It is Written

Review: Slumdog Millionaire


What is Slumdog Millionaire?

A) A new film by Danny Boyle
B) A film with no major stars
C) One of the Best films of the year
D) All of the Above


The Answer is D. Slumdog Millionaire, is bound to be the surprise of the award season. It's a beautiful, touching, romantic, uplifting yet quite harsh look at the rise of a poor boy in India to his appearance on India's Who wants to be a Millionaire. I know how that sounds, but its truly a cinematic feast. Go out and see it now. It's a great holiday movie that will leave you both humbled and enriched.

Danny Boyle has always been a visually inventive, solid director. He has the ability to push and blend genre to create something greater than given. I give Boyle credit for single-handedly resurrecting the zombie genre with his awesome 28 Days Later. He made a cult classic in Trainspotting. He elevated a standard Event Horizon-ish sci-fi film into something more in Sunshine. And he showed he could make films with a lot of heart in Millions, a tale of a boy who sees saints and comes across a fairly large sum of money just when his single father needs it the most.

I adore Millions. It wears it's heart on its sleeve, but I love it for it. Boyle is always visually inventive. The guy makes good looking flicks (even 28 Days Later which was shot on Mini DV). His actors are always solid. But Millions was really his first use of child actors, and the performances he elicits are phenomenal. That film help really set the stage for Slumdog.

The narrative is fractured around how young slum kid Jamal could possibly know the answer to these questions. The film then cuts back and forth between the present and the rest of Jamal's life to show how he came to know what he does and be where he is today. Three different actors play the three leads as the pass children, to teenagers to young adult. Most were untrained actors. All of them do amazing work.

The films is fantastic in that it takes the Bollywood genre and deconstructs it and adopts it for western audiences. This is a Indian film made by an English writer and director yet it feels totally authentic. This is for India what City of God was for Rio. I don't know if life is like that, but it feels right. Bollywood films adhere to strict guidelines regarding the precantage of action, romance and musical numbers must be in the film. And Slumdogs has that mix without seeming forced. They even threw in a musical number, just when I thought they had forgotten. And not only that, but it furthers the plot! The film mixes both English and native language with ease, never once being annoying. Boyle uses the Tony Scott interactive subtitle route and it fits beautifully into the film, becoming just another piece of the frame rather than an intrusion on the film. The subtitle's intergration should help those who cry foul and run away from foreign fairs.

The use of M.I.A is extremely deft. The beginning chase scene is perfectly complimented by her. Also the use of Paper Planes. Listen, I am addicted to this song. Ever since before I heard it attached to the Pineapple Express trailer. When itstarted during the movie, it put a smile on my face. Then I thought, really, why are they using it? But honestly by the time the montage with it is finished (and it is quite a montage) you'll find that the song is actually telling the narrative in a way you'd never imagine possible. It's quite fitting.

Also, unlike Millions, which some might deem to saccharine, Slumdog is quite harsh. There is torture, blinding, fist-fights, murder, riots, things that you'd usually wouldn't find in something that is actaully an uplifting film. But its those real world tragedies that ground the narrative and enrich the story. Without all this strife as a backdrop, Jamal's rise wouldn't be so moving. It is inspite of all this adversity that Jamal strives to find happiness, not with money but with the woman he loves.

I really can't recommend this film enough. There aren't enough films like Slumdog around. Films made with craft and heart. Films that were shot on a limited budget, yet feel epic. Who has no movie stars, but it doesn't matter. It's a about the characters, not the people playing them. Films like Slumdog don't come around often. And when the do, they should be heralded and supported. I hope this puts Boyle, who often struggles finding finacing for films, in a position where he'll be making many more for an awfully long time. Don't be surprise if this walks away with some Gold men come Oscar time. It deserves to. Cherish this. Go with friends. Find it in the theatre. And experience Slumdog Millionaire.

Have You Ever Seen a One Armed Man Punching at Nothing but the Breeze

Review: The Wrestler

I'm a huge fan of Darren Aronofsky. Before The Fountain, I had to argue with many that he wasn't purely the MTV stylist that Requiem for the Dream tagged him as. Don't get me wrong, Aronofsky is an amazing visualist. The Fountain only proves that. With that film (one that i waited six years dying for) he took himself to the next level of cinematic craft, creating a visually innovative and stunning film, as well as an emotional one. There is an underlying humanity beneath all the pretty flash of Requiem and Fountain, and with The Wrestler, that flash has been stripped as bare as the soul of lead role Mickey Rourke's Randy "the Ram" Robinson. All that's left is his humanity. And boy is it a beauty to see.



Much has been and will be made of Mickey Rourke's performance. It's not hyperbole. Rouke deserves every word dedicated to his accolades. It's been a long time coming. The Wrestler is the role Rouke was born to play. I'm so glad that Aronofsky stood by his gut, and took a budget cut; Nicholas Cage gracefully stepping aside and backing Rourke a role written for him. The film works on a meta level. The Ram's career mirroring Rourke's own.

Randy: "The 90's sucked"

Yes they did for Rouke, who literally disappeared for the screens for a decade before returning in smaller character roles thanks to Robert Rodriguez and Tony Scott. If this film had a subtitle it'd be the Passion of Mickey Rourke. As Randy himself says, he's a "dired up piece of meat." A man whose career has taken as much toll as his body. Randy is washed up and alone. A daughter that hates him, and a crush on a stripper near her end much like him. Both burdened with a occupation and responsibility they cannot escape.

Yet together Marisa Tomei's Cassidy and Rourke's Ram have that beautiful chemistry of two old souls surviving the life they've been dealt. Tomei deserves her praise as much as Rourke. If anything, and its minor, its that at age 44 she's still too beautiful to play a washed up stripper. Would you say no to a naked Marisa Tomei standing in front of you? I'm half her age and I don't think so. But despite that physicality its Tomei's working class, brown beaten spirit that shines through. She's a glimmer of hope in both the film and Randy's life.

Also not to go unnoticed is Evan Rachel Wood. I've had my eye on her since Once and Again years ago. She's come a long way since Thirteen. Wood's screen time is brief but brimming with emotion. There's beauty in her few scenes with Rourke that really does capture a girl that would like nothing better to have a Daddy again. A father Randy never was, and never can be.

All this is grounded by Aronofsky's uncharacteristically plain, verte-style camera. Rourke is introduced through a series of tracking back shots, Rourke's bleached hair and huge shoulder blades on display more than his mug. This is a man whose best days are behind him. He is not walking at us into a brighter future, he's walking away from former days filled with glory. The Ram's saga is built on the details that Aronofsky and cinematographer Maryse Alberti (in place of his usual collaborator Matthew Libatique) loving capture with deft subtly. This is a film about how Randy prepares to face the world, whether it his audience or the deli counter he works at (in an wonderfully reversed Raging Bull-like entrance). Whether it's with bandages, steriods, bleach and tanning, or hair nets and swallowing pride, the every day minutia of the Ram's life is the journey.

It all builds to a beautiful final rematch with The Ram's old foe, The Ayatollah. It ends with a staunch ambiguity that lets the viewers decide as they are sheparded out the door to an amazing original track by The Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen (who should hopefully win Best Song Oscar. Go download it now.)

The Wrestler is a film with its heart on its sleeve. I hope it gives a gold statue to Rourke and opens more doors for Aronofsky. Together they've crafted a touching modern tragedy, and one of the best films of the year.

Disappearing Trick

So, yes, once again, its been awhile. My fault completely. Between moving to Brooklyn, among other things, parts of my life got dropped by the wayside.

Witness example A.

But that's not all, I'm coming up on my one year anniversary of the blog, and I'm thinking about what I want to use it for and the site in general.

So I'm going to be experimenting a little. Bear with me. And forgive, alittle.

More posts to come soon.