There’s an art to making a crowd-pleasing film that refuses to pander to audiences in the cheap, manipulative way, a lot of “feel-good” films tend to. Let’s face it, feel-good, is now mostly a pejorative, but as done by Danny Boyle in “Slumdog Millionaire,” this light tone becomes triumphant, joyous and wonderfully celebratory.
The film premiered in the U.S. at Telluride in late August to thunderous critical praise and then again in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People’s Choice Aware, and we had a chance to see it and were marveled by its sublime wondrousness and thrillingly electrical pace. The film seems poised to become a indie-hit ala, “Juno” or “Little Miss Sunshine,” and could garner Oscar support if its Hindu-centric story doesn’t alienate American Academy Voters.
However, it’s fortunes didn’t always seem this promising. The film was a Warner Independent Picture and when the studio was shut down in May, the movie’s status went into limbo, as WB proper figured out what to do with their surplus of films. Back in August when Warner Bros. was attempting to sell-off some of these lesser-desired indie films like, “Pride & Glory,” “Rock N’Rolla” and Boyle’s ‘Slumdog,’ things were looking a little bleak
Ironically, only ‘Slumdog’ sold, to Fox Searchlight who co-distributed the film with Warners and essentially came to its rescue (no one ponied up for ‘Pride’ or ‘Rolla’ and WB released them themselves). But evidently Fox Searchlight’s “rescuing” of the film was more of a reality than any of us knew according to an L.A. Times profile on Danny Boyle published this week,
“Just as filming wrapped, U.S. distributor Warner Independent Pictures was shut down by Warner Bros., and the parent studio briefly considered releasing “Slumdog Millionaire” straight to video before Fox Searchlight came to the film’s rescue.”
Damn, the film that many are considering the film of the year, almost went straight to DVD, could you image? What fates and ironic considering the film is all about fate and destiny to begin with. Maybe it was kismet. With a difficult birth like that, could more magic help it along with Oscar?
“Slumdog Millionaire” begins rolling out in limited release tomorrow (Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Toronto). /Film have a good post about it’s expansion plans and when you’ll be able to see it in a theater near you if you don’t live in one of the aforementioned six cities. It’s one our favorite films of the year thus far and many other critics and movie bloggers are saying the same. It’s a film we whole-heartedly endorse and we encourage you to see.