Boy, was I disappointed.

I was looking forward to this film, of course fuelled by the hype surrounding it, the Oscar nominations it got and the prizes it had already won. For me it was merely a gimmicky, thinly stretched exercise in style.

Now don't get me wrong, I really appreciate what they were trying to do here. Anyone who wants to make an ode to cinema has got my vote and I applaud them for that. I just feel by wrapping it all in a flimsy, incredibly shallow plot they caused me to lose interest.

Dujardin's performance has been praised a lot, but I found him to be very one-dimensional. Sure he has got incredible charm and an unmistakable…

Winner of 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture, The Artist is an awe-inspiring ode to the silent era of cinema and is filmed with such fine elegance & precision artistry that it was too difficult for me to wipe the grin off my face while watching it. An enthralling work of indelible charm, every frame of this silent feature pays its tribute in the most respectful manner possible but also succeeds in carving out its very own identity in the process.

Set in Hollywood during the years when talkies were being introduced into cinema, The Artist focuses on the relationship between a major silent film star & an aspiring young actress who bump into each other during the premiere of the former's…

I was grinning like an idiot the entire time I was watching this film. Hard to pinpoint what exactly makes it so effortlessly endearing – I mean, there are many things – the slapstick is great, the music's lovely, the dog is adorable, the whole movie is just an energetic whirlwind of visual witticisms and delightful touches. But I think the real goodness comes from how confidently it flirts with the boundary between authenticity and kitsch... every scene is so well-rendered in the language of camp and irony that it makes the moments of cold, stark drama all the more horrific and powerful.

There is so much meta-commentary here on the magic of film – the way we surrender ourselves…

✅76%
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Is The Artist Best Picture worthy? Not necessarily (for me), but it was a weak year for nominees. The best films were ones that would have never been nominated for Best Picture (for the most part). Is this a bad movie? No it isn’t. It isn’t necessarily a film that had me intrigued within the first 20 minutes, but it slowly sucked me into its world. It’s the last of the Best Picture Winners I needed to see before making my video, and I’m glad I was able to see it. It’s extremely well-made and directed. It isn’t the kind of film that speaks to me, but it all comes down to what you’re looking…

Trapped in a world and mindset of silent cinema.

"I'm unhappy ... So are millions of us."

I came into this excited to finally see the Best Picture winner that paid homage to the silent era, but it was not long before I got turned off by how gimmicky it was. Honestly, I would have much rather watched an actual great silent movie then this modern film pretending to be one.

The story of a silent film actor struggling to come to terms with the rise of the talkies has been done before in great movies like 'Sunset Boulevard' and 'Singin' in the Rain' ... and both of those sadly did not win best picture. There is also plenty of…

Movies I’ve owned (but haven’t actually seen) for so long it’s embarrassing: #8

I don’t really keep up with awards. What do I think of “the nominees”? Wait a decade or so; I prefer to let the dust settle. Time and interest determine relevance for a lot of what I watch, not transient cause célèbre. For that, I came late to THE ARTIST.

John Goodman, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle and some guy that looks like Ralph Fiennes & Justin Theroux spliced genes: all good. Berenice Bejo; how you doin’? The plot is pretty straightforward; it’s not libellous to say the story is in service to the style. I’m partial to what it’s doing, so I enjoyed it. I’ve seen gimmicks…