The Film Guide - You Must Watch Slumdog Millionaire!

You Must Watch Slumdog Millionaire!

Slumdog Millionaire, released by those geniuses at Fox Searchlight, is playing at select theatres now.

You must watch this movie, you must!

Don't take my word for it.

This is what my old USC buddy Andy Colville said:

"I loved the movie."

And then: "Wow. I loved it. Have you seen?"

Andy went to Harvard and Cambridge(!), you have to believe him right?

And then, to top it all off, my other USC buddy, the great "Bat"Manuel Bermudez just made my year!

Why?

This is what he wrote to me recently:

 "I saw Slumdog Millionaire tonight based on your recommendation.

"I drove half an hour to get to the theater and waited in line for an hour to see the movie. I spent as much time getting to and from the movie as I spent in the theater watching it.

"And you know what?

"It was worth it. You were right: it really is a terrific movie.

"Thanks for turning me on to it."

And he went to Stanford, you have to believe him, right?

What a guy! Sigh, makes me so happy!

Everyone should watch Slumdog Millionaire!

cheers!

The basu! Guide to the Movies

(The All-Hail-The-Indian-Cricket-Team Edition)

14 November 2008

Movie: The Best Movie, Ever!

Slumdog Millionaire

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Starring: The Great Anil Kapoor, The Great Irrfan Khan, Dev Patel, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Freida Pinto, Rubina Ali, Madhur Mittal, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, Sanchita Choudhar

Written by: Simon Beaufoy

Cinematography by: Anthony Dod Mantel

Plot: A boy from the slums shakes things up when he does really well on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Talk-about-a-real-rags-to-rajah*-story type complications ensue.

The basu! Buzz: Here is what I wrote on my blog immediately after I watched the movie:

I just got back from a special screening of Slumdog Millionaire.

It's 10:32 pm PST out here in Southern California.

What did I think?

Let's see, if there was a checklist to make a "third-world" movie a Hollywood-sized hit (City of God, Born Into Brothels, etc.), this is how Slumdog would do:

Slums? Check.

Abject poverty? Check.

Poor street kids? Check.

Poor, cute, street kids? Check.

Living in filth and squalor? Check.

Getting by with their wits and small-time mischief? Check.

Outrunning the law? Check.

Violence? Check.

Communal (or is that religious?) violence? Check.

Violence against kids? Check.

Kids with guns? Check.

Predators? Check.

Beggars? Check.

Prostitution? Check.

Child near-prostitution? Check.

Poor children filled with the kind of saintly exuberance, naivete and hopefulness that the West objectifies to help it deflect the shattering reality of the situation? Check.

But yet, here I am, my synapses firing, my heart soaring, my legs twitching, my soul throbbing to the pulse of a truly visceral cinematic experience.

 (Yeah, I know, cliched, but then again, it's not like I'm a professional critic or anything).

I heart Danny Boyle.

He is a master craftsman, and boy does he make this film run, dance, and sing. True, he has a lot to work with here, a huge canvas to paint on; we are talking about the mythical, exoticland known as India.

I have to admit that I was getting mad in the beginning. It was one thing after another after another after another after another after.... well you get my drift. And when they added in some good old secular (or is it communal? religious?) violence into the mix, well I was ready to give up.

I'm so glad I didn't.

Because, you see, Danny boy has a way of keeping things going; this energy pulsating through a film, of a throbbing, propulsive, kinetic life-force (these are the cliches you'll see in the movie's marketing campaign) that eventually makes you drop your guard and give into the fairy tale.

Because that is ultimately what we have here, a fairy tale, an ultimately life-affirming fairy tale based in the sort of heightened reality that Bollywood has come to embody (as so expertly analyzed by The Better Half). Danny uses all the tricks in his sizable bag (including perhaps the greatest time lapse I have ever seen, when the boys are on the train and...well, you'll have to see), but really it's Simon Beaufoy's expert puzzle of a script that brings it all home in the end.

[The movie is based on Vikas Swarup's debut novel, Q&A. Yes, that's right, I said debut novel. Makes you crazy doesn't it? A British director goes to India, where he had never been before, never!, and adapts the debut novel of a part-time writer, (Swarup was a diplomat before the novel was published). Pretty crazy, huh? Makes you wish that you could, you know, do something like that...]

And yes, even though I could see it coming from a mile away, even though I knew what was about to happen in the end, my heart was in my throat and I got a wee...bit...choked...up...

What can I say? I tend to get sentimental in my old age.

Any "propulsive" movie "throbbing" with energy needs a pulsating soundtrack, a soundtrack with the "pulsing rhythm of life" (see how I did that...nice, no?) and everyone from A. R. Rahman to Shankar Ehsaan Loy, to even M.I.A. herself (wonder if she is going to become Irrfan Khan-like de rigueur for these Hollywood/Bollywood movies?) contribute mightily to this effort. I don't think there was ever a more appropriate place for "Paper Planes" (that great Pineapple Express trailer notwithstanding) than how it was used in this movie.

If the now-great (yes, I have dubbed him a "great" so I will use that little prefix every time I mention him in the future, and yes, great will be italicized) Anthony Dod Mantle is not nominated for Best Cinematography come Oscar time, then that will be a tragedy of Emmanuel Lubezki proportions!

The acting is good, with a stellar turn by the great Anil Kapoor (I hope this puts him in the Irrfan Khan category where, by law, every "Hollywood" movie made in India has to give him a part...). Thank god Shah Rukh Khan reportedly turned down the role.

Irrfan, as always, was good, with some nice work turned in by the likes of Raj Zutshi, Saurabh Shukla, and the very frightening Ankur Vikal.

Ironically, the hitherto unknown lead Dev Patel (discovered by Danny's daughter from the British show, and apparent cult hit, Skins) is somewhat of a weak link. It's not really his fault; the movie actually doesn't give him (as in the character at that age) much of a backstory, so ultimately it is a little hard to make the inevitable narrative leap with him.

Ditto the female lead, Freida Pinto, and male co-lead Madhur Mittal, who, to be fair, were both making their film debuts. Actually, come to think of it, this was the first film for all three of them so fine, I'll cut them some slack. So, okay they were all good, fine.

I hate to say, I really do, but the kids...man were they heart-breakingly good. They really were.

Why do I hate to say it? Because, it seems that they are all slum kids...for real.

Yeah, I know. Danny has promised that he has put them in good schools where he hopes they will stay. Once you give them a taste of this life, of the possibilities that are now open to them that they could not have previously dared to even dream about, it would be a tragedy, a real tragedy!, for them to go back to the way things were.

I sincerely hope that Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Rubina Ali, Farzana Ansari, and Chirag Parmar use this opportunity to make a better a life for themselves.

The other "kids" were great too, I haven't read through the production notes in more detail to know for sure if they were "slum" kids or just your average, run-of-the-mill Indian kids who just happen to be terrific young actors. They definitely rate a mention: Tanay Hemant Chheda, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar, and Siddesh Patil.

I will concede that it is very easy to be clear-eyed and objective here. I will grant you that the film does, in fact, fall prey to the exact things I often rail against: it exoticizes India; it amplifies the very worst Western stereotypes of India; it perpetuates the one-sided depiction of India that persists in Western media; it uses easy stereotypes; it is lazy in its shorthanding of the many complexities that bedevil urban Indian living; it provides a sanctified halo around the "noble" suffering it shows; it leans on the children to provide the easy emotional connection; it resorts to the oldest narrative tricks in the book; it...

It sweeps you away.

Because...

...it is 11:57 pm PST out here in Southern California...

...and an old man is twitching with energy...

...pulsating with this so-called rhythm of life...

...basking in the afterglow of that rare cinematic experience...

...where it was all right, for once, to believe in fairy tales.

What can I say?

I am getting sentimental in my old age.

Bottom Line: Theatres – First Day!

Other Movies to Check Out (as well): Millions; Sunshine; Trainspotting; Shallow Grave; 28 Days Later…

* Sorry, that "rags-to-rajah" was from the excellent folks at Fox Searchlight, I just had to co-opt it here.

Movie: The Best James Bond (Character, Not Movie), Ever!

Quantum of Solace

Directed by: Marc Forster

Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Mathieu Amalric, Giancarlo Giannini, Jeffrey Wright

Plot: A British secret agent goes after the organization behind the murder of his girlfriend. C'mon-I-like-my-Bond-shaken-and-stirred-not-sweet-and-soft type complications ensue.

The basu! Buzz: Yeah, so I was wrong, dead wrong about Craig. I know I had signed those online petitions to have him replaced with the great, great Clive Owen (sigh, one of these days, one of these days he'll do a movie that more than 10 people will actually see). At least I was man enough to admit it. The word on this one is not great (how could it be, the great and incredible and amazing and jaw-dropping Eva Green isn't in it) but apparently the great Dench is given more to do. And for me that's more than enough. I'm sorry Danny, really sorry. Drinks on me next time, all right?

Bottom Line: Me, and Other "Long-Time" Fans of Daniel Craig as James Bond: Theatres – First Week; Other, More Fickle Fans: Theatres – Eventually

Other Movies to Check Out (as well): Casino Royale; Goldfinger; The Spy Who Loved Me; The Living Daylights; On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Movie: The French Do It Again

A Christmas Tale

Directed by: Arnaud Desplechin

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Melvil Poupaud, Chiara Mastroianni

Plot: A dysfunctional family tries to renew itself during Christmas, sorry, the Holidays. Why-is-Christmas-sorry-the-Holidays-with-the-family-always-so-stressful? type complications ensue.

The basu! Buzz: Dude, this is proof that the French do everything better, everything. They make a Christmas Movie, another Christmas, sorry Holiday, I meant Holiday Movie, and it's designated as a Critics' Pick by The New York Times. And it got a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 87% on MetaCritic. Imagine that! A Holiday movie and it's universally acclaimed…only the French, only the French! But of course, we all know, since it is French, it is not just a Christmas, sorry, Holiday movie now is it? Hmm…

Bottom Line: Those Lucky Few in Manhattan and Los Angeles Who Want to Experience Some French Christmas, Sorry Holiday Spirit: Theatres – First Week; Other, Less Geographically Fortunate and More Grinch-y Souls: DVD

Other Movies to Check Out (as well): A Christmas Story; Tokyo Godfathers; Elf; Bad Santa; Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)

Movie: One For Old Fogies Like Me

The Dukes

Directed by: Robert Davi (yes, that Robert Davi)

Starring: Chazz Palminteri, Robert Davi, Peter Bogdanovich, Miriam Margolyes

Plot: A pair of old doo-wop singers concocts a heist to steal some gold. The-other-movie-about-old-singers-reuniting type complications ensue.

The basu! Buzz: Oh man, we all love Davi, you know, the bad guy in everything from The Goonies to License to Kill (yup, he was a Bond villain, kinda ironic, or is that just plain interesting?, that this movie is being released on the same weekend as the new Bond movie even though it's been in the can for a couple of years). Apparently, the man went ahead and directed a movie and enlisted fellow once-greats like Palminteri and Bogdanovich. Good for him, good for him!

Bottom Line: Me, and Others With Fond Memories of Chazz Palminteri, Robert Davi, and Peter Bogdanovich: DVD; Other, Less Nostalgic Fans: Pass

Other Movies to Check Out (instead): A Bronx Tale; The Goonies; The Last Picture Show; What's Up, Doc?; Paper Moon

The Top 10 Movies of 2008

Slumdog Millionaire [tie]

The Dark Knight [tie]

Man on Wire [tie]

Encounters at the End of the World [tie]

WALL·E [tie]

Iron Man

The Visitor

Kung Fu Panda

Step Brothers

Rachel Getting Married

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Hancock

Wanted

Religulous (new entry)

The Top 10 Films Out Right Now That I Positively Have to See

Changeling

Ballast

Happy-Go-Lucky

I've Loved You So Long

Role Models

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

RocknRolla

Blindness

The Duchess

Soul Men

The Film Guide - My Endorsement

My Endorsement

We live in perilous times.

Everything we had taken for granted has been turned on its head. None of the old rules apply. In an increasingly fragmented world, it has become extremely difficult to establish any broad-based initiatives.

The people are polarized and just going down the middle like is no longer the automatic option. The world has become a smaller place, the culture has changed, there is so much more information out there. A glut of information with a paucity of knowledge, perhaps?

We have been extended into far-flung initiatives with no defined plan for success. Meanwhile, we have taken our eyes off the prize back at home, and our once-solid foundation is eroding at the core.

For these unsettled times, for these unusual times, for these unprecedented times, for these uncommon times we need an uncommon leader.

Luckily, we have such a person.

A once-in-a-lifetime transformational figure that fundamentally changed our world as we know it.

A man from a non-traditional background who uses unconventional means to reach across lines no one had dared to cross before to placate both the masses and the elite.

A man who took age-old notions of what to do and tossed them out to come up with new and innovative solutions for this new environment we find ourselves in.

A man who crossed all conceivable boundaries and ignored convention to give us a breathtaking vision of the world.

A man who managed to corral the hugely talented people around him so they each brought something unique to the table, but who ultimately contributed to his own singular world-view.

A man who, in one brilliant swoop, irrevocably changed our world forever.

Things will never be the same because of him.

And that is why I endorse Christopher Nolan for Best Director.

cheers!

The basu! Guide to the Movies

(The 'Twas-the-Summer-of-Tennis Edition)

2008 – Summer Part I

Movie: The Best Movie, Ever!

The Dark Knight

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman

Plot: A masked vigilante tries to protect his beloved city from a criminal who cannot be reasoned with. The-reason-IMAX-was-invented! type complications ensue.

The basu! Buzz: And there it was, after years of waiting, longing, there it finally was, as big as the world, on IMAX, in front of hundreds of adoring fans.

The Dark Knight.

Sure, it's ultimately too long, the plotting is inelegant, the whole storyline seems to be a bit thin on second thought, the action is too frenetic and choppy, too many elements, too many explosions, too many plot twists, too many false climaxes, too many too many's...

...and yet...

...and yet...it's the best movie, ever!

There's the familiar Batman logo coming at your through blue flames (or was it smoke) and then...boom!

The entire screen lights up and you have to go "woh."

And there it goes. And it doesn't stop until the very end.

Caine and Freeman, William Fichtner (in a small cameo), heck even Nestor Carbonell and the straining-to-be-cult-great Eric Roberts are all good in the small screen time they are given.

One of the good things about a movie brimming with excess is that it gives more time to everyone else.

There's Gyllenhaal doing so much more than her predecessor ever could think of doing in a role that is still somewhat thin.

There's Oldman, who once shockingly played Sid Vicious and is now note-perfect as the honorable, dogged, but world-weary (he knows of the corruption eating away at the city, but he also knows that he must live with it) Jim Gordon. He's given a lot more to do in this movie (it really is more of an ensemble film than just a Batman – Joker narrative) and handles it well. He is the human face of this movie, and helps ground the entire enterprise.

There's Bale, making the character more unhinged and filled with more demons than one would imagine. This is not the steely, self-righteous Batman we have come to expect, if there was a time that he comes close to going over the edge this is it. He's almost feral in some of the scenes, like a caged animal howling to get out of his self-imposed cage.

The real surprise is Eckhart. We all know this story, but he is so very, very good at pushing the Harvey Dent persona that it's almost sad when his inevitable fall from grace arrives. Pity he's not given enough time with it (I thought for sure they were saving him for the third movie). He is absolutely perfect as the crusading crime fighter in a suit (um, the other one) and he is great at keeping you on edge the whole time (Can he be trusted? Is he really the hero he seems to be?).

Eckhart is the perfect embodiment of that old descriptor: a character-actor-in-a-leading-man's-body. Never has that been truer here. He uses his considerable charisma and movie-star-good-looks to great effect, all the while subtly exploring the many undercurrents within, using all the deftness he possesses as an actor. He gives us the rooting interest here. His is the arc that gives the movie it's emotional heft, without him there would be no humanity left. He will be overshadowed by all the other elements when people talk of this movie, but in many ways he could be the absolute best thing about it.

And then...

...of course...

...is Ledger. His Joker has to be one of the most frightening, unrestrained, lethal villains this side of Hannibal Lecter. I know, I know. This role is an easy one to play, after all it calls for no, um, restraint. But Ledger does so much more. He has all the affectations, sure (the voice, the licking of the lips, the tongue, the hair...all of it), but he also has the presence, and the menace.

I mean, there were times that he came so close, so close to doing something horrific, that the anticipation made me cringe more than the acts themselves (it is PG-13 after all). He was effete, and on the receiving end of much physical violence (and I do mean violence, this is the first time in a long time where I actually felt movie punches) but there was always that all-too-familiar feeling that at any point, at any moment, he could turn the tables, and that made him even more frightening.

It is his world that everyone inhabits. Everyone plays a small part in this relentlessly bleak landscape. It's not just about Batman and his demons, it's about all of them, and the ultimately tragic destinies they are powerless against to keep from fulfilling.

In fact the movie is a lot like the Joker himself. It's too big, it's too loud, it's too anarchic, and it's too idiosyncratic to fit neatly into the superhero/action-movie/summer blockbuster mould. It's wonderful to see a great director like Nolan (yes, great in spite of his seeming inability to direct coherent action scenes) let loose of the reins a little bit (Batman Begins was as tightly put together as this was shambling and all over the place) and let it all hang out.

Even if it doesn't all come together, even if it risks being too different to be truly satisfying, even if the pleasures lean towards the more intellectual than the visceral/emotional, the fact that this is like no movie of its kind I've seen before was enough for me. That something so large and so essential to the corporate machinery of Hollywood could dare to be like this was invigorating.

The climax is the absence of a climax. The resolution is that there is no real resolution. The message is that very little separates the heroes from the villains, and sometimes we don't get the hero we need, thirst for, or even long to be...sometimes we get the hero we deserve, to get us through the night.

Sometimes, in the bright sunshine of the summer, it's good to know that our heroes reside in the dark.

Bottom Line: Theatres – First Day in IMAX! [And Then Watch it Twice More…Like Me!]

Other Movies to Check Out (as well): Batman Begins; Batman Returns; Batman; Memento; The Prestige

Movie: Another Great Documentary

Man on Wire

Directed by: James Marsh

Starring: Philippe Petit

Plot: A documentary detailing how a French wirewalker managed to walk between the Twin Towers. You-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it type complications ensue.

The basu! Buzz: Wow…100% on Rotten Tomatoes and 89 on MetaCritic. That automatically means you have to see it right? My old friend Doney Joseph once told me that a great documentary touches you in a way that no fiction film can (well, not literally, he was talking in the metaphysical/spiritual/emotional sense not in the yucky sense). The only problem is that movies like this don't last too long in theatres unless word-of-mouth takes off. On top of that the theatres that do show these films tend not to be too close to wherever you may be. However, I would definitely make the effort and take the time (or is it make the time and take the effort?) to seek this one out, it's quite extraordinary.

Bottom Line: Those Lucky Few in Los Angeles and Manhattan: Theatres – First Week!; Other, Less Geographically Fortunate Souls: Find a Theatre…and Watch It First Week!

Other Movies to Check Out (as well): Capturing the Friedmans; Grizzly Man; Fahrenheit 9/11; Hoop Dreams; When We Were Kings

Movie: Another Great/Crazy Werner Herzog Documentary

Encounters at the End of the World

Directed by: Werner Herzog

Starring: Werner Herzog, and All the Wonders of the Natural World

Plot: An iconoclastic German filmmaker profiles the lives of those who make their living in the Antarctic. You-have-to-um-see-it-to-believe-it type complications ensue.

The basu! Buzz: Imagine you're watching March of the Penguins and a crazy German auteur asks an unsuspecting marine biologist if he knows what the rate of insanity is amongst his penguins. Yeah, it's like that. Trust me, you won't find too many movie-going experiences where you get stunning Arctic vistas (absolutely stunning…stunning!) mixed in with a healthy dose of fatalistic existential angst, which is where the crazy comes in. A tip o' the hat to my old USC buddy Dave "Marmageddon" Marmor for getting me out of the house to see this on the big screen, and yes, it's one of the few documentaries that needs to be seen on the big screen.

Bottom Line: Those Lucky Few in Manhattan and Los Angeles: Theatres – First Week; Other, Less Fortunate Souls: DVD [Make Sure It's a Blu-Ray DVD on a 55" Hi-Def TV]

Other Movies to Check Out (as well): Grizzly Man; Little Dieter Needs to Fly; The White Diamond; The Wild Blue Yonder; Wheel of Time; My Best Fiend

The Top 10 Movies of 2008

The Dark Knight (new entry) [tie]

Slumdog Millionaire (new entry) [tie]

Man on Wire (new entry) [tie]

Encounters at the End of the World (new entry) [tie]

WALL·E (new entry) [tie]

Iron Man

The Visitor

Kung Fu Panda (new entry)

Step Brothers (new entry)

Rachel Getting Married (new entry)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (new entry)

Hancock (new entry)

Wanted (new entry)

W. (new entry)

The Top 10 Films Out Right Now That I Positively Have to See

Changeling

Ballast

Happy-Go-Lucky

I've Loved You So Long

Max Payne

Pride and Glory

Blindness

Burn After Reading

The Duchess

Nights in Rodanthe