Alright, I'm convinced it has more critical mass. I still personally don't think its the kind of movie the Academy prefers and personally don't think it is as good of a film as Benjamin Button.
Things are leaning Slumdog's way. But I think there are so many good films this year that even one of the film's besides Benjamin Button could nab it. It will be an interesting year to say the least.
Frankly, I don't think Slumdog is the best or even necessarily the second best film of the year. The movie kind of reminds me of everyone's fascination with City of God (though I do like Slumdog more than I liked City of God. I make the comparison as well because the movies are very similar to me). The movie was ambitious and it was very innovative, but I just never warmed up to it. I went in with a totally open mind as well, so I had no prejudice to the movie and wanted to see it after I heard it won a Golden Globe for Best Picture.
I did like the cinematography quite a bit, and the shaky cam was great even though it normally bothers me. But something about the movie was overly melodramatic to me. It just didn't move me anywhere near as much as Benjamin Button did or even some of the other films that came out this year. Not to mention I couldn't stand the main character. I liked the brother's character a lot better.
I certainly won't be bothered if it wins Best Picture as it is better than other films that have wrongfully won it in the past, but I just can't bring myself to change my prediction since I honestly don't believe it was the best film that came out this year.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
