The Artist is silent, but deadly. It's a good watch, but it's not a perfect film.

Rating: 8/10 (13 January 2015)

If I can say a few words about this film. It's didn't deserve the praise, it got. I know, its sound harsh, since I do kinda like the film, but besides it paying homage to the style of a black and white nostalgia silent film. There is barely anything original. It felt very old. Don't get me wrong, it's entertaining, but compare to the others movies nominated that year for Best Picture. I was deeply surprising that it won Best Picture in 2011. Directed & written by Michel Hazanavicius, the movie takes place in the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1920s, focuses on the relationship of an older silent film star, George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) and a rising young actress, Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) during the growth of the 'talkies' films. Like, I said, before, the movie concept isn't anything new. It's been tackle years ago, by 1952's Singing in the Rain, 1954's A Star is Born, and 1950's Sunset BLVD, but unlike them, the Artist received way too much highly positive reviews from critics and won many awards, including Best Picture at the Oscars. It just seems like such a common, classic storyline, almost timeless and yet in "The Artist", this plot feels extremely stale to me. While, it's not as good as those films that I listed above. While, this might be a controversy decision. I have to say, it's a lot better than a lot of older films during the silent era in entertainment value. It's really funny, and you find yourself, laughing yourself head off. Honestly, besides Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton's films, there are rarely any funny silent era films. Most of them, were very slapstick and didn't have much of any other types of humor. I have to say this film was a lot clever in how to show emotional without speaking than the silent era. The movie does well to establish the limit of the medium, but throughout the film, they do break it at times. I love how clever the film it was to show adult themes like George's leading lady almost giving the finger. Though if you pay attention to her lips, you can see she's also a silent Cluster F-Bomb. The film have a lot of things, you quite don't see in any old silent-movie. The film has way better acting than a lot of those way over the top acting from silent films. Did Jean Dujardin deserve the Best Actor award that year? In my opinion, not really. While, his acting was alright in the medium, he was in. It's cool that he tap dance, have comedy chops and show emotion, but it was indeed limiting. You really don't see, how great; he can become, because he playing this silly likable character than. Still, he's by far the best thing in the film. I didn't like Berenice Bejo or the role, she had. She felt a bit 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl'. Also, Berenice Bejo doesn't really stand out, much. Half of the time, I mistake her for actress, Rachel McAdams. The dog, Uggie remind me a lot of Skippy aka Asta who appeared in dozens of movies during the 1930s like the Thin Man series. While, the film mostly expresses its love for movies by channeling well-known silent-era tropes; the movie has a lot of references to early talkies films, more than silent films. Don't get me wrong, you see some silent film references to Rudolph Valentino's films like 1920's Mask of Zorro, 1921's The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse & 1927's Metropolis, but I wish the movie capture more from that era than it did. I have watch a lot of silent films over the years, and the film is missing telling the story in purely epic visual terms. While, the movie isn't low budget. It feels and look low budget at times. Why have only a few dancers? 1920s films like 1929's Broadway Melody had tons of them. Why have a small set for the Mask of Zorro rip-off scene? Get a huge set for it, like 1916's Intolerance. I was really hoping for a lot of 4:3 shots made to look wide screen with large sets and tons of extras. Films in the 1920s were big and high in production value, back then. I was hoping for something like that. I like how catchy the main tune is, by Ludovic Bource. It was indeed fun to hear, but I surprise to hear a synchronized music recorded for a silent film. Most of the time in silent film terms, the theater would provide the music for the film or sheet music would be sent down with the film. While, it's not a big deal, if the movie really wanted to be, realistic. It wouldn't have any sound effects or background music like older silent films. There has been some controversy about the film music. Actress Kim Novak stated that the film "rape" portions of Bernard Herrmann's score from Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo for this film. I have to disagree with Novak, here. They did use music from another movie, but they did pay for it. The movie pacing is a hit and miss. At 100 minutes, the movie pacing should be fast pace, considering the simplistic, and silent, narrative, but it tendency drags on. Still, most of the scenes that they linger on, were worth it. Though for those who interpret and analysis the film, believe The Artist serves a metaphor for those who reject new technologies such as this generation, when digital media is becoming more and more the norm. You have to learn how to convert and change with the times. Overall: This movie was alright. I didn't think it was all Oscar worthy like they made it out to be, but definitely worth a look.