THING #1 Movies.
Movies have always been one of the way that I escape my own reality and allow myself to feel things that I don't get to experience or believe will ever happen to me in the life that I have lived so far. One day I will tell you about the things I don't get to feel when I am not watching movies/tv/reading books nor writing them. But today I will tell you about this movie that I trashed on principle in my typical anti-academy fashion then watched the trailer and decided that maybe I am an arrogant ass prone to snap judgments about things I should see for myself.
First let me describe how I rank movies.
1. Does it make me laugh?
2. Does it make me cry?
3. Do I get lost in the action of the movie- am I transported into its reality?
4. Like the Greeks, does it make me feel better about life in general?
5. Would I see it again or will I find other movies like it or with some of the actors in them?
and finally my own Academy award requirement- 2 levels here
6. Will I copy/rip it to my media server?
7. Or is it worthy of being bought on Blu-Ray/DVD and added to my shelf of movies?
I know that you might ask about special effects/coolness/excitement/sex/nudity things that drive many men to the movies. I own and have movies that make this qualification easily but many of them aren't particularly good or great or memorable movies. Yes I like them but I don't love them.
Blu-ray purchases for me represent a significant investment in a film and while I am guilty of buying some Blu-Rays that don't make the list they were more impulse buys and probably will end up being ripped to disc and resold. G.I.Joe is an example of this- I was like WOW that was cool but now I am like Nah, probably not going to commit to watching this by itself again, it's more of a cool movie that falls into a set of action movies than something I will hold out as a great and thus collectible film.
One more thing. Like with my other favorite things, They all get ranked on how they make me feel, not on critical acclaim or how many award and standing ovations they get at the laurel crown logo film festivals they show in the trailers. I appreciate films like that like I appreciate art and music and books but you won't find them on my shelf at home. As far as I am concerned most of the Critics out there are ranking films with little filters that their literary professors decided all good culture should be judged on.
Now lets discuss The Artist.
I first heard about The Artist after the Academy award had been on. Lately I have pretty much despised many of the Academy choices for best picture and other awards since most of my favorite films often don't get noticed or even win any award other than Best EFX or Soundtrack or occasionally cinematography. So I rejected The Artist on principle, then on Facebook I heard via second hand knowledge that my Brother- the "Film-Snob" had made negative comments about the movie so I figured that my Brother- the Film-Snob couldn't be wrong or (gasp) misquoted! Then another friend posted a College Humor short on how the public view the Academy selection process and it was funny. That pretty much cinched it.
I also had never heard anything about the picture before it surfaced. I watch almost every trailer that makes it to the net, there are admittedly several that slip by the trailer sites (Quicktime and Crave/Coming Soon are my major sources). So I made a snap judgement based on no direct information or exposure. The reason I talk about all this is because my movie selection process is in part motivated by this, a general disgust for TV commercial interruptions and the ever rising price of movie tickets never mind the distance it takes to drive to a decent movie theater, dealing with talkers, texters, cell phone jerks and poor sound systems, underlighting, overlighting, commercials at the movies, and uncomfortable seating. AND I no longer eat the concessions at movies (but that is another matter altogether).
So what changed my mind?
I come up from Tennessee to West Virginia around Ashburn/Harpers Ferry to visit my dad and he asks me if I would like to go see a movie and I say sure and I check Fandango and the local offering sucks. And then there it is a single showing of The Artist in a small theater in a nearby town. On impulse I watch the trailer and change my mind. I am a proud and arrogant guy, but I am also honest and can admit when I have been hasty and wrong. So I decide we will go see this rejected movie and I can say honestly I did not regret it from the beginning to the very end.
The Artist is a remarkably fresh movie, its not unique unless you consider that it is one of a kind when considering everything it includes and excludes. It is almost a silent movie, There is about 3-6% of it that has direct sound but the rest is in the silent movie genre/age. It is a modern movie about a bygone era of film-making that in many ways made actors work that much harder to convince people of the roles they portrayed. People can sneer at silent pictures but I would go so far as to say that those people have never played charades. If you have ever played charades, then one can quickly pick those silent movies that were indeed great from the ones that employed conventions to convey action/dialogue and detracted from the artform. This movie goes to lengths to convey the main character as not only a successful movie star but one that was truly a master of his field.
The art of The Artist is discovered in fine (silent) performances by actors who are both well known here and abroad, several of the actors only appear briefly while others go on to prove that they have come a long way from the B-movie beginnings. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is
John Goodman who gives an outstanding and convincing performance as a Hollywoodland producer. There acting is not a stretch for him but the lack of dialogue pushes Goodman to go beyond words and into the conveyance of feelings.
One of the biggest surprises of the movie is that of
Malcolm McDowell who only appears briefly but what you see of him drove home one of the ideas of the movie that the art of silence is infact truly an art. James Cromwell 
is another well known actor who has had a variety of roles but here I found he shines more than most of the others I remember seeing him in. What I mean by that, is now that I recognize him, I will be looking up his filmography and backtrack his other movies and see them. For me this is one of the major requirements I have in selecting movies.
Which brings me to the two main characters: Peppy and George, who I must say are naturals to this movie. The dynamic is amazing and I feel transported by their performances into the world they portray. I want to dance like they dance in the movie. I want to feel the emotions they are feeling. In fact I do feel the emotions portrayed. I want to hit Netflix and fill my Queue with other Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo movies
Movies have always been one of the way that I escape my own reality and allow myself to feel things that I don't get to experience or believe will ever happen to me in the life that I have lived so far. One day I will tell you about the things I don't get to feel when I am not watching movies/tv/reading books nor writing them. But today I will tell you about this movie that I trashed on principle in my typical anti-academy fashion then watched the trailer and decided that maybe I am an arrogant ass prone to snap judgments about things I should see for myself.
First let me describe how I rank movies.
1. Does it make me laugh?
2. Does it make me cry?
3. Do I get lost in the action of the movie- am I transported into its reality?
4. Like the Greeks, does it make me feel better about life in general?
5. Would I see it again or will I find other movies like it or with some of the actors in them?
and finally my own Academy award requirement- 2 levels here
6. Will I copy/rip it to my media server?
7. Or is it worthy of being bought on Blu-Ray/DVD and added to my shelf of movies?
I know that you might ask about special effects/coolness/excitement/sex/nudity things that drive many men to the movies. I own and have movies that make this qualification easily but many of them aren't particularly good or great or memorable movies. Yes I like them but I don't love them.
Blu-ray purchases for me represent a significant investment in a film and while I am guilty of buying some Blu-Rays that don't make the list they were more impulse buys and probably will end up being ripped to disc and resold. G.I.Joe is an example of this- I was like WOW that was cool but now I am like Nah, probably not going to commit to watching this by itself again, it's more of a cool movie that falls into a set of action movies than something I will hold out as a great and thus collectible film.
One more thing. Like with my other favorite things, They all get ranked on how they make me feel, not on critical acclaim or how many award and standing ovations they get at the laurel crown logo film festivals they show in the trailers. I appreciate films like that like I appreciate art and music and books but you won't find them on my shelf at home. As far as I am concerned most of the Critics out there are ranking films with little filters that their literary professors decided all good culture should be judged on.
Now lets discuss The Artist.
I first heard about The Artist after the Academy award had been on. Lately I have pretty much despised many of the Academy choices for best picture and other awards since most of my favorite films often don't get noticed or even win any award other than Best EFX or Soundtrack or occasionally cinematography. So I rejected The Artist on principle, then on Facebook I heard via second hand knowledge that my Brother- the "Film-Snob" had made negative comments about the movie so I figured that my Brother- the Film-Snob couldn't be wrong or (gasp) misquoted! Then another friend posted a College Humor short on how the public view the Academy selection process and it was funny. That pretty much cinched it.
I also had never heard anything about the picture before it surfaced. I watch almost every trailer that makes it to the net, there are admittedly several that slip by the trailer sites (Quicktime and Crave/Coming Soon are my major sources). So I made a snap judgement based on no direct information or exposure. The reason I talk about all this is because my movie selection process is in part motivated by this, a general disgust for TV commercial interruptions and the ever rising price of movie tickets never mind the distance it takes to drive to a decent movie theater, dealing with talkers, texters, cell phone jerks and poor sound systems, underlighting, overlighting, commercials at the movies, and uncomfortable seating. AND I no longer eat the concessions at movies (but that is another matter altogether).
So what changed my mind?
I come up from Tennessee to West Virginia around Ashburn/Harpers Ferry to visit my dad and he asks me if I would like to go see a movie and I say sure and I check Fandango and the local offering sucks. And then there it is a single showing of The Artist in a small theater in a nearby town. On impulse I watch the trailer and change my mind. I am a proud and arrogant guy, but I am also honest and can admit when I have been hasty and wrong. So I decide we will go see this rejected movie and I can say honestly I did not regret it from the beginning to the very end.
The Artist is a remarkably fresh movie, its not unique unless you consider that it is one of a kind when considering everything it includes and excludes. It is almost a silent movie, There is about 3-6% of it that has direct sound but the rest is in the silent movie genre/age. It is a modern movie about a bygone era of film-making that in many ways made actors work that much harder to convince people of the roles they portrayed. People can sneer at silent pictures but I would go so far as to say that those people have never played charades. If you have ever played charades, then one can quickly pick those silent movies that were indeed great from the ones that employed conventions to convey action/dialogue and detracted from the artform. This movie goes to lengths to convey the main character as not only a successful movie star but one that was truly a master of his field.
The art of The Artist is discovered in fine (silent) performances by actors who are both well known here and abroad, several of the actors only appear briefly while others go on to prove that they have come a long way from the B-movie beginnings. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is
John Goodman who gives an outstanding and convincing performance as a Hollywoodland producer. There acting is not a stretch for him but the lack of dialogue pushes Goodman to go beyond words and into the conveyance of feelings. is another well known actor who has had a variety of roles but here I found he shines more than most of the others I remember seeing him in. What I mean by that, is now that I recognize him, I will be looking up his filmography and backtrack his other movies and see them. For me this is one of the major requirements I have in selecting movies.Which brings me to the two main characters: Peppy and George, who I must say are naturals to this movie. The dynamic is amazing and I feel transported by their performances into the world they portray. I want to dance like they dance in the movie. I want to feel the emotions they are feeling. In fact I do feel the emotions portrayed. I want to hit Netflix and fill my Queue with other Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo movies
So there you have it, The Artist is a fantastic movie that not only captures a moment in history but the feelings and emotions of the people all without saying almost a single word. Did it make me laugh? of course it did. George and his Dog are very effective comic relief as are various other characters. Did it make me cry? Yes and I was surprised because getting me to cry means that the movie carried me away into its reality. Did I feel Catharsis? Yes, the movie made me feel good and rejuvenated so i think my Greek Ancestors would give the thumbs up on this one. Will I own it? Probably in one form or another. Not sure about Blu-Ray yet, probably have to see it again back down in K-ville. So that's it folks, occassionally i can love what Hollywood says they loved this year.
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