The Artist (2012)

What a happy little movie. In the midst of uber-violent films I've watched the last three out of four nights, it was nice for a light movie. Sure there is that one scene where George accidentally shoots the vase...
The movie was predictable and a bit to a lot cliched. There were absolutely no surprises. Yet. Yet, I liked it. It was a nice movie. It was very well-made and obviously the people putting this together cared a lot about it and that showed. I could very easily see this being one of those movies that people buy and play all the time.
I feel like I should have some deep thoughts about the change over from silent movies to the 'talkies', or perhaps at least some insight into the actor trying to bridge that change. Perhaps I should notice how this is really a metaphor for contemporary film-making moving from analog to digital, form live-action to an ever-increasing-dependence on computer generated content. Maybe I should notice that this film is really a commentary on the industrial-economic system that our culture runs on. But, I think it's just a nice little film.

The Artist on IMDb

Argo (2012)

This is one of those rare films, not counting sequels, where I go into it knowing almost everything about it. I'd heard reviews, plot descriptions and at least two interviews with Ben Affleck. I knew how the movie ended. Usually when this happens, I am watching the film because either I am a fan of the franchise (see the comment above about sequels) or I'm in it for the eye candy, i.e. the special effects, and more than a few times, both. I tend to stay away from films in this situation, because I feel that you can only be disappointed. Well, I am happy to stand corrected. As mentioned, I knew what was going to happen the whole way through and yet there I was worried that someone might crack under pressure or that someone else wouldn't get to the phone in time. I can understand why this film won the best picture Oscar. I hoped I would like this film, because every time I heard Affleck talk about it, he was so...I don't know, humble. He seemed like a nice guy who worked hard to make what he thought was a great movie, but not great because he did it, but because of the story and the people involved.
Affleck pulled double duty as star and director. To pull either one of those off well is commendable, but to pull them both off well, that's just impressive. And while I'm at least a little bit biased, I want to say on the record that Ben was rocking that beard. I'm guessing the nice thing about being director is deciding to have a full beard instead of one of those big ridiculous looking mustaches.
Affleck didn't pull this off alone. He had Bryan Cranston playing his boss, John Goodman playing his Hollywood connection and Alan Arkin playing the producer who puts the fake movie together. I think I might have mentioned before that I am a big fan of Cranston and everything I've ever seen him in. He puts it all out there in every performance, and I for one appreciate it. John Goodman is another one of my all-time favorites. I fucking watched Roseanne because he was in it. That is fan loyalty. While I don't go out looking for Alan Arkin flicks, I certainly take notice when I hear that he's in a film, as I always enjoy his work.
Watching this film, I was convinced that I was in 1980. Affleck did a great job of mixing actual news footage from the time alongside some well made re-enactments of memorable scenes along with the main body of the film which looked like 1980. There were lots of great scenes in this film, but one that sticks out in my mind is right after Mendez (Ben Affleck) picks up the VW bus in Tehran and drives passed a Kentucky Fried Chicken that's as busy as ever and there are old women sitting out front in their black hijabs eating fried chicken.
And kudos for getting President Carter to do the voice over at the end of the movie. I don't know if I think he was a good President or not, but I think he is the greatest ex-President this country has ever seen. That was a really nice touch.
Seeing Argo, and not only enjoying it but respecting the job that Affleck did goes a little ways towards forgiving Jennifer Garner for marrying him instead of waiting for me. A little ways.

Argo on IMDb

ParaNorman (2012)

I know that I'm supposed to like this movie because it's animated and it's all about people accepting others for who they are, blah, blah, blah. It's very well produced. I'll give them that. But, the story was pretty mediocre and predictable. I really don't like this style of animation, but it was done well. I am always confused by this type of animated movie - the characters and scenery are caricatures and fairly unrealistic, but the effort put into the physics of the hair is extremely realistic where applicable. It probably goes back to the Incredibles. That movie was amazing, I think we can all agree on that. So, these mediocre films come along and copy it's style and hope that is enough to parlay into box office and DVD gold.
The one thing about this movie that I really did like, and this seems like a good time to mention that I didn't hate any of it I just didn't see much in this film to recommend it, was the special effects when Norman is confronting Agatha. That green lightning-ectoplasm-plasma stuff was pretty cool. Stylistically, it didn't really match with the rest of the film, almost as if done by a different animation studio.

ParaNorman at IMDb