Directors: Danny Boyle

Review coming someday...

98/100

Undervalued film. It has very good, original and shocking moments and the direction is very stylized. All of the characters were very complete and the suspense is maintained until the credits start to roll.

59/100

Finally a good horror film, again. Constantly mistaken with a zombie movie, I think it's ok to consider it like that, although it is not. Apocaliptic and desperate, depressing and lost. Mmm... This was so good when at the theaters...

81/100

Danny Boyle's first attempt to make a project in the sci-fi genre turned out to be an hypnotic, deep and spellbinding success. The film is not about the special effects or perhaps even the plot, but it is about our tiny significance in the Universe, human fears, man's complexity and paranoia. The music is awesome and the pace is breathtaking. Not an all-time masterpiece of the sci-fi genre, but certainly a very recommendable film, despite its noticeable pretentiousness and the nonsense climax.

61/100

Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million rupees. How did he do it?

A. He cheated
B. He's lucky
C. He's a genius
D. It is written

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Director: Danny Boyle
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Crime / Drama / Romance
Length: 120 minutes



Slumdog Millionaire is a whole new experience in cinema I missed having for a long time. It is a journey through tragedy, joy, human feelings and emotions and definitely through India, and through what comes to be at the end a fairy tale.

Danny Boyle has always had a very peculiar and unique style of direction, most noticeable in Trainspotting (1995), which is his best film so far. Films like The Beach (2000), 28 Days Later... (2002) and Sunshine (2007) had that style alive and present. In the case of Slumdog Millionaire, it is clearly and positively influenced by co-director Loveleen Tandan. A different touch of optimism and magic is present throughout. It just felt amazing.

The story deals with a young Mumbai teen who grew up in the slums of India called Jamal K. Malik. He's a contestant in the Indian version of the TV show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". Once he has won 10,000,000 ruppees, he's arrested by the police under the suspicion of cheating. Through several backgrounds of his whole life we find out how he actually knew all of the answers. The film had 8 Academy Award nominations including Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Achievement in Editing, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score, Best Achievement in Directing, Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published, Best Achievement in Sound, Best Achievement in Sound Editing and two nominations for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song. It won 8 Oscars, except for Original Song and Sound Editing.

Slumdog Millionaire is one of the most amazing and magical homages to Bollywood films, specially because of the ending sequence. What Danny Boyle really achieved with this wonderful piece of filmmaking was to brilliantly mix sadness with joy, obstacles and life struggle with final positive outcomes, tragedy with miracles and the darkness of the night with the sunlight becoming the own source of our happiness and strength.

The musical score is plain beautiful. You can feel the optimism running through your veins while listening to it, and mixed with the awesome direction and sequences, it instantly transforms into a fantastic cinematographic experience. I really worship A.R. Rahman's hip-hop influenced and totally inspiring work.

The screenplay is superb, and I consider this film the best live action movie of the year after The Dark Knight (2008). The most admirable effort in this film is the cinematography. Each shot is perfectly taken care of, and fill our eyes with spectacle. The camera angles are genius and really capture the essence of India like few films I have seen. In its own terms, this film is gorgeous.

Although the acting is not quite convincing, specially because of the flat emotions and facial expressions that older Jamal K. Malik has, I can't fully complain. Now, this film ACTUALLY has a fairy tale ending, and too many people complain about that, among other aspects which I won't mention for not spoiling anything. If you really think about it and analyze this gem completely, you'll find out that Slumdog Millionaire is a fairy tale since the beginning. A boy who has dreams and lives in a very difficult environment sees magic wherever he goes and his life has a key moment when he receives to what us may seem the most innocent and little detail in life: an actor's autograph. He meets the love of his life and by destiny he's separated from her because of destiny. The director's intention since the beginning of the film is to make clear that some things are just written, that is, meant to happen. We may not understand why, but as long as these special events are positive and good for us, we should live them to their fullest, or learn from them if they are painful experiences. He didn't exactly have an easy life since childhood, neither most of the characters... right?
Slumdog Millionaire is a triumphant achievement in modern cinema, worth-watching for all audiences. Thanks Danny Boyle, for your second masterpiece.

88/100