After watching the Golden Globes tonight I have an eerily similar feeling as I did in early 2006 when I watched Crash gaining undeserved steam as it rocketed toward an eventual Best Picture win at the Academy Awards. This year, I am beginning to resent multiple-Golden Globe winner Slumdog Millionaire in much the same way.
Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie a lot, I just feel like its getting all the notice because its so different than the normal Hollywood award fare. Slumdog is definitely worthy of a top 10 listing this year, the same as I felt for Crash in 2006, but I truly don't believe it is the best picture of the year. Certain elements of Slumdog definitely deserve recognition, including editing, direction, and score, but I don't think they should be a lock in any of those categories either. I haven't even made my way through half of the nominees for this year's Golden Globes, and I have already seen 3 other great films in the last week alone (Milk, Brideshead Revisited, and The Wrestler), each of which I would rank above Slumdog.
I just hope all this momentum doesn't translate into Slumdog winning the Academy Award for Best Picture because of its popularity with all the other voters. But then again, I often think the Academy gets it wrong, with a noted exception for Departed in 2007.