Slumdog Millionaire: Best Film of the Year


Slumdog Millionaire has no stars you've heard of. Storywise, it isn't that different from a million other underdog movies, but director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) makes it ring in your eyes and dazzle your ears. It's more an experience than a film.


For the rest of the movie, Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) toggle between these two situations and what lies behind them: Jamal's dire life. In a toilet scene that’s a riposte to the famous one in Trainspotting, Jamal literally dives into the sewage in order to gain the autograph of an Indian film star. It isn't an experience anyone would ever forget -- which is handy, because the film star's name happens to be the answer to one of the questions he will later be asked on the game show.
