Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Prime Minister
Rick Mercer foresaw this day.
Newsmakers
Barack Obama: the musical, Kim Jong Il’s cook, and the unexpected panda pregnancy
Mitchel Raphael on Harper’s hairstylist
And the ‘Slumdog’ star’s opinion of Calgary
Maclean’s Interview: Russell Peters
Comedian Russell Peters talks to Kenneth Whyte about ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and some of the more curious Oscar performances
Save me from Slumdog Millionaire
It’s the sleeper hit of the year with a good chance of winning the best picture Oscar. JAIME J. WEINMAN is not a fan.
The Oscars: Scandalous Omissions
The Academy Awards offers a David-and-Goliath contest for Best Picture
Everyone wants to be a Slumdog Millionaire
Some of you may be wondering why I haven’t weighed in on Slumdog Millionaire yet, which opened commercially this week. Here’s why. It was the very last film I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. I saw the night after closing night, at a free public screening at the Elgin theatre, recognizing the fact that TIFF audiences had voted the film the Cadillac People’s Choice Award. Everyone loves this picture. It’s this year’s Little Movie That Could. And expect to see it fill the Oscar niche previously filled by Juno and Little Miss Sunshine.
Bond’s Bourne-again Identity in ‘A Quantum of Solace’
Too much action. Not enough dialogue.
‘Slumdog’ leads underdog prize-winners
Unlike Cannes, Berlin and Venice, TIFF does not have an official competition, but there’s a passel of sponsored prizes given out, the most significant being those for best Canadian feature and feature debut, and the audience award for most popular feature. You’ll notice I’m leaving out the sponsors’ names. By now we’re all very bored with sponsors’ names, which are repeated liturgically at the start of every public screening. TIFF should try to convince the corporate angels that having the festival saturated with their logos and trailers is ample enough exposure, and that the screenings would gain a touch of class benefiting all concerned, if they were introduced without the long list of corporate names. As in Cannes. But any one at TIFF would probably tell you that this is no time to jeopardize sponsorship, given that the organization that still needs another $50 million to build its new HQ, the Bell Lightbox theatre. Oops, I broke my no sponsor name rule.