Best of Oscar, Part 2: Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire
Written for the screen by Simon Beaufoy, directed by Danny Boyle, and starring Dev Patel, Freida Pinto and Madhur Mittal.

(Mild story spoilers follow.)

Jamal and his older brother Salim are slumdogs. Born in the sprawling complex of shanty towns that surround the city of Mumbai, these street-wise kids are naturally-born survivors, whose life takes a turn for the worse when their mother is killed by an anti-Islamic lynch mob. Jamal, Salim and Latika, a girl joining the brothers in the chaos following the raid, have to look out for themselves, growing up in an Indian country that is unfriendly and sometimes outright hostile, but is also full of opportunities.

Fast-forward to several years later when Jamal, now a young man, becomes a contestant on the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”, a show that not even academics and the educated social elite have been able to crack. Yet that’s exactly what Jamal, the slumdog, is about to do – he is one question away from winning the 20 million rupee grand price when the show breaks for the night with a well-timed cliffhanger ending.  Arrested for alleged cheating as he leaves the studio, Jamal recounts his life to the untrusting police officers as he tries to show why he knew all the answers leading up to the last and final question.

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Best of Oscar, Part 1: The Reader

Victoria and I are on a mission to watch all five Best Picture nominees before the Oscars! The jury is still out on whether we’ll succeed, but we managed to watch one movie for sure Here is the first mini review; you can read my introduction to this series here.

The Reader
Written for the screen by David Hare, directed by Steven Daldry, and starring Kate Winslet, David Kross and Ralph Fiennes.

(Mild story spoilers follow.)

It only seems fitting that the first of this year’s Oscar contenders comes from the two men who pioneered the art of the Oscar campaign: The Reader, distributed by The Weinstein Company. Pushed as a “holocaust movie”, which is indeed the movie’s overarching theme, The Reader is really a character study of two people connected by a single summer in 1950′s Germany.

Michael Berg is only 15 years old when he encounters the unlikely first love of his life: Hanna Schmitz, who is easily twice his age. Reclusive, harsh and emotionally repressed – all for reasons that won’t become clear until later – Hanna breaks social taboos (as well as the law) as she engages in a physical relationship with Michael. She uses sex as a reward for his companionship, and eagerly listens as Michael reads out loud the many literary classics that are part of his school work. The relationship only lasts a summer, but Michael will be haunted by the experience for the rest of his life.
The former lovers’ paths cross again several years later, but this time Hanna is not aware of the fact. Now a law student at the University of Heidelberg, Michael attends the trial against five former guards of the Auschwitz concentration camp, who, after the the publication of a holocaust survivor’s memoir, now stand accused of murder. One of these guards is Hanna Schmitz, and as Hanna’s secret history unravels before the eyes of a German nation that is all too desperate to come to terms with its recent past, Michael is trying to reconcile his personal feelings for Hanna.

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Best of Oscar

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences hasn’t had it easy in recent years: public interest in their prestige event, the Oscars, is waning; TV viewership is shrinking… While it’s certainly way too early to write an eulogy for the Academy Awards, there’s the growing feeling that the academy needs to fix a few things if it wants to retain the relevance of its premier awards show.  Because Oscars’ problems are home-made: year after year, the academy nominates movies in the Best Picture category that almost nobody has heard of. Of course most summer blockbusters won’t have enough artistic merit or substance to qualify for the honors. But when even commonly held blockbuster master pieces like The Dark Knight and Wall•E get snubbed in favor of obscure titles with little exposure it’s hard to get excited for the show, let alone stay engaged through a four-hour TV marathon. That’s certainly true for Victoria and I, who hadn’t seen a single one of this year’s Best Picture contenders. All are supposedly great films, but that doesn’t count for much when you’re watching the ceremony and don’t have anybody to root for.

So this year we made a resolution to watch all five nominees before the big awards show on February 22. Our behavior is certainly debatable, because it actually feeds into Oscar’s fundamental problem: huge marketing campaigns specifically designed to sway the public’s opinion, as well as that of the voting members. The Oscar as a marketing tool, rather than a legitimate and objective acknowledgment of last year’s best work. Do we really want to reward that? But usually the nominated movies are good, and we have never tried this before. It’s a fun experiment – let’s see if we manage to squeeze all five movies into the next two weeks! I’ll post our thoughts on each movie as we go along. Up tomorrow, for the first review: The Reader, starring Kate Winslett, Ralph Fiennes and David Kross. See you then!

R.I.P. Aeris

No drama this time, just old age.  This was one of the first birds I got, before I even met Victoria

Down to two budgies for the time being. It’s somewhat quieter in the house right now, but the two remaining birds are big talkers. And we’ve been talking about starting to “staff back up” after the Superbowl.

Lily Allen’s New Single

Lily Allen doesn’t mince words in her latest single, “Fuck You Very Much”. Her song about small-minded people, bigots and opponents of gay rights is sure to offend some circles. I think it’s brilliant.

The Remnants

Joss Whedon wasn’t the only one who kept himself busy during the WGA strike last year. Screenwriter (and sometime director) John August (Big Fish, The Nines), together with a group of friends, created the pilot episode for The Remnants, a possible web series about a group of survivors in a zombie-infested world. That pilot is now available on the web. A mixture of a classic zombie movie and The Office, The Remnants isn’t quite as brilliant or captivating as Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. But it’s worth watching. The idea of doing a zombie survival story in this fake documentary style feels fresh, and the execution is good enough to carry the pilot. Judge for yourself, it’s only 11 minutes.

Ode To Joy

We will return to our regularly scheduled programming on January 5. In the meantime, this:

Dinner For One

In Germany, everybody follows a yearly procedure before going out to celebrate New Year’s Eve: around 7pm, you watch “Dinner For One” on your local TV station. I have no idea when the tradition started, but that’s what you do. Don’t argue with me! So here it is, for you to enjoy before you celebrate the arrival of 2009. And next year, you’ll hopefully start making it “the same procedure as every year!”

NCK Road Race

Every year, on the weekend after Thanksgiving, the Northern California Karters hold their season closing race at Infineon Raceway. This event hold a special place in my heart for two reasons: in 2004, this is where I first met Victoria’s family, when she brought me to watch her dad Michael race. That day also marked my first ever visit to the racetrack, which has developed into a pretty intimate affair. This year, two of Victoria’s aunts and five cousins were in town for the race. And Missy upheld the tradition by introducing her boyfriend to the track to the meet the family for his first time.

I made a pretty elaborate music video of the entire day of 2007. This year, I didn’t have as much time, so I just filmed some racing action from good shooting spots (having a hard card for the track and having filmed the 2008 NASCAR and IndyCar races certainly helped!), and edited it into a small montage. Enjoy! These guys easily reach over 100mph in their little karts as they race down the esses. Most impressive, and always a lot of fun to watch. Just as impressive: Michael got first place in his class!

Now Playing: Fallout 3

When it comes to Bethesda’s big, open world RPGs, I have a predictable pattern: I will hopelessly fall for every other game that they release. When The Elder Scrolls: Arena was released in 1994, I was all over it. Then Daggerfall hit the streets, and I never got past the initial quests. Several years later I was hooked again, dedicating hundreds of hours to Morrowind; only to be left cold by the even grander follow-up, Oblivion. If this alternating outburst of enthusiasm sounds weird, there’s a simple reason for it: Bethesda’s games are so comprehensive that I can’t play more than one every few years. When Oblivion arrived to much fanfare, I found that I just hadn’t recovered enough from Morrowind; I was feeling like I was replaying the same game again. I knew how much I should have been loving Oblivion and actually bought it for all available platforms. But every time I stopped playing early on.

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