Oh Hans, how juvenile is the Cookie Monster. Don’t force me to call Bert and Ernie to yapp you. Wait, too late.
The Dark Knight is a masterpiece. There is no other way to put it. For me though, I had gotten The Dark Knight overdose, having seen it 3 (and a half) times during its theatrical release, and its overly long running time really started to take away from the film, and the negatives that you pointed out started to stick out more and more, and is why I ultimately ranked it at #4 instead of higher. Having recently seen The Reader, I can see why it got the Best Picture nomination over The Dark Knight, as it is pure Oscar bait, while The Dark Knight is still in that taboo category of “comic book movie”. This was the film that would have shattered that boundary, and the members of the Academy fumbled this one.
My #2 is something that I feel more than pretty confident that will be showing up as your #1, and like every other time we have agreed on a top 10 pick, I beat you to it. Slow poke.
The destined to be Academy Award winner for Best Picture comes in at my #2 film of 2008. Danny Boyle travels to India to bring the slums of Mumbai to life for all the world to see in what is his best film since Trainspotting. Unlike what the above poster and what the media will have you believe, this is hardly a Bollywood film that is a rousing piece of life affirming cinema. There is extreme poverty. There are men who handicap children so that they can bring in more money as beggars. There is underage prostitution. There is murder committed by individuals who would not be allowed to drive in many countries. This is the third world hidden in the shadows of what people are hyping as the next big world superpower.
Running alongside all these horrible conditions is an absolutely remarkable and wholly original piece of storytelling, based on the acclaimed Q&A by Vikas Swarup. Swarup’s, and consequently Boyle’s, greatest success is tying the love of reality television to the story of a man’s life, and how one gets to the place they get to. The main character, Jamal, sums it up perfectly when he is ridiculed for not knowing something so basic as who is on India’s currency. “Do you know how much pani puri is so and so corner?” We grow up and we learn what we are exposed to. All of our life experiences form who we are and what we know. From this, we all can dream about what our own version of Jamal’s miracle run on Who Wants to be a Millionaire would be like.
That is the film’s great strength; it makes us believe in Jamal, and in the end, get the girl as well. Though the ending may be pure Bollywood, it is still something that makes us go home happy. Performances from the ensemble cast are knockouts, especially from the young actors who you miss the instant Jamal and Salim tumble off the train in front of the Taj Mahal. But in the end, it all comes back to Danny Boyle, who has an eye for seeing the horrible sides of life, but at the same, seeing a glimmer of hope and happiness in those rough times. With such varied previous works as the aforementioned Trainspotting, the family film Millions, and the modern zombie classic 28 Days Later, Boyle establishes himself as one of the great directors, and he should soon add a Best Director Academy Award to his resume.