His Pick 2010s: The Artist

Well, we continue the trend of Corey's picks being better than my picks. Although, to be fair, Corey was having a hard time finding a recent movie (2010s) that he wanted to put on the list and I suggested this one. :)

This movie won a ton of awards and features only 1-2 really well known American actors. The leads are foreign actors.  It's a silent movie about silent movies.

Shot to look exactly like a film from the era that it is about, it is truly fascinating to watch.  

When you watch old movies, you think, wow, how film quality, sound, and just the general crispness of movies has improved.  This is like a digitally remastered version of an old silent film.  The sound is great and the picture looks good.

It is done as accurately as possible with no modern special effects or camera work, but the quality is just better.

I really enjoyed it.  It makes me wish they would do more like it.

This is the heroine.  She's an up and coming "fresh" face to the movie industry.  She gets cast as an extra after a random public encounter with the biggest star of the time. Her name is "Peppy Miller" haha, it's that perfect?

This is George Valentin, the biggest and richest star in town.  John Goodman plays the producer for his silent films.

When "sound" enters the picture we watch as the old and the new faces deal with the changes.

It's a great story, though not very complicated.  There aren't any surprises or twists.  It's just a basic plot.  If it wasn't for the silent aspect and some of the ways they break through that with some creative ideas, it probably really wouldn't be that fascinating of a story to be honest.

But, the movie kept me interested the entire way and it has a great ending.  A little bit of a surprise comes at the end, but not anything too crazy.

I highly recommend this movie, not many Oscar favorites are as easy on the eyes and ears and heart as this one.

There are a couple of quick curses (you don't hear them of course! haha!), and due to staying true to the era any distress or violence isn't very graphic or actually distressing.

I give this movie a 9 out of 10.  The best way I can sum it up is to say it's just a really fun film.