A film that could have easily gone under the radar– Danny Boyle’s upcoming Mumbai slums film, “Slumdog Millionaire” – just got a major boost of attention thanks to its rapturous raves at the recent Telluride Film Festival over the weekend.
You can never really tell, what’s going to happen at at film festival. A film that was eagerly anticipated – David Fincher’s “The Curious Cast of Benjamin Button – was met with disappointment and or at least mixed reviews (though only 20 minutes of footage was shown), while Boyle’s new film, which had very little buzz or “cool factor” (Boyle’s fans seemingly want “Trainspotting” from him over and over again), now seems to be the hit of the festival.
RiskyBiz, perhaps overreaching, is already calling the film, “Little Miss Slumdog,” and is suggesting the film could have “Juno,” like possibilities (i.e. small indie film that grossly outdoes low expectations).
“Driven by fantastic energy and a torrent of vivid images of India old and new, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is a blast,” says Variety’s Todd McCarthy. “Slumdog Millionaire is Boyle’s best film to date, which is saying quite a lot; He’s made a joyous, fun, and wonderfully accessible film that should play well in Toronto before moving on to wider release,” Cinematical’s Kim Voynar gushed.
Either way, ‘Slumdog’s fortunes are soaring and all of it is extremely ironic considering Warner Bros. essentially wanted to dump the film and did so willingly to Fox Searchlight who were all too happy to take the film under their aegis.
Personally, we’re extremely happy, as we love all of Boyle’s oeuvre and possible the whole “not-hip” thing is a projection on our part, but great films of his, “Millions” and “Sunshine,” have been seemingly overlooked in recent years and we’re not sure why exactly, but its a total shame. We’ll hopefully see Slumdog at TIFF next week.