Memento Amoris

Remember you must love. Perhaps not the predominant emotion in a remote island in the quarantined British Isles, but Spike (Alfie Williams) shows affection, and how. While the first half is about Spike and his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor Johnson) sussing out the mainland in a coming of age for the former, the second half is a far more emotional story of Spike getting is mother Isla (Jodie Comer) her deliverance. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland dont miss a beat in 28 Years Later. Spectacular work by Alfie. Unmissable for the apocalypse fans, with character arcs instead of pitched battles with violent hordes

16.5/20

Thanks for All the Fuss

Slumdog Millionaire, for all the great cinematography, does not really capture the essence of Mumbai. Plenty of Indian movies capture the true stigma of poverty, or the true horror of the underworld, far better. Let us for a moment give Danny Boyle the artistic license, and run through the vignettes here. The depiction of poverty is a sham. The rioting is unconvincing. The beggary racket is trite and equally unconvincing. The fact that each answer coincidentially relates to each (painful) vignette in the life of the protagonist is a cruel joke? Is this even a movie worth making a fuss about? There is great cinematography, but in the end I feel sorry for the legions of Indian directors, unwept unhonoured and unsung, whose far better portrayals of Mumbai go unnoticed simply because they lack the "brand" of a Danny Boyle. If this movie is worth four Golden Globes, some of our movies of 2008 are worth at least as many Oscars

PS: The BBC's Soutik Biswas seems to echo my thoughts - saw this link on 25th Jan 2009: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7843960.stm

Rated 10.5/20