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.

Quantum of Wall-E

So last night, after a long Black Friday at work, I put Wall-E in the DVD player. The only glimpse I even saw of the little robot was during a montage of Disney greatness (Pirates, Pirates 2, Pirates 3, and Tinkerbell...). I passed out sometime after the third appearance of Johnny Depp smiling his drunken smile as Jack Sparrow. Today all I can think of is, what the hell happened to me? I used to stay up all night watching movies. Deep, moving, subtitled fare with subplots and nonlinear storylines. I would work all day, argue with the people in my home, write a paper, take a shower, then watch two movies. The English Patient followed by Amores Perros. I never missed a beat and I went to bed at 6. Am I running out of classics to enthrall me? No. Wall-E established itself as one of my favorite films of all time. The Summer punctuated by The Dark Knight and Wall-E as a season for not only blockbuster fare, but of content worthy of the Fall and Winter months. So what does it all mean? Is my brain shrinking or am I just becoming less involved? It may have had something to with the fact that I spent 15 hours on my feet selling retail items. There is nothing wrong with Wall-E. It's a near perfect movie. A love story for the present and the future.
It is my favorite of 2008 so far. That judgment will most likely not stand after the extreme gauntlet of films appearing in cinemas over the next few weeks. As always, the big studios roll out the red carpet for action and adventure before the tearjerkers and period dramas take hold of the multiplex. James Bond rode again, and jumped, ran, shot, punched, kicked, drank, again. It was a lot of fun. I would have rather anticipated another November Harry Potter, but Bond will definitely suffice. The problem this time around was not so much that the movie wasn't good. I just wasn't Casino Royale. This was the chase movie following the creation of a villain. The formula is thus: Bond knows of a new threat = Bond investigates (i.e. punches, kicks, shoots, drives, fornicates, etc..) the new threat. At the end, people are dead, women have been loved, drinks (many) have been consumed. It was great fun. No gravitas but plenty of gravy. Marc Forester, the director, really does not have an eye for action. He actually sucks at it. The car chase at the beginning is great fun. There are some great establishing shots. When the camera comes into the chase all sense of cohesiveness falls apart. Who's shooting at who? I do not know. But who really cares? I would also like to put a call out to all of the directors out there that are in no way listening. You know the guy who did all of the car stunts for The Bourne Ultimatum? GQ did a great article describing his passion and ability. Hire him to do every stunt ever in action films that have even the slightest chance of being worthwhile. They will all become visual feasts. I promise. As viewers, we want the crazy stuff we see on the big screen to be as realistic as possible. I get that none of it will happen in real life, that's why I go to the movies. For the magic.
Next time James Bond goes crashing through a glass roof, tumbling and fighting with his nemesis, I do not want to see a cartoon. If I wanted to watch a cartoon, I'd watch Wall-E again. Damn, I love that movie.