Slumdog Dazzles Critics

The NY Times’ Manohla Dargis tries to reconcile the emotion she feels with her cold, hard common sense, caught somewhere between enjoying it and faking it, as though this ride were battery operated rather than the real thing:

In the end, what gives me reluctant pause about this bright, cheery, hard-to-resist movie is that its joyfulness feels more like a filmmaker’s calculation than an honest cry from the heart about the human spirit (or, better yet, a moral tale). In the past Mr. Boyle has managed to wring giggles out of murder (“Shallow Grave”) and addiction (“Trainspotting”), and invest even the apocalypse with a certain joie de vivre (the excellent zombie flick “28 Days Later”). He’s a blithely glib entertainer who can dazzle you with technique and, on occasion, blindside you with emotion, as he does in his underrated children’s movie, “Millions.” He plucked my heartstrings in “Slumdog Millionaire” with well-practiced dexterity, coaxing laughter and sobs out of each sweet, sour and false note.

So, she was moved and then embarrassed? That happens to me with a certain Sarah McLachlan video. Release thyself, Manohla, let it bleed!

Speaking of the NY Times, I’m not liking their new web interface. It’s frustrating enough to drive me away.

Kenneth Turan is unreserved in his admiration:

Who would believe that the best old-fashioned audience picture of the year, a Hollywood-style romantic melodrama that delivers major studio satisfactions in an ultra-modern way, was made on the streets of India with largely unknown stars by a British director who never makes the same movie twice? Go figure. That would be the hard-to-resist “Slumdog Millionaire,” with director Danny Boyle adding independent film touches to a story of star-crossed romance that the original Warner brothers would have embraced, shamelessly pulling out stops that you wouldn’t think anyone would have the nerve to attempt anymore. But Boyle has been nothing if not bold with this film. He’s dared to use so many venerable movie elements it’s dizzying, dared us to say we won’t be moved or involved, dared us to say we’re too hip to fall for tricks that are older than we are. And, as witnessed by “Slumdog’s” capturing of the Toronto Film Festival’s often prophetic audience award, he’s won that bet. Because he’s a director who is always up for something different, Boyle’s films run an unmatchable gamut, from the punk operatics of “Trainspotting” to the sweetness of “Millions,” the shock of “28 Days Later” and the science-fiction theatrics of “Sunshine.” What unites all of them, though, is the unstoppable cinematic energy pouring off the screen that’s at the heart of Boyle’s always vigorous style.

So far, Slumdog is clocking in at one of the best reviewed films of the year, with an 84% on Metacritic and 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. Four stars from Ebert.