The Muppets
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Tagline: They’re Closer Than You Think.
We remarked last week that it’s taken seven years for Alexander Payne to direct what is only his fifth feature, The Descendants. But that’s nothing compared to the 12 year wait the world has been forced to endure for the latest (re)incarnation of The Muppets (well done if you knew the last version was called Muppets From Space).
And the late Jim Henson wouldn’t have quibbled with the credentials of star Jason Segal (an unabashed Muppets fan since childhood, who co-wrote the movie with Nicholas Stoller), nor their old-school commitment in using puppets rather than CGI. And director James Bobin (Flight of the Conchords, Da Ali G Show) might be marking his cinematic debut but has a TV background which many adult Muppets fans have possibly seen and enjoyed.
Segal plays Gary, who also happens to be a die-hard fan who, upon learning that the Muppet Theater is set to be destroyed by an oil magnate (Chris Cooper) rounds up Kermit and the gang (as well as girlfriend Amy Adams) to save it, in no small part helped by a quite ludicrous list of cameos (Jack Black, Zach Galifianakis, Ricky Gervais and Emily Blunt, which is simply scratching the surface).
The goodwill for the project is palpable, and there’s a veritable love-in going on with the critics. The New York Times (“These are the same old, adorable Muppets, as sweetly innocent and likable as ever. Winking at itself, the movie is casually, amusingly self-reflexive”), Variety (“Effortlessly blending wised-up, self-reflexive humor with old-fashioned let’s-put-on-a-show pizzazz, The Muppets is an unexpected treat”) and Rolling Stone (“The movie slaps a smile on your face you won’t want to wipe off”) are but three raves in a (time of writing) perfect score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. It would seem we’re not remotely done with the Muppets yet.
PHOTOS: The Whimsical World of Jim Henson
Hugo
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Tagline:Unlock The Secret
Martin Scorsese has always been fascinated by 3-D. He has cited the effect and impact that Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder had on him as a child but it still took the best part of 60 years to commit his own 3-D vision to celluloid. And that has now come to pass thanks to the adaptation of Brian Selznick’s 2007 illustrated novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Scorsese’s Hugo tells the story of an orphan (Asa Butterfield) who lives in a train station in 1930’s Paris who strives to find the truth behind a contraption left behind by his late father (Jude Law). It transpires that the inventor was real-life toy maker and legendary French filmmaker Georges Méliès, who was another inspiration of Scorsese’s.
Despite the stigma surrounding 3-D movies, Hugo has received reviews of the highest possible praise. The New Yorker went to town, writing “Reality, filmed illusion, and dreams are so intertwined that only an artist, playing merrily with echoes, can sort them into a scheme of delight.” Roger Ebert reckons that “Hugo is unlike any other film Martin Scorsese has ever made, and yet possibly the closest to his heart: a big-budget, family epic in 3-D, and in some ways, a mirror of his own life.” And Variety‘s summing up sounds like Hugo is a must-see movie going experience: “In attempting to make his first film for all ages, Martin Scorsese has fashioned one for the ages.”
LIST: Scorsese in TIME’s Top 10 Actor-Director Pairings
My Week with Marilyn
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Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. In 1956, the 23 year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), was a fresh-faced pup, determined to make it in show-business. And so he worked as a lowly assistant on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl, which was the movie that saw Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) team up. At the time, Monroe was on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott). Seems like ripe material to be written down and nearly 40 years later, Clark’s diary, The Prince, the Showgirl and Me was published, but one week was missing, eventually seeing the light of day as My Week with Marilyn, which has now made it to the silver screen, thus completing the artistic circle.
Williams’ performance has been heralded by all and sundry. Our own Mary Pols wrote that she “locates a central truth, the contradictory allure of this utterly impossible woman – mercurial, vain, foolish, but also intelligent in some very primal way and achingly vulnerable.” And Rolling Stone reflects that, “It took a toll on Marilyn Monroe to look effortlessly buoyant on camera. Michelle Williams lets us see why. It’s a great, soulful performance. Sit back and behold.” An Oscar nomination – which eluded Monroe during her all too short life – should be forthcoming.
PHOTOS:Rare Images of Marilyn Monroe
The Artist
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It’s extremely rare for an actor in a foreign language film to win an Oscar. Marion Cottilard managed it a few years ago for La Vie en Rose and the gasps around the auditorium can still be heard if you listen carefully enough. But to walk away with a little gold man for a silent movie? Forget about it, right? Possibly not as the lead actor in writer-director Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist is Jean Dujardin and he’s the current darling of the Best Actor category, even though nomination day is still two months away.
Set in 1920’s Hollywood, Dujardin is the silent movie superstar George Valentin, who must confront the reality that the talkies will surely sound the death knell for his career. Meanwhile, for Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), the advent of change promises the exact opposite and their interlinked destinies drives The Artist forward, turning it into a significant piece of work.
How significant? According to The New Yorker, “What Hazanavicius has wrought is damnably clever, but not cute; less like an arch conceit and more like the needle-sharp recollection of a dream.” The New York Observer amusingly observes that “The Artist is so wonderful that the audience applauds everything, including the dog.” And TIME’s Mary Corliss concludes that, “With supreme confidence and an informed, infectious fondness for his subject, writer-director Michel Hazanavicius manages to embrace contradictions and then resolve them with supreme comic grace.” If Dujardin does win Best Actor next year, the irony will be complete. The reason? Messrs. Clooney, Pitt and DiCaprio will be left silent in their seats.
PHOTOS: Silent movie legend Charlie Chaplin
NewsFeed’s Flicks Pick: In what might be the first and only four-way tie in Friday Flicks history, we think all the above movies are worthy of your attention, as they all pay homage to the past for differing reasons. On weeks like this, the future of film looks bright.