Review: Slumdog Millionaire

…directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy & Vikas Swarup, starring Dev Patel, Saurabh Shukla, and Freida Pinto.

As we watched Slumdog Millionaire this past weekend, I couldn’t help thinking about the current economic recession in this country.  We have CEOs complaining about $500,000 salary cap to take Federal money; we have a spend-our-way-out-of-it mentality; our poor people are obese.  Then you look at India.  Even through the lens of a movie like Slumdog, a romantic drama that doesn’t want the harsher aspects of reality to intrude upon the story, you see what poverty and desperation are all about.

No Love for DK

Over 100,000 people lost their jobs last week, and here in Illinois we fired the Governor.  With the economy looking worse and political corruption appearing more pervasive, let’s move on to something really pressing…

Yes, the Oscar nominees were announced recently, and The Dark Knight took the big fat snub, surprising virtually no one in the Tinseltown scene.  There wasn’t much hope after DK received no love from the Golden Globes, but I was still holding out a sliver hope.  Sure, sure, Heath Ledger is figure-four leglock for Best Supporting Actor, and they got some nods for cinematography, editing, art direction, special effects, etc., but what about the screenplay?  What about Chris Nolan’s directing?

Coens Grab Statues

If you made it through the Oscar broadcast last night (we didn’t), you saw the Coen brothers win for best director/best picture. I’ve been enjoying their movies since before I was old enough or savvy enough to understand just why they were so appealing, so I like this result.

We took in No Country For Old Men (review) last month, and it’s a very good film. Of course the only other nominee we’ve seen was There Will Be Blood, also excellent, with Daniel Day Lewis at his slavering best (no way anyone was going to beat him out for Best Actor), so it’s not like we’re familiar with the rest of the field.