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Finally got around to seeing Slumdog Millionaire. It was filmed in Mumbai, perhaps fitting as an antidote to the recent tragic events in that city. I have to say it’s an impressive film (and not just because it’s the first time I’ve been out to the theaters in what feels like ages). Much more powerful and engaging than I expected. It’s by the director of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, and Danny Boyle put his unique visual (and visceral) stamp on this one as well. The ending maybe goes a bit fairytale, but I thought the ending of 28 Days Later fell off the rails too…

An on-the-money review is here.

I close my eyes
Every night
And I dream that I can hold you
They fill us full of lies
Everyone buys
About what it means to be a soldier
I still don’t know how I’m supposed to feel
About all the blood that’s been spilled
Look out on the street
Get me back home
On the day after tomorrow

from Day After Tomorrow, by Tom Waits

Artists have struggled to make meaningful statements about the Iraq War. Certainly compared to the Vietnam era, artists have been surprisingly quiet, even after early problems with speaking out (ask the Dixie Chicks) subsided. Movies about Iraq have pretty much bombed, no pun intended. Tom Waits got it right by stripping things down to a soldier’s poignant and ambivalent letter home. Great song.