Hugo

Winter in Paris in the 1930's. An orphan boy lives in the walls of a train station and keeps the clocks working and fixes the machines. He sees something that needs fixing and that is all he can think to do: fix it. Holding his own philosophy ("The world is one big machine and machines never come with extra parts, so he had to be on Earth for a reason"), he tries to figure out his purpose in the world.

An incredible spectacle utilizing 3D technology to its fullest, Hugo takes the story of a young orphan and creates a magical mystery. This was hands down the best 3D usage ever seen. Much better than 2009's Avatar. For Martin Scorsese's ("Shutter Island") first foray into 3D he tells a story in a way only he can: providing the right amount of thrills, twists, and heart making a movie worthy of the 11 Academy Award nominations it received.

The little things make the 3D effective. One big thing was having people or other pieces of scenery passing in front of the camera, which increases depth perception and makes it feel more real. Using other techniques the camera follows young Hugo (Asa Butterfield, "Nanny McPhee Returns") into the walls of the train station, but the 3D immerses us into the story. We follow him through tunnels and crowds of people and end up feeling almost claustrophobic, but it works beautifully!

The story was just magnificent. Slowly introducing the characters one at a time instead of bombarding the viewer with every main character at once, the story ropes you in and doesn't let go. Wonderfully adapted for the screen the plot has some, but very few parts that just don't fit. Hugo could have simply said a few words in two different scenes and he would have gotten much different, faster results.

Scorsese has a way of pulling out outstanding performances from nearly every actor/actress he directs and this movie is no exception. Asa Butterfield, probably most well-known for his role in "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," give a decent performance in the title role. For a 14-year-old it was good and he will only get better from here. Chloë Grace Moretz ("Let Me In") as Isabella gave a quality performance, at times she was a bit bland and expressionless, but overall it was good. Ben Kingsley ("Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time") was perfect as George Méliès, the mysterious toy shop owner.

Hugo became a movie for any dreamer or anyone who thinks they are here for a bigger purpose, Hugo teaches to never give up on your dreams. A very rewarding journey if you are willing to take it. Succumb to the story and let it take you on a ride you won't soon forget.

9/10

The Help

After writing my Oscar Nominations post, I realized that I hadn't reviewed The Help yet. So here it is. This is the endearing story of a college educated white aspiring writer who decides to write a book from the perspective of the help. She sees what they go through and wants to understand their feelings.

A surprisingly compelling and entertaining (at parts) movie that was both heartwarming and heartbreaking The Help is a wonderful tale from a terrible time in America's history. The story was great! The writing made me really hate Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) and obviously was supposed to make us side with the help and Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone). The characters were vivid and well imagined from the book I'm sure was great. Luckily I watched this with my mother who had just finished the book before we watched it. She said some of the characters were exactly how she imagined them and one or two were nothing like she pictured. But that's what happens in adaptation from book to movie.

The acting from every person is outstanding! Emma Stone brings a quirky lovability to her character. Being a college student I could see how going to school would change her character's opinion on how the help is treated. Aibileen Clark, played beautifully by Viola Davis really brings a large chunk of the heart of this movie to the screen. She brings the pain and strength felt by many of the help of the time and makes it look easy. But the standout performance from this movie has to go to Octavia Spencer for her role as Minny Jackson. She easily has the win for supporting actress in the bag without question. Just a perfect role for her to play and she blew it out of the water. Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote was also great. An outcast from the bridge-playing club the other women were a part of she shows us the torment and torture her character feels and made a great mark on the movie!

Not only was it a great story and full of great acting, but I learned some things too! I learned that the help were responsible for raising the white-folks' children while their children were at home being taken care of by another child or another family member (if they were lucky). The white children spent so much time with the help that they thought of them as their mothers. Went to them with problems, questions, and help on various things. This was best evidenced in the relationship between Aibileen and Mae Mobley Leefolt.

"You is kind. You is smart. You is important."

8/10

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

A story about loss in the tragedy of September 11th 2001. How many times have we seen something like this? This time it's a young boy who lost his father in the twin towers. I thought it would be much much better than it was. The book it's based on, I'm hoping, is much better. Parts of the movie were good, but they were few and far between.

The story is about a nine-year-old boy who goes on an adventure to find what the key his father left him is for. And it's a good story. Had it not been overshadowed by 9/11 I think it would have made an even better story, but the story was drowned out by the persistent referrals to "the worst day."

The main character was the biggest problem with this story. He is petrified of nearly everything, yet when he's wandering around a huge city like New York he seems totally fine. Maybe that's because he has his tambourine with him. Incessant noise while he is roaming the city. He is afraid of being in places he could get stuck, yet he locks himself in the bathroom at one point. The character had too many problems for me to like him. Then the actor who portrayed Oskar Schell, Thomas Horn, was far too articulate. No nine-year-old living in New York talks that properly. Every single syllable was enunciated far beyond what it should have been.

Tom Hanks didn't really bring much to the movie. He wasn't in it very much except for some flashbacks. When he was, he and Sandra Bullock brought some emotion to the screen. Sandra Bullock's performance was a good followup to The Blind Side, but nowhere near as good as that was. I was expecting award worth performances from everyone (with the hype the movie was getting) and I got less than average acting on the whole. Thomas Horn not only articulated too much, but some of his mannerisms were just too out there for me to want to follow him. Maybe that's just the character again, or maybe it's because this was his first movie.

I went into the movie openminded and ready for anything. Unfortunately, due to the over articulation of the main character and a strange overall plot with no surprises I lost interest a little before the halfway mark. Another thing that always bothers me with certain movies around this time is the obvious plea for nominations. "Let's take this award winning actress and this award winning actor together with this 'no-name' kid, put them in a life-changing situation, and add some tears. We've got some nominations and wins in the bag!" Ridiculous. That's not to say that everything was not up to par for this movie.

Overall, this was exquisitely put together. Beautiful shots following young Oskar through New York made the movie interesting and were the only things holding my interest. I truly think that had the movie not revolved around 9/11 I would have enjoyed it much more. Instead I found myself thinking about that day and where I was and what I did when I should have been paying attention to the movie.

6/10

The Descendants

This was a pleasant surprise. I had heard good things about it, but nothing came close to doing this movie justice. I heard it was Clooney's best performance of his career, but I don't think it was. He was way better in The Ides of March in my opinion.

Following a man whose wife is in the hospital from a boating accident who reconnects with his daughters, The Descendants could have been more hard hitting and brought more to the table, but as movies go it was decent.

The plot is very straightforward and doesn't really surprise much. This is due to a large part of the "surprises" being shown in various previews and trailers. I thought this was going to revolve a lot more around a man reconnecting with his daughters, but instead I found myself focusing on Sid a lot more than either of the daughters or Clooney. I also expected this to be a much heavier film, but found it to be very funny without losing any of the meaning.

Just because the plot didn't keep me invested in the daughters or Clooney doesn't mean that the acting was great. Shailene Woodley was endearing and incredible as one of Matt King's (George Clooney) daughters. A spot-on performance from her, which would have stolen the show had Sid (Nick Krause) not been as prominent as he was. She gave the best performance of the movie outshining Clooney. His performance as a father with two estranged daughters was good, but not good enough. Again, he is much much better in Ides of March.

Overall, it was a good movie, not great, but was much more entertaining than I thought it ever would be.

6.5/10

War Horse

A roller coaster of emotion, War Horse captivates and entertains the way Steven Spielberg knows how. Following a young man and his horse, we are brought through the last war where horses played a real role in battle.

The start of the movie is drawn out, but this was to build the characters and their relationships. The characters are nothing we haven't seen before, an alcoholic father who hides his emotions, a hardworking mother, an evil landlord, and our young hero: Albert played by Jeremy Irvine. Albert's father buys a horse and Alberts works at raising him, naming him Joey.

Irvine really brings his character to life. Incredible in his movie debut, he makes us love his horse the way he does. He truly takes us on the journey of ups and downs. He does have some inconsistencies, but not enough to really take away from his performance as a whole. Emily Watson, as his mother, is spectacular as always. Even with her minimal lines and screen time she brings power to the family. I can't talk about the acting without mentioning Niels Arestrup who played Emile's grandfather. He played his role with such sentiment it was impossible to not like him.

While the human actors do a great job propelling the story, the war horse Joey steals the show, as he should. Spielberg gives him personality and makes him seem like a human being. He becomes attached to others, holds strong bonds, and fights for what he wants.

Steven Spielberg does a wonderful job with this movie as he does with nearly every movie he touches. This is in his specialty area in my opinion: war movie. He takes a plot, that honestly didn't really appeal to me, and makes it into a great war movie. He makes the war scenes feel real and puts us right in the action. Using a few techniques he perfected in Saving Private Ryan's opening scenes, the camera shakes as bombs drop and shots are fired and makes us feel like a part of the action.

The infamous pair of Spielberg and Williams strikes again. In all the movies I've seen that John Williams has scored, I have loved all the music and this score is no different. Almost forcing the audience to feel a specific way at different parts of the movie, this score does what it is supposed to.

Overall, War Horse was a good movie deserving of nominations, but no wins. The original score category will be a tough one this year with Howard Shore, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, and John Williams most likely in there. Not to mention the incredible score in Drive, my personal favorite of the year. War Horse is definitely worth checking out if you like Spielberg, Williams, or war movies.

7/10

The Artist

A pitch perfect Hollywoodland love letter, The Artist takes modern day movies and takes them back about 80 years tossing us into the world of silent film. Following a slightly similar plot as Singin' In The Rain we follow George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) through the evolution of film from silent to "talkies."

George Valentin is a silent movie star in no small sense of the word. People would flock to the theater to watch him on the screen. Enter Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), a young dancer, poised for a big break. As the movies start to shift to all sound pictures George worries that he will become obsolete.

The acting, expectedly, is incredible! The only way a silent film could be pulled off was if the acting was stellar and in this case it most certainly was. We can actually identify more with the characters in this movie than in traditional comedies because we don't hear them. They have to be much more expressive than just use their voice to act. Jean Dujardin brings life to George in a way only silent movie stars were capable of. And Bérénice Bejo's Peppy is the perfect counterpart to Dujardin. We can feel the chemistry between them ebb and flow as the movie moves along.

Even John Goodman and James Cromwell, as Al Zimmer and the driver/butler Clifton respectively, were great. Giving their characters personality. The people in the movie were great, but an honorable mention has to go to the dog (named Uggie offscreen). This dog brought a lot of humor and heart to the movie. This dog deserves something other than just treats on set!

While I do think the acting was fantastic I see it as almost a cheap ploy to get the actors award nominations and probably wins. Comparing the acting from a silent film to a sound film is like apples to oranges in my mind. One needs much more expression than the other and one often uses the actor's voice to get the point across. On one hand the actors in the sound films who are nominated alongside Jean Dujardin should be very proud that their performances are being equated to his, but on the other hand I don't think anyone comes close to the acting chops he brought to this movie. Look for him to pick up awards left and right this awards season.

The screenplay was entertaining, paced perfectly, and just a joy to follow. Even with the limited similarities to Singin' in the Rain, which was really only the idea of a silent film star making a transition to films with sound. The directing was outstanding as well! Though this could be due to the director being married to Bejo and having worked with Dujardin many times before.

Overall this and Drive so far are my favorite films of this award season and both deserving of every nomination and win they receive. No doubt they will both see great success in the coming weeks.

9.5/10

Midnight In Paris

Woody Allen is back and better than ever! His most recent romantic comedy Vicky Christina Barcelona was funny, but seemed to me to be much more of a chick flick than I think he was going for. Midnight in Paris however was so much more than that! It was very much in the vein of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless MInd, with a bit of time travel and lot of heart.

As with every Woody Allen movie we get a very interesting cast of characters. We start of following Gil (Owen Wilson) and Inez (Rachel McAdams) an engaged couple on a trip to Paris with her parents. We soon learn that Gil is truly in love with the city of Paris and Inez is not in the slightest, but rather is in love (like her mother) with money and expensive things.

The comedy takes a little while to get used to with the time jumps, but is much more explicit than ESotSM. The time jumps aren't the only source of humor though; enter Paul, the "pedantic pseudo-intellectual." He will get under the skin of anyone who doesn't like a know-it-all, mainly because he seemingly knows it all about everything French...Or so he thinks.

The acting, as in nearly every Woody Allen movie is outstanding! I found myself actually believing that Owen Wilson was in love with Paris, not just his character. An incredibly genuine performance deserving of his recent Golden Globe nomination and any other nominations and awards he will receive. Rachel McAdams was great at making you hate Inez and just want to slap her. She only wanted things her way, had no imagination, and was blind to the beauty of Paris through Gil's eyes.

The screenplay, written by Woody Allen of course, was great too! His awkward comedy shines with the actors in the situations he created. And the dialogue fits very well and never feels odd or out of place. In the end, this time traveling nostalgic story teaches us to appreciate the era we live in, and to not forget the past.

Great movie once you get used to Woody Allen's humor. Definitely a must see for any Allen movie fan and fans of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

8.5/10

Moneyball

Baseball: America's past-time. Each spring the sport begins again with prospective recruits from around the nation being scouted, watched, and trained during spring training. Some recruits meet the expectations and others do not. However, one man: Bill James, came up with a way of optimizing the team called Sabermetrics, where players are chosen solely based on computer analyzed statistics.

Baseball as of late has turned into a game of money. Sabermetrics, in the right hands, can take the minimal salary cap and turn it into a winning team. This was the strategy employed by Billy Beane, which came to be known as Moneyball.

In his third film, Bennett Miller takes Michael Lewis' novel Moneyball and turns it into an enthralling movie experience. Chronicling the life of Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, as general manager of the Oakland Athletics, Moneyball shows the behind the scenes of a baseball team and shows what it takes to really be the general manager of a baseball team. After losing the ALDS to the Yankees and losing his star players, Billy Beane must rebuild his team. While looking for new players he meets a stats analyst, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), and takes the idea of Sabermetrics and puts it into action.

Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill are atop their games in this film. It was amazing fun to watch. Making a baseball movie entertaining for people who are not huge followers of the sport is tough to do, but with these two holding the lead roles there was no doubt that it was possible. With this movie, Brad Pitt has at least thrown his hat in the ring for the Best Actor Oscar race. Jonah Hill should score a nomination for his supporting role. A meticulous, calculating man in his role as general manager who is a loving and supporting father in his familial role, Brad Pitt has surely made Billy Beane proud with his portrayal.

Not having read the book the script was great. There was only dialogue when it was needed. Very well could put the screenplay in the race for adapted screenplay. At 133 minutes and a fairly slow pace, the script keeps you into the movie the entire time teaching about Sabermetrics and interjecting Billy Beane's past. Very fun to watch. And with all of these nominations I'm throwing Moneyball into the ring for Best Picture.


Moneyball was incredible. I was not entirely sure what to expect going in and I was blown away. This movie has definitely placed itself in the top five of sports movies of all time. Definitely a must-see.

9/10

The Tree of Life

What did I just watch? Seriously. Someone please tell me. I liked it and I think I get it and I thought it was outstanding, but I'm not entirely sure what I just watched. I haven't been this confused since the first time I ever watched Donnie Darko.


This visually stunning film was a pleasure to watch. Every shot seemed to have a purpose even if it didn't necessarily make sense in the story. There were a lot of things that just didn't make sense to me. I don't know if it was supposed to or if it will as I watch it again, but it worked for me. It made me appreciate all I have in life and the people around me. In the first half hour of the movie I think there were a total of 30 words spoken and the score underneath the images immediately conjured images in my head of 2001: A Space Odyssey. (And the confusing story and ending added to that too)


The Tree of Life is a story about loss of innocence and coming of age. The family we follow has very strange dynamics. One second they are all lovey-dovey and the next second they fight with each other. I guess that's how many families are. A death early on in the film forces one of the children to begin questioning everything. A similar thing open-minded people go through at young ages when they are determining their outlook on life. Many of the scenes are bookended with quotes from the Bible, most specifically from Job. I'm not a religious person by any means, but the whole story sort of revolved around the Bible and questioning God and the things happening on Earth and it worked for me. Every quote, having never heard most of them before, fit in the story and made sense.


As with Super 8 we feel as though we are the kids, but in Tree of Life we not only feel like the kids, we see things at their height in the movie. Rampant with point of view shots from each of the main characters, you begin to feel the ebb and flow of the O'Brien family and feel almost like a part of their family. These point of view shots add to the character development as well, but the acting takes care of itself. Brad Pitt is spectacular in his role and my feelings changed almost every time he was on screen. One minute I liked him the next I pitied him and the next I hated him. Incredible! And the child actors were good too. They remind everyone how difficult it can be to grow up.


The score throughout the film, as I briefly mentioned before was spot on perfect for the movie. As tensions rose in the movie, you could feel them rise in the music, whether it be from a single repeated bass note, or just a symphony record being played.


If you are looking to think about your life and how you have become the person you are today I highly suggest this movie. I'm not saying it makes you think about life in a bad way, it just gets you thinking. It plays with beliefs and religion and made me think about what I believe in and why I believe it. The movie also made me start to wonder how my life would have been had a few things happened differently. But really as much as The Tree of Life focuses on beliefs and religion it focuses on love and the struggle of mother and father inside a child. Two of my favorite quotes from the movie: "Father, Mother. Always you wrestle inside me. Always you will."

"The only way to be happy is to love. Unless you love, your life will flash by."

Overall, outstanding movie, though I don't claim to know exactly what happened by any means. Definitely go see it for the experience and don't be afraid to get too into the film!

8/10