Best movie this year: ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
A couple of weeks ago I was zoned out in front of the TV when The Ting Tings and Sigur Ros snapped me out of my daydream.
It was the music in the “Slumdog Millionaire” trailer that got my attention, but the subject matter and New York Magazine article on director Danny Boyle that got me in the theater.
The movie starts with a young contestant in the hot seat on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” a show I had my own experience with less than a month ago. After answering a number of questions correctly, he is brutally beaten and interrogated — how could he, a lower-class man from the slums, know the answers? The game show is a device that allows Boyle to take us through key scenes in the main character’s life, from his boyhood to the present day.
I won’t give away the plot or any of the particulars, but I will say that this was my favorite film this year. It was a complete movie experience — dramatic and uplifting, an emotional journey with plenty of character development and all those other cinematic devices. As the credits starting rolling, the audience starting clapping.
Run, don’t walk, to the closest theater to see it. Truly amazing.
