Monday, November 24, 2008

Slumdog Millionaire, dir. Danny Boyle

Yeah, I haven't blogged for six months, and I haven't blogged about any of the things this blog is ostensibly about in, like, ever. I had a post about Hawking Radiation (because I know everyone has been dying to know my position on that) and yet another Schrodinger's Cat post (good news, I've totally solved the problem. Well, more like defined it out of existence), but I'm just not in a blogging place these days. I guess the days when the crushing angst of modern life could be filled by frequent posting have passed me by.

Anyway, this movie: Holy. Fuck. If you are currently in a state of having not seen this movie, you should seek the discontinuation of that state as soon as is humanly possible. In fact, you should just stop reading this right now, see the movie, and then come back so we can discuss it. For now, the rest of this paragraph is a generic spoiler, which you should not read if you have not seen the movie: Boyle has made a Bollywood film the brilliance of which lies in continually making you forget that you are watching a Bollywood film. It is a film which at every turn seems to be thwarting the conventions of the genre, such that you the viewer are endlessly surprised when it winds up totally following them.  

Back with me? Good. Now go see this movie. Do it. 

2 comments:

Lilita said...

Welcome back. Umm, we just watched (completely accidentally or serendipitously or coincidentally or something) Boyle's "Sunshine" which was, in a word, weird. It wanted to be a horror movie, I think, if the previews were any indication of who they thought was watching, but also a metaphysical sci-fi apocalyptic redemption flick...or something, again. It was an odd viewing experience, with all kinds of almost but not quite subliminal messages and indistinct villains. In short, it did NOT make me want to see more of Boyle's work. So what has changed in the intervening year?

Transient Gadfly said...

Okay, first off. Sunshine: not a good movie. Some interesting things about it, but basically if you are looking for an example of his work, that is the bad one. Millions--have you seen "Millions"? Go rent that. It is fab-o like fabric softener.

My own blog is asking me to type in a CAPTCHA word verification, and it is "biallis," which sounds like a bottom shelf erectile-disfunction drug.