I'm a big fan of director Danny Boyle (28 Days Later and Sunshine are two of my favorite movies), so I had really been looking forward to seeing his latest. Slumdog Millionaire is about a boy who grew up in the ghettos of India and now finds himself on the their version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?". The big question is: how can an uneducated young man from the slums possibly know any of these answers? That's just the setup. The beauty of this film lie in its execution. Each question (and answer) is a parallel for the main events that have shaped his life. It's brutal but beautiful, sad but uplifting. It doesn't get hung up on the politics of the region or make a heavy-handed statement; instead it just tells a damn good story. It's like City of God (maybe with a dash of Forrest Gump?) but with a touch more humor and a more developed love story. The montage over the ending credits threw me for a loop at first, but it's a nice little homage to Bollywood. Overall, it's easily one of my favorite movies of the year and I definitely recommend at least adding it to your Netflix queue.
4.5/5
