I’m sorry, I know at this point it’s a bit of a clichéd pick, but for what it counts I was excited about this movie when it was just a script, which is long before most…
Slumdog Millionaire
British director Danny Boyle is one of my most envied men in showbusiness. Plenty of people in the world have some sort of remarkable talent, and it’s very easy for a creator to stumble upon a formula that works for him/her only to spend an entire career trying to recapture that lightning in a bottle (see: Guy Ritchie, director of Sulmoney’s fifth favorite movie of 2008, but I’ll come back to him later). The rarest form of creative genius, though, is the one who possesses both the ambition and the ability to tackle any project and still manages to show us something meaningful and original each time. Among them, in my mind: Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men), Stephen Soderberg (Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Solaris, Ocean’s 11, Che), Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona) and Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Slumdog Millionaire).
Slumdog Millionaire is much better than it needed to be. The West has been fascinated by India for a long time. Its culture is so loud, colorful and vibrant that it permeates through even in its most watered-down, Americanized portrayals (see: The Darjeeling Limited). The uniquely “exotic” flavor of India combined with some tabla beats and a few heartwrenching, borderline-exploitative shots of absolute poverty would have been enough to satisfy the voyeuristic urges of many moviegoers.
Instead, though, we’re presented with a story that transcends the sum of its parts in every way. Though this movie is far from Bollywood-conventional, that spirit is very much alive in its musicality, in the fantastical rise of Jamal from slumdog to millionaire and of course in the love story between Jamal and Latika. The style of the filmmaking is also impossible to ignore. Much like director Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels), Danny Boyle’s filmmaking has always called attention to its slick photography and exceptional music, but unlike Ritchie’s films, that style serves a purpose. It’s cool, yes, but it’s also exhilarating. This isn’t a movie about gangsters talking in pubs, it’s about life, energy and mobility (social and locomotive), and the frenetic camerawork bolstered by A.R. Rahman‘s pounding drum-based rhythms breathe life into the images. Plus M.I.A. is a total badass.
Indians have been making a big fuss over the film’s supposed exploitation of their culture, particularly its darker side, but it’s difficult to sympathize with these critics when Boyle proves with every frame that he just “gets it.” It’s remarkable to me that a British director who had never before visited India and with presumably no personal ties to South Asian culture (except, you know, the whole colonization, Jungle Book, white man’s burden thing) was able to portray India in the most honest and realistic way I’ve ever seen in a narrative feature (and, unfortunately, that includes every Bollywood flick ever made). In addition to telling a stylish and uplifting fairy tale, the film says nearly everything important that there is to say about the ills of modern Indian society, including its obsession with fame and celebrity, the rampant government and police corruption, and of course the huge socioeconomic disparities. That’s not to say that the film’s social commentary is perfect. Someone who doesn’t know any better might walk out of the theater with the impression that everyone in India is either a thief, a liar, a killer or just a first-rate douchebag, given that nearly every Indian Jamal encounters is a bad guy in some way (with a couple exceptions). The film’s heart is in the right place, though, and the task at hand is so enormous that I can forgive its few shortcomings.
I can only guess that a great deal of this film’s success must be due to Danny Boyle’s collaborations with local Indian artists, including his Indian co-director Loveleen Tandan and the legendary Bollywood composer A. R. Rahman. Still, Boyle’s imprint is all over this film, and there’s something to be said about a director who has the intelligence and respect for his subject matter to pick collaborators who will help him do the film right. In my #2 pick I lamented the fact that the Academy overlooked Christopher Nolan for a best director nomination, but even I don’t think he deserved the win. Slumdog Millionaire is one of my favorite films of all time. This is the year of Boyle.