The Most Overrated Movie Of The Year
Recently, I announced my intention to respond to the wild overpraise for Slumdog Millionaire, and today (finally!), I’ve gotten around to it.
I’m still convinced that the movie’s the most obvious pick for Best Picture, though yesterday, I did hear a reasonably good (if not totally convincing) case that the movie’s a Little Picture The Couldn’t — the Juno, Pulp Fiction, or Little Miss Sunshine, of 2008.
Just a tangential nit for your future reference: There’s only one ‘n’ in Santa Ana, and it would be an extraordinary (prehaps even unprecedented) year that doesn’t see the Santa Ana winds many times. You’re not from southern Calif, are you? :-)
— Tom Chatt · Dec 17, 06:46 PM · #
Dammit! My California source assured me that they weren’t yearly. Ah well.
— Peter Suderman · Dec 17, 09:35 PM · #
Peter,
Thanks for your piece in Culture11 about “Slumdog.” It’s not just the critics: I watched this movie in a theatre full of people who seemed enraptured by it, and they sat through the closing credits. I thought the movie was well made, in a certain sense, and was even willing to give it the improbable nature of the way the answers to the questions re-created his life in chronological order. The biggest hole in this movie for me was the completely unconvincing love story that is supposed to be at the heart of it. These two people don’t even know each other, except from when they were kids. And while I cna see a case for the guy having a crush on this girl, her interest in him is baffling. To the extent we know anything about her, she seems to have chosen a life-style closer to that of his brother, she likes the fast life. Her interactions with him after they are small children seem to be only condescending. Our little slumdog doesn’t seem to hold much appeal. Also, the brother’s final actions appear to be completely unmotivated and out of character.
This wasn’t a bad movie. It was a pretty enjoyable spin on some old movie cliches. But it was by no means a great movie. I’m glad I’m not the only person who felt this way.
— wph · Dec 18, 08:10 PM · #
I’d marry that review if I could. This movie is so ungodly overrated, it’s devastating, and the whole bit about literally wanting to rip up the newspaper reviews sums up my feelings to a tee. It is so painfully accurate.
I am honestly getting sick of having to put the disclaimer that I actually did like the movie, but the more and more raves I hear about this movie, the less and less I like it. I just don’t understand the love this movie is receiving from both critics and audiences. It has no substance whatsoever, and if you switched the Indian setting to some U.S. ghetto where our hero gets on American Idol, this movie would probably get trashed for shoving American pop culture down the audience’ throat while integrating a sappy love story where the two leads have no chemistry with each other, and the audience is never given any reason to root for their reunion. But hey, it’s Indian and if they concoct the most complex and beautifully phrased acclaim for the film, maybe they’ll appear as more worldly and in touch with culture that is not prevalent in American society. The love for this movie is probably the biggest cinematic scam since Crash. It’s the bastard child of Forrest Gump and City of God.
— Casey · Dec 19, 12:50 AM · #
Well, seeing as how both Juno and Pulp Fiction sucked, the odds seem stacked against Slumdog being any good either if you’re putting it in that company.
— DMonteith · Dec 19, 08:28 PM · #
Being contrarian doesn’t make you insightful, Peter. I never would have thought you’d write such a sloppy review. The female lead character, for instance, is Latika, not “Prem Kumar,” and she’s played by Freida Pinto, so I don’t know where you got Prem from.
Moreover, regarding your concern that Latika’s character is underdeveloped. There’s a reason for that. The story is not a romance or a suspense thriller, but a bildungsroman. As such, it is concerned primarily with the integrity of Jamal as the world falls to pieces around him, which explains why we don’t linger over the tale of Latika.
— southpaw · Dec 22, 12:57 AM · #