The Oscars in February this year heralded in the beginning of the 2009 award show season. The movie picks for this year included the following:
Slumdog Millionaire – winning the Oscar for Best Picture, this story revolves around an 18-year old boy in Mumbai, India competing in the game show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’. All the questions he has to answer offer a look back at his life. The show’s host insists the boy is cheating and forces him to admit to it. His reasoning – that a boy from an impoverished background could not possibly possess the knowledge to win the show’s top prize.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – starring Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin, the movie is set at the close of World War I, where Benjamin Button’s life begins. He is born with the body of an old man, and as the years pass, he finds himself growing younger as he grows older in wisdom and experience.
Frost/Nixon – Following the life of Richard Nixon, the movie begins with his 1974 resignation, he withdraws from public life. Talk show host, David Frost persuades him to participate in a series of television interviews with the offer of a sizeable payment. This offers Frost the chance to establish himself as serious journalist, while Nixon wants to re-establish himself in the political arena.
Milk – set in the 1970s, as the Gay Pride movement gathers momentum, Harvey Milk becomes its first champion and public face to make him the country’s first openly gay man to be elected to public office.
The Reader – revolves around an affair with 15-year old Michael Berge and Hanna, in her mid-thirties. Her past contains a dark secret, the revelation of which shocks Michael and forces him to confront his country’s history.