January 20, 2011 (Day 2) [part 1]

We started off our day with a nice bowl of oatmean and spinach eggs (not together) and we headed off into the wide blue yonder of Downtown Salt Lake City!

We bought tickets to see The Raid at 9:45 and realized we had time to spare so we decided to go see The Artist (which is getting a lot of awards buzz) at 2:20!

The Artist

Directed and written by Michel Hazanavicius

Stars Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman, and Missi Pyle

The Artist is a surprising little film. Advantageous is a bit of an understatement. It's a silent film, completely in black and white, that stars two relatively unknown actors. While I don't think this film would have worked quite as well with two A-listers, it all begs the question: How do you make this film a success? As always The Weinsteins have found a way.

In a year of bland film-making and movies going for the quickest buck it is quite refreshing to see a film like this being publicly marketed and gaining awards attention. Let me make one thing clear, The Artist is far from the best film I've seen this year, however, it is the best crowd pleasing, purely for entertainment film I've seen. It has a questionably long second act but once our lead character has finally reached his moment of true anguish (which features one of the best, and well developed sight gags of the year) the film finds its way back. There is no real subtext here. The moral of the story is never give up on your dream, don't let anything hold you down, film preservation is a necessity, and so on and so forth. It's not the actual meaning of the film that's being praised it's the way it is being presented.

It is a fun movie and highly accessible, if you get the chance to see it on the big screen then I highly recommend doing so. It is going to win best picture and I'm ok with this. While I wish it was going to the more human and realistic The Descendants or the gritty and menacing Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I am fine with a crowd pleaser winning the award (they almost always do).

I can give this film a solid 7/10. Not a great film but a good film with some great performances and wonderful direction from relative newcomer Hazanavicius.

(Review for the Raid will be posted later today)