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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Artist Hype

We saw The Artist tonight in Santa Monica.  I'd been hearing it was good and intentionally avoided any details.  I knew it was a silent movie and black and white. 

From a Santa Monica parking garage
Last year Black Swan was a big disappointment.  This year it's The Artist.  There were a number of neat things about the movie, but the movie as a whole left me unengaged.  I'm sure there was a lot of homage that went over my head, but the movie itself has to work.  The lead actor did nothing for me.  The lead actress I liked.  The dog did tricks.  There were neat old cars.  But for me it didn't all come together as a good movie.  I think the novelty of a silent, black and white movie in 2011 and good marketing have given this film more buzz than it warrants. 

1 comment:

  1. Agreed on The Artist. Saw it last night. It is always difficult to see something after it has been hyped so much, but I suspect many reviewers love the idea of this movie more than the movie itself. Great start and great idea, and I enjoyed how characters Valentin and Miller first met (first two meetings were great). Then the movie seemed to drag for about 40 minutes in the middle as the lead character was "down and out" after rejecting the transition to talkies. The audience understood that Valentin was drinking and sinking into obscurity while Miller rose to stardom, but driving home that simple plot point seemed like 1/2 of the movie.

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