Why the hell do I like 'Slumdog Millionaire'?

I dislike it when new movies end with people dancing (I don't mind ironic cases: "Inland Empire" and "Tropic Thunder") because the idea exemplifies cliched filmmaking.

I watch "Slumdog Millionaire" with my mom and friend. The story is over. I am ready to leave my seat and walk down the steps and hope that people don't lumber like stupid cattle. But there's more than credits on the screen. People are dancing, including the two main characters. Everyone in the theater stops. I can't leave.

Later, I have a discussion with another friend about the film. I point out the lame dancing, and he says, "But that's Bollywood."

Fuck it.

(Note: I talked with my Indian co-worker about dancing in Bollywood films. He said people are very entertained by dancing in India, and sometimes audience members even dance in the theater themselves.)

Notwithstanding that I could not easily leave the theater because of an annoying tradition, I liked "Slumdog Millionaire." Director Danny Boyle goes wild with the flashbacks, but I never felt lost. The cinematography is wonderful at times. Anil Kapoor's role as the host of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" deserved an Oscar nomination. And A.R. Rahman's music amazed me.

But the dancing isn't the only thing I found troubling.

While the direction is great for the most part, Boyle sometimes displays tendencies in line with Michael Bay, quickly cutting from shot to shot as if he's in a competition for most shots within one minute.

While the protagonist's brother is essential to the story's development, he is wasted about halfway through when he unbelievably becomes Scarface within a few minutes and sticks a gun in his sibling's face.

While the audience got a big laugh out of a kid covered in human shit, I didn't. (Although the scene is more innocent than what my statement would imply.)

While the music kicked ass, the film often struck me as five or six music videos strung together.

For almost every good thing about "Slumdog Millionaire," I can come up with a counterpoint.

Why the hell do I like it? Manipulation. The film just knows how to make you like it. It lays the foundation with an underdog character, frames the story within an entertaining modern game show, utilizes Freida Pinto's beauty for all its worth ("I just looked her up on wikipedia, and she was born ONLY a month before me!"), and includes colored boxes for subtitles.

Colored boxes for subtitles, that's why I like the film, goddamn it.