The Artist (2011)

Rating: 90%
Well guys, last week I finally saw this movie for myself. I was lucky enough that they picked a random time right before they declared the nominees for the Oscars to all of the sudden start playing the movie at the Hollywood Theater. So without further ado, here's my review of the one movie every movie geek such as ourselves has heard and been talking about for quite some time: The Artist.

Plot: The films starts out in 1927 where we are introduced to George Valentin who is a famous silent movie star that is attending the premiere to his latest film. Afterwords outside the theater, a fan named Peppy Miller accidentally bumps right in front of Valentin while he's taking pictures for the newspapers where he decided to make a show out of it and allow her to join him. Later, Miller auditions as a dancer for Valentin's next film where he gives her advise on how to succeed. Which leads Miller to slowly but surly makes her a star.

Okay, let's get one thing straight: say what you will about this movie being used just to get an easy Best Picture Oscar (which I have everyone's back on) But for what it's worth, it's a very nice film at the least. The comedy was cute (especially with the dog (duh)), the acting was well done, it was a nice touch to set this film on full screen like in those days. Now obviously the story is not the most original for our time but I think we can accept that. Because all around everything was just to - in a sense - just relive movies of that time. Is it good enough to deserve a Best Picture win? eh, I would like to say that it's one of the strongest of the bunch of this year (as far as I know. I have yet to see Midnight in Paris and The Help) But personally, I would prefer more if it was Hugo that wins. Cause as good of a film as this is, I'm not comfortable with the idea of this movie winning just because it's pressing the right buttons for the Academy, any more than I'm comfortable with the idea that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close got nominated and Ides of March and Girl with Dragon Tattoo didn't.

Actors/Characters:
Jean Dujardin/George Valentin: While his character was not terribly original, it was still very entertaining. But like the film itself, I don't think he did enough worthy of winning an oscar for his performance.
Berenice Bejo/Peppy Miller: She was a cute character. Again, not very original from the story or Dujardin's character, but she still brought out a very well done performance.

Music: The music was enjoyable. It was mostly nice just because of how it played its part in setting the movie to look like a movie from way back then.

Editing: My one issue with the editing was how earlier in the film they were showing Valentin's latest film and the audience while at it. It was a very good idea, I'm just saying that they did it a little longer than they should. Other than that, the editing was very good.

And that's my review for The Artist. It's a very entertaining film, but in my opinion, it's not enought o win best picture.