president or vice president.
The 1940s already have given us two presidents — Bill Clinton and George W.Bush — and four vice presidents — Dan Quayle, Al Gore, Dick Cheney, and Joe Biden…Presidential contenders from the 1930s included John McCain, Michael Dukakis, Ted Kennedy, Ross Perot and Gary Hart.
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U.S. Grant obit from the New York Times
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During the frenzy over whether Barack Obama was a “natural born citizen, I came across this, FWIW: Chester Arthur was a British subject at the time of his birth.
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Presidents of the United States: Resource Guides
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Debunking the Presidents



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