Results tagged “slumdogmillionaire”

Before Slumdog Millionaire won the Best Picture Oscar, Susan Cole wrote an article for NOW saying that it'd be "the most violent film to do so ever" if it did, in spite of overwhelming evidence otherwise. And idiots like us actually read and understood her argument based on the words she used! Today, Cole backpedals—she meant to say the most unnecessarily violent Best Picture ever: "Yes, I left out the word 'unnecessarily' which messed with my meaning, but for the record, my point is that this film could have been as exhilarating as it had to be, without sustaining its one-note edgy tone and without the hero oozing snot and dripping blood during a torture scene in the first two minutes." "Thanks for the responses," she adds, "from those who think I don't know what movies have won Academy Awards," before defending previous winners' violence as justifiable based on their subjects ("Movies about war and battle...need the violence to be authentic"; "No Country For Old Men...is about drug wars and thus need to convey dealers' violent ethos to be convincing"). If we were in a scrappier mood, we might mention that Indian slums are not exactly havens free from violence and that not representing that violence would mark a movie like Slumdog as inauthentic and unconvincing. But that point's so obvious it's probably unnecessary.

Last night, Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscar for best picture. But did you know that it is "the most violent film to do so ever"? It's true, according to NOW's Senior Entertainment Editor Susan G. Cole, who has apparently never seen No Country For Old Men (which features a guy strangling a cop to death with handcuffs), The Departed (which features several guys shooting other guys in the head), Gladiator (which features plenty of beheadings and severed limbs), Silence of the Lambs (which features a guy who kills women and makes coats from their skin), Braveheart (which features an extended torture scene complete with disembowelling), or Schindler's List (which is about the holocaust). Good thing, though, that He's Just Not That Into You wasn't nominated for best picture this year, too: according to Cole, it features a scene of "a little boy who pushes [a little five year-old girl] into the sand, sneering at her that she smells like dog poo." When that girl goes to her mother, her mother tells her that "that little boy did those things...because he likes you." The scene, Cole writes, is "repulsive," "totally terrifying," and is an instance of "abusive parenting" and "excusing violence against women." Never you mind that Buffalo Bill guy.

Someone recently told us they were giving their friends two reviews of films they'd recently seen—their opinion and then the "Torontoist" opinion, where they were ecstatic about any success, but resolutely unforgiving to even the smallest flaw. They were making a point—they liked Burn After Reading—but in a way they're kind of correct. After all, we were absolutely thrilled with Casino Royale, considering it one of the most pleasant surprises of the past few years, until we got to the turgid why-on-earth-did-they-put-this-in final half-hour that basically ruined it for us. Of course, I'm sure they'd claim now that they put in that awful ending so they could set up a direct sequel in the form of Quantum of Solace, but it's more likely they had no idea where to go next with the franchise reboot so they took it in the most obvious direction. And, apparently, that's been a terrible idea, because we've yet to hear more than one positive opinion from anyone (and we've heard a lot of opinions, because it's been out for two weeks in the UK). Possibly more entertaining than the film is Barrett Hooper's review in NOW, where he goes to extreme lengths to fit as many groan-worthy puns as possible.

By all accounts, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire was one of the most striking films of this year's TIFF (so striking, in fact, that Roger Ebert was literally hit on the head during a screening) and has been announced as the winner of this year's People's Choice Award. As a result, if you head down to the Elgin Theatre for 7 p.m., you might be able to grab tickets (provided on a first-come, first-served basis; one ticket per person) for a free screening of Slumdog Millionaire there at 9 p.m. There's more info at the TIFF website, and if you're one of the many people who balk at the ticket prices each year this is probably your best bet (and last chance!) to see a film before we all forget about the festival again for another year.