Tag Archives: review

The Artist

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I guess I’m supposed to love The Artist. It’s a movie about movies. About silent movies and the transition to sound movies and how that destroyed the lives of the silent film era stars who refused to jump on board with the newfangled invention of talking pictures.

Oh yeah. The Artist is a silent film. But you probably already knew that.

Thing is: I didn’t love it. It’s fine. Cute, even. Jean Dujardin is handsome and charming and oh so expressive (an essential quality to making a silent performance work) as the movie star George Valentin who bucks the talkies by directing himself in one last silent film. That personal project bankrupts Valentin and his world crumbles around him.

Berenice Bejo plays Peppy Miller, an adorable actress whose star rises in the age of talkies as Valentin’s falls. Peppy gets her big break because of Valentin, however, and she never forgets that. She’s clearly in love with him, a fact she reveals in a Chaplinesque bit where she convincingly embraces herself with one arm through Valentin’s jacket. She’s one of the few people in the audience when Valentin’s last film opens, while next door her breakout movie debuts to a sell out crowd. Despite her success, she never forgets what Valentin did for her. She supports him from a distance as he spirals further and further into despair. Eventually, he hits rock bottom and she’s there to pick him up again. It’s all very jolly.

The Artist is certainly well made and there are really brilliant scenes interspersed throughout. A particular favorite is a sequence where Valentin’s just been informed of the advent of talkies. Up until that point, the film has played out in completely silent fashion, the only sound that of the (theoretical) orchestra playing along with the images. Valentin looks in the mirror and takes a drink of water. When he sets the glass down, it makes a diegetic sound, the first of the film. Valentin is surprised so he picks up the glass and puts it back down again. Another sound effect. Around him, everything starts to make noise, but when he speaks to himself in the mirror, he’s silent. It’s a wonderfully executed scene and my favorite in the film.

Unfortunately, nothing else really lives up to that moment. The ending eventually comes along and the final sequences inexplicably play to the sounds of Bernard Hermann’s glorious score from Vertigo. Beside the fact that it’s a beautiful piece of music, I can’t really figure out why it’s here. As the film comes to a conclusion with Valentin’s redemption at the hands of Peppy Miller’s persistence, the inevitable happens: silence becomes sound and the transition is complete. Talkies are the new norm and that age of the silent film artist vanishes forever as the credits roll.

Here’s a fun fact: The Artist is the first silent film to be nominated for Best Picture since 1928. That year, The Patriot was nominated in the second annual Academy Awards ceremony. If the Artist wins Best Picture, it’ll only be the second film to do so. The first was Wings in 1927 at the first Academy Awards ceremony.

The Pogo Sketch

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I ordered a Pogo Sketch from the geniuses over at Ten One Design. It’s a pen sized stylus to use on a capacitive touch screen, like on your favorite iDevice.

Even though the Sketch’s existence predates the iPad, Ten One has done a nice job of parlaying its existence onto Apple’s new toy. With the iPad’s generous screen estate, not to mention the plethora of drawing programs already available, the two really seem ideal for one another.

I’ve spent the past couple of days playing around with the Sketch and I can say it does precisely what its tasked with. The nub on the end does a pretty satisfactory job of “gripping” the screen to simulate the required touch. You’ve still got to be concerned about accidentally touching the screen with your wrist while you draw, which makes using the Sketch for long periods of time a bit inconvenient. I don’t think anyone is going to be replacing their Wacom anytime soon with an iPad/Sketch combo. But for periodic use, this thing’s gorgeous.

My only real concern is that after a nice full day of use, the nub already seems to be a little bit smooshed, so I wonder how long this thing will ultimately last.

I’m not much of an artist, but I did use the Sketch to, well, sketch a bit in both ArtStudio and SketchBook. While I won’t share the pathetic attempts on this post, the handwriting sample below might help convey things a bit. Or not. My handwriting probably shouldn’t be used as an example of anything. What’s not coming through in this picture is that I took a fair bit more time writing my name with my finger than I did with the Sketch. I think the results for the Sketch are (unfortunately) closer to how my handwriting really looks. (I used ArtStudio, which also has some really wonderful brushes that provide a bit of a flourish, too.)

My favorite application of the Sketch? Flight Control HD. I never quite got hooked on Flight Control when it was just on the iPhone, but as an iPad game it really shines. The Sketch allows a greater degree of precision in drawing your flight paths now, which even in limited use has already translated into improved scores.

The best Sketch feature of all, however, is that since you’re not touching the iPad’s screen with your grubby fingers, you’re not leaving behind nasty fingerprints. The iPad does an unfortunately remarkable job of picking up every single fingerprint. In a day of heavy use, I easily have to wipe the screen down at least two or three times, which gets real old. The Sketch doesn’t leave finger prints, which makes it really ideal for loading up a video to watch, since you won’t need to wipe the screen down afterward.

Slumdogs, Readers and Roads

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As of January 24th, I had 42 Oscar nominated films to see. Today I’m down to 39.

Yesterday I went out to the theaters and caught Slumdog Millionaire, The Reader and Revolutionary Road. I’m not going to get into reviewing any of these films, but I do want to say a few words on Slumdog, an audience favorite.

Slumdog Millionaire strikes me as a clear favorite, at least as far as average movie goers are concerned. I’ve yet to meet someone who would dare suggest that Slumdog is anything less than very good. My friend Karle expressed some concerns to me that he felt as if the film’s strong finish makes up for some flaws early on, leading to a situation where the viewer’s impression of the film is largely made up of the good feelings brought on by the conclusion. This is not entirely wrong way of thinking, but I’m also willing to forgive the films flaws for what truly is an epic and outstanding conclusion. In fact, I saw something that Inever see during my screening: As the film concluded and the credits began to roll, everyone stood up and started to leave, at which point this really energetic and, well, victorious dance sequence began. Literally the entire theater stopped moving towards the door and returned to their seats, completely transfixed. It was kind of shocking and anyone who goes to the movies with any regularity knows that the credits are easily (and I suppose appropriately) the most ignored part of any movie going experience. Not with Slumdog. The dance/credit sequence doesn’t add anything to the film’s narrative or to your understanding of the film, it’s not a coda meant to impart greater meaning upon the film as a whole. It’s simply a celebration of success, of underdog achievement. To reference a familiar trope, it’s Rocky ascending the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, pumping his arms into the air.

To return briefly to the aforementioned flaws, however, one thing constantly stood out: The torture scenes. They’re early on, but they feel remarkably out of place in such an otherwise tight package. They also lend a bizarre inconsistency to Irfan Khan’s character, the police inspector interrogating the slumdog himself about how he could possibly succeed at a trivia game show. I won’t say anymore, but I’m very curious how much people buy the arc Khan’s character ultimately t akes as the movie progresses. For me, it stood out like a sore thumb in an otherwise remarkable film.