Slumdog Millionaire

2008

Director: Danny Boyle

Composer: A. R. Rahman

Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures / Warner Brothers

Key Elements: Story – Visuals – Message – Concept – Music

My Review:

This movie recently won Golden Globes for Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Director and Best Motion Picture – Drama. I watched this at an art-house theater and can definitely say it deserved them all. I continue to be completely amazed by Danny Boyle's brilliant film-making.

Based on the book, Q and A, by Vikas Awarup, the story tells of how a boy’s life experiences have equipped him with the answers to a trivia game show. As the movie explains these answers, we get to see his life unfold. Brilliant visuals and moving music make for a stunning film, but it’s the story that really blows you away. I was pleasantly surprised when, in the end, it turned out to be a love story.

I’ve had some exposure to Bollywood and thoroughly enjoyed the similarities. From the random switching between English and Hindi, to the head-wagging yeses, to the inexplicable dance sequence, this movie pays tribute to it’s influences.

But I also loved that there was no sex scene in it. The makers of this movie opted to instead show some class and creativity and just allow a good story to be told. Way to go guys.

Trailer:

Quotes:

• You think I don’t wake up every morning wishing I didn’t know the answer to that question?
• Steel balls is what it takes, my friend, steel balls
• Your destiny in on your hands, bhai

Stills:

Trainspotting

1996

Director: Danny Boyle

Distributor: Miramax Films

Key Elements: Message – Visuals – Concept

My Review:

Based on Irvine Welsh’s book, Boyle’s film has a unique storytelling voice.

A Scottish heroine addict narrates his life for us, giving an inside look at the foolish, twisted, sometimes terrifying lifestyle of addiction.

A singular style on a singular issue. Good filmmaking. Disturbing effect. Like Requiem for a Dream, this movie has convinced me to never try druguse.

Trailer:



Quotes:

• Relinquishing junk. Stage one, preparation. For this you will need one room which you will not leave. Soothing music. Tomato soup, ten tins of. Mushroom soup, eight tins of, for consumption cold. Ice cream, vanilla, one large tub of. Magnesia, milk of, one bottle. Paracetamol, mouthwash, vitamins. Mineral water, Lucozade, pornography. One mattress. One bucket for urine, one for feces and one for vomitus. One television and one bottle of Valium, which I've already procured from my mother, who is, in her own domestic and socially acceptable way also a drug addict. And now I'm ready. All I need is one final hit to soothe the pain while the Valium takes effect.
• Personality. I mean, that's what counts, right? That's what keeps a relationship going through the years. Like heroin, I mean heroin's got a great fucking personality.
• Take the best orgasm you've ever had... multiply it by a thousand, and you're still nowhere near it.
• You could always get the truth from Tommy. That was one of his major weaknesses. He never told lies, he never took drugs, and he never cheated on anyone. …Begbie didn't do drugs either. He just did people.
• Thank you, your honor. With God's help I'll conquer this terrible affliction.
• Here I was surrounded by my family and my so-called mates and I've never felt so alone
  But it's never enough. And at the moment it's nowhere near enough.
• I don't feel the sickness yet, but it's in the post. That's for sure. I'm in the junkie limbo at the moment. Too ill to sleep. Too tired to stay awake, but the sickness is on its way. Sweat, chills, nausea. Pain and craving. A need like nothing else I've ever known will soon take hold of me. It's on its way.
• Say something Mark… Fucking say something, huh? - I'm cooking up.
• The downside of coming off junk was I knew I would need to mix with my friends again in a state of full consciousness. It was awful. They reminded me so much of myself, I could hardly bear to look at them.
• This was to be my final hit, but let's be clear about this. There's final hits and final hits. What kind was this to be?
• So why did I do it? I could offer a million answers - all false. The truth is that I'm a bad person. But, that's gonna change - I'm going to change. This is the last of that sort of thing. Now I'm cleaning up and I'm moving on, going straight and choosing life. I'm looking forward to it already. I'm gonna be just like you. The job, the family, the fucking big television. The washing machine, the car, the compact disc and electric tin opener, good health, low cholesterol, dental insurance, mortgage, starter home, leisure wear, luggage, three piece suite, DIY, game shows, junk food, children, walks in the park, nine to five, good at golf, washing the car, choice of sweaters, family Christmas, indexed pension, tax exemption, clearing gutters, getting by, looking ahead, the day you die.

Stills:

Sunshine

2007

Director: Danny Boyle

Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Key Elements: Concept – Visuals – Symbolism

My Review:

This movie stands alone in my mind as one of the most artistic and moving I’ve seen. The sun is burning out, so a team of astronauts must fly a bomb into the sun to reignite it – of course, things don’t go as planned.

The first thing I loved about the movie was its atmosphere. It created its own world. Inside the spaceship, everything was clean and sterile, hummingly electric and stoically purposeful. A prime example of this is the futuristic, green oxygen garden.

The world beyond the spaceship’s heavy duty shield is a stark contrast to this controlled environment. It’s an insane, dreadful force of heat blasting away anything that escapes the protection of the shields.

It’s the power of the sun that is the most lasting impression the movie leaves. It captivates one astronaut, and drives another crazy. The awesome solar intensity could be interpreted as a metaphor for the power of God. Those who are captivated by it live for Him. Others are driven mad with a desire to have the power for themselves.

But one things is for certain, after watching this movie, I never consider a sunbeam in the same way – nor anything else God has created.

Trailer:



Quotes:

• Our sun is dying. Mankind faces extinction. Seven years ago the Icarus project sent a mission to restart the sun but that mission was lost before it reached the star. Sixteen months ago, I, Robert Capa, and a crew of seven left earth frozen in a solar winter. Our payload a stellar bomb with a mass equivalent to Manhattan Island. Our purpose to create a star within a star. Eight astronauts strapped to the back of a bomb. My bomb. Welcome to the Icarus Two.
• It’s like taking a shower in light. You loose yourself in it.
• The point about darkness is you float in it. You and the darkness are distinct from each other because darkness is an absence of something. It’s a vacuum. But total light envelopes you – it becomes you. It’s very strange. I recommend it.
• It was… beautiful.
• Ladies and Gentlemen… Mercury.
• Only dream I ever have... is the surface of the sun... everytime I shut my eyes... it's always the same.
• When a Stellar Bomb is triggered, very little will happen at first -and then a spark, will pop into existance, and it will hang for an instant, hovering in space and then, it will split into two, and those will split again, and again, and again... detonation beyond all imaging - the big bang on a small scale. - a new star born out of a dying one... I think it will be beautiful... No, i'm not scared
• Warning. You are dying. All crew are dying
• So if you wake up one morning and it's a particularly beautiful day, you'll know we made it.

Stills:

28 Days Later

2002

Director: Danny Boyle

Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Key Elements: Concept, Message

My Review:

Boyle introduces us to a new terror: FAST zombies.

The beauty of this film is in its surreal tone. Beautiful musical musings scatter the background in contrast the bleak and bloody imagery. From the moment Jim wakes up in an empty London, we are shown a vision of a post-apocalyptic world.

What really terrifies us about zombie movies is the way they play upon our fear of each other because somewhere in our psyches, we all believe the rest of humanity to be mindlessly hostile.

Ironically, this movie also reminds us of how much we need each other. At first, Selena believes that survival is as good as it gets. But when she sees how Hannah and her father are there for each other she starts to question. In the end, she repeals her claim as she grows to love and be loved by Jim.

Love is more important than just surviving.

Trailer:



Quotes:

• REPENT THE END IS EXTREMELY FUCKING NIGH
• OK, Jim. I've got some bad news…
• All the death. All the shit. It doesn't really mean anything to Frank and Hannah because... Well, she's got a Dad and he's got his daughter. So, I was wrong when I said that staying alive is as good as it gets.
• This is what I've seen in the four weeks since infection. People killing people. Which is much what I saw in the four weeks before infection, and the four weeks before that, and before that, and as far back as I care to remember. People killing people - Which to my mind puts us in a state of normality right now.
• I don't want to eat. I want to bury my dad. He's one of the people you're talking about.

Stills: