Best Picture of the Year: Slumdog Millionaire or Milk?

Allow me a couple preliminary explanations: the name "cinebibliophile" is just two prefixes (for film and books, respectively) and the word for love: philia. So, even though it isn't a real word, it simply connotes my love of good movies and books (the subject matter of this blog).

Secondly, I think it's helpful to define what criteria, in my mind, make a movie "good":
(in no particular order)
1. Great character development and good acting,
2. Convincing dialogue,
3. Steady, cohesive plot development,
4. Emotional resonance, without sappiness or cliche,
5. Originality,
6. A "fullness" in the aesthetic details of cinematography, costume, and soundtrack that make the movie entertaining and enjoyable.

With those criteria in mind, both Slumdog Millionaire and Milk deserved to be in the running for Best Picture award last year and, now that I have finally seen both of them, I can say which I think was more deserving of the prize.

Milk is a biopic of the martyred gay rights leader and first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk, who served in San Francisco city politics during the 1970s. Director Gus Van Sant's San Francisco is not the colorful, hippy Haight-Ashbury of '69. The Castro Street neighborhood that becomes home to Milk (Sean Penn) and his partner (a mustachioed James Franco) is practically suburban. Milk runs a small camera store and, after enduring anti-gay sentiment, starts to organize his neighbors to support gay-owned businesses and those who are friendly to them. He soon builds political capital by partnering with the local (straight) workers' union in a Coors beer boycott and, when he decides to run for city office and fight against Proposition 6 (which would have made it illegal for gays and lesbians to be schoolteachers), all fronts of the cultural war come directly to Milk's doorstep.

The talented cast (including Emile Hirsch, and the brilliant Diego Luna) creates characters that are developed, sympathetically portrayed, and cliche-free. Sean Penn, in particular, channels Milk's flaws and strengths, and allows the audience to see just enough of his personal growth and foibles, while also letting us see his best moments of greatness and strength. This is particularly true in a scene when one of Milk's friends commits suicide; Penn's reaction in the aftermath of this event is poignant. The heroes of the movie are painfully relatable and human, driving home one of Milk's points: "Come out today. If they know one of us, they will know that we aren't sick."

Is the movie polemical and heavy-handed at times? Yes. But certainly no more than any film with a strong anti-racism message, like The Express. And one of the movie's strengths is that it not only develops the characters of its heroes, but also its villain Dan White, played by the versatile Josh Brolin. Not knowing the story ahead-of-time, I was awestruck by how Brolin developed his character up to the surprising and unsettling climax.

Milk is an sweeping, uplifting human drama that chooses hope as its theme. It has many elements that make it a convincing and effective story, without dehumanizing or reducing to stereotype its heroes or villains. It is the best movie I have seen from 2008.

Slumdog Millionaire is a glitzy Bollywood drama of two brothers who must survive, uneducated and parentless, on the mean streets of Bombai. The movie follows the trajectory of both of their lives, while focusing mostly on the "good one" as he lives a Cinderella-esque rags-to-riches story all the way to the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and a chance to win 20 million rupees.
Jamal, Salim, and their female friend Latika are three orphans who meet on a rainy night in a slum where Jamal and Salim have taken shelter in a crude tent. While the brothers are born into similar Oliver Twist-like circumstances -- their mother is killed before their eyes during a race riot, they must beg and steal for food -- the two brothers could hardly be more different. Jamal is plucky and resourceful, but generous and kind. Salim is pragmatic and cold, selling one of Jamal's most prized possessions for a few rupees and refusing to let Latika join them until Jamal insists. It is interesting to see how the brothers choices lead them to dramatically different outcomes in the unforgettable, artful climax of the movie.
The key word here is "entertaining". Slumdog is way more entertaining than its subject matter would suggest. Director Danny Boyle (Millions) is an aesthetic master. Everything in the movie (even the pile of feces that young Jamal jumps into to escape a locked latrine) seems to glisten and sparkle. The soundtrack is mesmerizing and infectious. The movie evens ends with an extremely enjoyable Bollywood dance sequence on the subway platform, featuring dozens of extras. While Milk is a better movie, this one is more consistently entertaining and fun. It is stirring, if not provocative, and offers a fleeting glimpse of a colorful third world.

The problem I have with Slumdog is that it is incredibly male. Even after watching the movie twice, I still don't feel like I know anything about Latika, the film's one major female character. I don't know her backstory, her motives, or anything about her life trajectory or what happened during the 40 minutes while she is absent from the screen. She seems simply to be a prize to be won by the best man.

Overall, Slumdog Millionaire is a beautiful, dramatic joyride of a story, with plenty of energy and joie de vivre. It is definitely worth watching, and my #2 for Best Picture.

While I very rarely go to the movie theatre, I have seen two movies in 2009 that stand out as contenders: Up and Julie and Julia.

Ratings Information:
Milk is a soft R. The sexual content is very tame and there is only brief, fleeting nudity. The violence is very mild. There are probably about a dozen utterances of the F word.

Slumdog Millionaire is a moderate R. It has a lot of violence, some of it directed at children, but it isn't really bloody or gory or gratuitous. There isn't any nudity or sex, and there is very little adult language. About 1/3 of the film is subtitled.