Thursday, March 5, 2009
March 5, 2009: Assorted weeknotes
Since everyone else keeps talking about it - funny how that works - I rescinded my statement that I wasn't watching Dollhouse anymore. This happened on a Saturday, naturally. Up to episode 2 now (which means, also, spoilers.)
On the one hand, it's good how they're aiming for "the premise of the Dollhouse is morally questionable at best but, more likely, is morally repugnant." On the other hand, there are hundreds of ways to do this that don't involve ripping off "The Most Dangerous Game." Sure, it's a nice little "oh no!" moment, but it isn't "oh no, Richard, you monster!" so much as "oh no, I've seen this before!" I had the same reaction to the Joker invoking the prisoner's dilemma in The Dark Knight. I can get the moral implications, but it just doesn't have as much of an impact if I recognize that it's a plot device I've seen before.
(Key words there: plot device. This doesn't apply to real life. If someone pulled a stunt like that in real life it'd still be horrifying.)
That said, I must be the only one who thinks Eliza Dushku's acting is perfectly serviceable. If it's overly silly moments you want, the "say it!" scene is much more jarring, and putting it in the recap doesn't help.
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Got around to seeing Slumdog Millionaire, after an Oscar season where I'd seen pretty much nothing. I'd seen Doubt, and was very impressed with the acting but not the film itself. It seemed too much like a filmed play. An excellently acted play, but not one that gained much by switching mediums (at least that I can assume. I haven't seen the play.)
The movie was good, but the soundtrack is even better. I may actually purchase it. This almost never happens. Apart from musicals, the only other film I bought the soundtrack for was Once, and even that was technically a musical. And I went to see it for the music. I expected it to be good. I didn't know a thing about this soundtrack going in, but from the very first notes, I knew I was going to love it.
But then, that's probably because I think "O... Saya" is by far the best song. It's propulsive, there's plenty of stuff going on, and everything fits together perfectly. The song's so good, actually, that I haven't really given the rest of the soundtrack the attention it deserves.
At first I was a bit skeptical about the inclusion of "Paper Planes," just because it's such a recognizable song that it pulled me out of the narrative for a second - see above. But here that's the point. That whole scene is a fakeout. At least how I understood it, you're supposed to get kind of caught up in the song. You're supposed to get this caper sense, and then reality kicks in and the whole thing gets pulled out from under you. (Holy colloquialisms.)
Minor notes on the film:
- The scene where young Jamal gets Amitabh Bachchan's autograph is neat because you think "Oh, great, another gross-out" and then it turns out to be one of the most joyful scenes in the film.
- Apparently D'Artagnan is not the third Musketeer. Being wrong about this adds a lot more suspense to the ending.
- The "real America" scene did irritate me. It came off as pure jingoism, which is weird considering that Danny Boyle isn't American.
~*~*~
Everyone likes to talk about the future of music. But sometimes the future is retroactive.
50 Foot Wave has made all their past albums available for free online. Listen to them. Download them. Share the shit out of them (in Kristin's words). And then, if you can, donate to the tip jar so things like this can keep happening.
Think of the children!
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