Who wants to be a Slumdog Millionaire?!

Last night I drove across town to a theater I've only been to one other time. The film I saw then was Let the Right One In. This time, as I'm sure you can tell by the title, it was Slumdog Millionaire. Each movie sits firmly on different ends of the spectrum of the fairy tale genre. Let the Right One In is a Gothic fairy tale. It's dark colors and themes exude a feeling of fear and darkness. In order to enjoy it, you must believe that there might be hope in the darkness. Slumdog Millionaire wants you to believe in love. In light and hope and dreams. They are both amazing movies but Slumdog makes people do something that not many films do today..hope.
Slumdog Millionaire makes me happy just to think about it. It is about Jamal, a boy from the slums in Mumbai, India. He is on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He is about to win the most anyone has ever won on it. In between episodes he is accused of cheating and interrogated (read: tortured) into explaining how he cheated. He didn't, he's just lived a life full of experiences that led him to the answers. The film is the story of how he got the answers. And it is wonderful.
Danny Boyle, the man behind Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, and Millions has once again taken a genre and made it uniquely his own. Slumdog oozes with feelings. It will make you scared, it will make you laugh, you may cheer, you will flinch, and you may even cry. Slumdog Millionaire roughs you up and reconfirms love. All in two hours.
The characters are perfectly flawed. Jamal is an unstopping train of love. He loves his brother. He loves Latika, the fellow orphan he meets the day he and his brother are orphaned. He tries his whole life to love both of them. Whether or not he succeeds is all part of the film. Jamal's brother is a man about chances. Every chance to improve his situation is taken, no matter the cost. Does he find redemption? Can he let his greed take a passenger seat to his brother? Go see the movie. And Latika. Little Latika who grows into beautiful Latika. Jamal and she become estranged but they never forget each other. Her story is perfect. The arc from innocent to adult is a complete by the end of the film.
Slumdog Millionaire is currently at the top of my must-recommend list. You must see it, your neighbor must see it, your family must see it. It is pure cinema. It expresses itself visually and with style. I love this film.
You will too.

Update..

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The Winter Warmth

So, here it is..Movie Season. Not turn up the volume, blow everything major city up, costumed heroes season. This is, Elizabethan, cry a river, big stars, emotional, subtitled season. Over the next month and a half the biggest and the best that Hollywood and indie-wood have to offer.
And offer it they will. I will walk into the theater excited like it's summer again. I will probably cry (although quietly and non-admittedly). I will open up my heart and allow the movies to sweep me away. Then I will judge them harshly.
Too sentimental. Melodramatic on par with All My Children. All gloss, no heart. Pretty people doing petty things to poorer people than themselves. It can get monotonous. When watching a foreign film, if it is not engaging, and by that I do not mean exciting, I will write it off and knock it down. Words like pompous come to mind. There are very few films that actually make a wave in this country that I do that with though. I loved The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, I was moved by The Lives of Others, and I loan out Pan's Labyrinth at every chance I get. My favorite foreign film of this year(so far) is Let the Right One In. A gothic vampire fairy tale. Oh yeah, and it's Swedish. It was crazy good. A little boy falls in love with an ageless vampire girl. She is stuck in a 12 year old body, but her mind is extremely old. If you get a chance, watch it. Never has a vampire been so helpful as when in a fight with bullies.
Some of the bigger and better movies are already out this year. The Dark Knight really has a chance. It was a huge summer blockbuster and critics couldn't stop talking about how much they loved it. Nobody missed it, so there is no way the Academy will. Heath Ledger will be nominated, Chris Nolan will be nominated, and The Dark Knight will be up for best picture. Wait and see.
Wall-E was once an early contender to join the ranks of Beauty and the Beast as another Disney feature to contend in the best picture round. I'm not so sure it will now, the competition looks stiff. It will be lumped into the Best Animated Feature category and win. Kung Fu Panda just doesn't measure up. If this category did not exist, I would say it could happen. Disney has done it before. And that was before Pixar.
The next few weeks bring Seven Pounds, Will Smith's serious redemption tale. I'm looking forward to it. I hope that it packs the emotional punch the it looks like it may. I love Will Smith and everything he does (Wild Wild West excluded). He is a true movie star. He is THE movie star. The most profitable man in Hollywood. Will he have another $100,000,000+ earner? (count those zeros) If he does, it would be the 9th in a row. It's ridiculous but I can't help but cheer him on.
The movie to see is Slumdog Millionaire. Danny Boyle seems to have created a real crown pleaser with this one. It's won audience award after audience award. Hint: That means it'll make you laugh, cringe, and probably cry. (It'll make you feel in a world full of soulless mind numbing crap) I cannot wait to see it. Look out for it in a city near you. That way when it's nominated for best picture, you don't go, "What's a slumdog".
Clint Eastwood is back with Gran Torino. It looks like a racist version of his Million Dollar Baby character. He could get nominated. We'll see. After the one-two punch of Mystic River followed by Million Dollar Baby, his work has been a little spotty. I've loved them all. He's a master filmmaker. I just think that everything since those two have paled in comparison. I hope this surprises me.
For the curious, Valkyrie comes out on Christmas day. Can Tom Cruise make a come back? Can Bryan Singer make a hit after Superman Returns had poor returns? Does anybody but me care? I don't see it being a Christmas day hit, but it could do okay. Maybe it will get nominated for best try at a comeback. Good luck on the comeback Mr. Cruise. I'll see your movie the week after Christmas. I'll be to busy seeing...
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Brad Pitt and David Finch together again. Se7en, one of my all time favorite crime film. Fight Club, just one of those movies that I love. They made those together, how can this be bad? Well it could go wrong, anything can go wrong. I'm just positive that this will do the opposite of going wrong. This movie looks like a sweeping epic of insane proportions. Love, death, time, and loss all seen through the aging-in-reverse eyes of Brad Pitt. Don't forget the lovely Cate Blanchett. Her voice makes me weak and her face makes me want to melt. She is Brit Sexy. Early word is that the question is not one of quality, but one of sincerity. Did it make you cry? I'll let you know.