It seems en vogue now for everyone to bash on Slumdog Millionaire since it's the clear frontrunner for Best Picture. This is dumb for a few reasons. One, it's a movie everyone can get behind, and in the wake of Mumbai, it gets thrown around in the Oscarsphere with a bit more of a topical glow than anything else (save for Milk, maybe). Two, it's the Oscars. Yeah, better than the Golden Globes, but still: it doesn't matter. You've already complained about Crash and Titanic and Raging Bull. This is hardly a major infraction in the scheme of things, if one at all. Third, look what it's up against. The Curious Case, Milk, The Reader, and Frost/Nixon, none of which anyone will remember by this summer. But perhaps most importantly -- you wouldn't be bashing it if you had seen it two months ago.
Context is everything, sure. But it most cases, it's lame. Think about Juno last year. People saw previews for it and were like "heh, looks amusing." Then it gets absolutely rave reviews across-the-board, and tons of people see it and love it. Then Diablo Cody finagles her way into an Oscar nod, followed by an Oscar win, and this -- in addition to the fact that the movie itself received a Best Picture nomination -- is enough for people to start souring on it. Hard. "Nobody talks like that, booo." "I don't see what's so special about it -- I mean, it's a comedy. Nobody even died!" "Ellen Page is just a pudgy whore." "Michael Cera acts the same in every movie." So on, so forth. A virtually total 180 in a matter of weeks. Part of this is because of unjust hype, which can indeed ruin a movie if you buy into it -- such was the case with myself and Borat. But part of it is just a douchy nonconformist tendency.
And so we must take Slumdog through this prism. If this movie wasn't released wide in the U.S., and was just available in NYC and LA and on DVD screeners online, the buzz would be insane. "ABSOLUTE OMG BEST movie you haven't heard of -- must see!" and "Wow Hollywood sucks, why don't we do movies like this anymore?" would likely be two common refrains. And yet now, since everyone in suburbia has fallen in love with this movie, in order to be cool, you must think it was "meh." It's fine (and correct) to think it wasn't the Best Picture of the year. But don't pay attention to that. A.O. Scott's review of No Country For Old Men didn't go "man, with this taking Best Pic over There Will Be Blood, I thought I was about to experience something on par with The Godfather. The ending didn't really do anything for me, and Woody Harrelson was dumb. Plus LOL @ Chigurh -- nobody talks like that!"
Just view the movie on your own terms.
