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/Film - When a orphan named Jamal Malik, from the slums of Mumbai, makes it to the final question on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, his credibility is put into question. Did he cheat? The police arrest and torture the 18-year-old, hoping to uncover some kind of illegal motivation, but instead they get the heartwarming story of his life so far. And that’s why Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire is really clever. The film is not really about winning 10 or 20 million rupees on Millionaire, it’s a love story, told through flashbacks.
There are three different types of people: Those who know a little about everything, those who know a lot about one or two things, and those who just know what they have been exposed to over the course of their life. Jamal fits neatly into the third category. Every answer Jamal got right on the game show, leading up to the final question, was the result of an important moment from his childhood living on the streets of India. And of course there is Latika, a girl who serves as a through-line for Jamal’s adventures. She is the love of his life, the love he lost. In fact, Jamal only tried out to be on Millionaire with the hope that Latika might see it and that they could be reunited.
Featuring an electrifying score by AR Rehman, Boyle presents India as it has never been seen before, from the slums to the Taj Mahal. Vivid visuals combined with this City of God-like tale of a few orphan kids trying to survive in a gang-infested city. Based on the bestselling Vikas Swarup novel Q and A, Slumdog Millionaire was scripted by Simon Beaufoy, who had also written the script for The Full Monty, one of Boyle’s favorite films. My only complaint is that the torture sequence that begins the film felt unnecessary to the story, and out of place in this film. But it’s only a minor issue… [Full Story]
Cinematical - Director Ole Christian Madsen began his career as an adherent to Dogme 95, the famous minimalist filmmaking movement began by fellow Danes Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. I haven’t seen Madsen’s previous two non-Dogme films, Nordkraft and Prague, but the remarkable, ultra-stylized Flame & Citron is about as far from the Dogme aesthetic as you can get and still have a movie. Perhaps not coincidentally, it’s also one of the most exciting films I’ve ever seen at Telluride: bold, brave and one of a kind.
Cinematical - Adoration, the newest film by critically acclaimed filmmaker Atom Egoyan, is a beautifully evocative film, though some may find its convoluted storyline distracting. In many respects, the film very much evokes one of my favorite films, The Sweet Hereafter, Egoyan’s 1997 Palme d’Or and Oscar nominee*. Where The Sweet Hereafter dealt with the impact of guilt and grief in a small community following a tragic school bus accident, in Adoration Egoyan deals with grief and loss on a more personal level, while also blending in ideas about the subjective nature of reality and identity in a technological age. In a world where who we are can be invented, reinvented, and broadcast to the world via chat rooms and virtual reality avatars, can we ever really know another person — or even ourselves?
