by Luanne Paul King

Slumdog Millionaire

Young Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is a contestant in the Indian version of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. As an orphan in Mumbai, Jamal had sparse schooling — yet he has correctly answered all the questions host Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor) has asked. Now only the final question remains and Jamal says he’ll answer it. He stands to either win a record-breaking sum of Indian rupees or lose all he has won. The show’s host thinks Jamal is cheating and orders his guards to electro-shock him into revealing his tricks.

At that point, the drama branches into vivid flashbacks. These scenes are enhanced by composer A.R. Rahman’s transformative music. We learn that the game show questions relate to Jamal’s life experiences, and that is why he can answer them. In more flashbacks, child actors portray the younger Jamal and his brother Salim, as well as best friend Latika, in the slums of Mumbai. There they dodge rioters and run from a gangster Maman (Ankur Vikal) who wants to blind them so they can make money for him as beggars. To escape, the trio runs to board a train. Latika doesn’t run fast enough, so only the boys succeed in riding the train atop a rail car roof. They’re kicked off at the Taj Mahal, where Jamal and Salim pretend to be tour guides, dismaying tourists with hilarious misinformation. Later, the brothers split up. Missing the trio, Jamal tries to find Salim and Latika, the love of his life. How can he find them among the Mumbai millions? Director Danny Boyle has superb cast of believable actors.

English and Hindi. Rated R. 120 minutes.

Milk

“You’ve got to give them hope,” said gay activist Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) when he came to San Francisco in the 70s. He certainly did that — in abundance.

In the 1970s, a period before the scourge of AIDS, many gays from all walks of life listened to him. They felt empowered by sharing their private  feelings publicly and marching for civil rights. Director Gus van Sant ’s historic biopic of Harvey Milk recreates the start of the gay liberation movement in San Francisco. Sean Penn effectively uses the same voice, intense gestures and determined walk of Harvey Milk. The very street where Milk started his Castro Camera shop was re-created as it was then for the film. We see the hard-won battles to defeat Proposition 6, which would have banned gay men and lesbians from teaching in schools. Other hard-won legislative victories are celebrated in the film, but the price was huge. In 1978 Supervisor Dan White murdered Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone.

When this film opened last fall, celebrations were called off because California’s Proposition 8 had sailed through with unexpected support; gay and lesbian marriage was voted down in the same year that 18,000 gay and lesbian couples had already married. Van Sant included original documentary footage from the 50s and 60s that shows the actions of police “vice squads” against gays. People’s memories of that time need refreshing; that’s one reason this film is very important.

Rated R. 128 minutes.