TyT's Film of The Week : HUGO

Alright kids,

TyT in the bloggosphere to bring you a weekly blog series for all you Those Dudes fans out there (so like, two people).  If you've heard the show you know I am a man of many references and most of which are extremely obscure or just downright random.  So I figured I would give you all a little insight into the cinematic chasm that is my endless knowledge and passion for film.  So, I will bring you weekly installments of what I'm calling : TyT's Film of the Week.

Each week, I'll pick a different film whether it be in theaters, recently released to home video or just an old classic I feel you need to know about.  Not all will be praise-worthy, but I promise each selection has been picked to help to either expand your filmic knowledge or at very least, keep you from seeing a real piece of shit.

Let's get started shall we.  This week, I've chosen the recent 5 time Oscar winning film...HUGO.

For those who don't know what Hugo is, it is a fantasy fiction film adaption of the novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, written by Brian Selznick.  The film is directed by arguably the greatest American director (or greatest period) ever, Martin Scorsese.  If that name is unfamiliar, you should probably just kill yourself because I can already tell you don't know shit about movies, but I'm sure you'd seen some of his films (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Departed, Goodfellas, The Aviator, Mean Streets, Casino,Gangs of New York, The King of Comedy, Shutter Island, and he is also responsible for bringing Boardwalk Empire onto television).  The film has a number of amazing actors, including and especially Ben Kingsley, Chloe Moretz, Jude Law, Sasha Baron Cohen (yes, Borat) and of course Hugo himself, Asa Butterfield.

The film plays in a fantastical way mainly because Scorsese has a fantastical vision of the novel and story.  At it's heart, Hugo isn't about flashy things or big budget ploys to make money, it's about enduring love of artists and their dreams.  Meanwhile, the whole thing is spirited towards the heart and the healing of broken things. That is not to say the film doesn't look great, because it is perhaps the best looking film of the year and definitely earns it's Oscars in Visual Effects, Art Direction and Cinematography.

I think the thing I enjoyed about it, besides of course the love song to one of the founding pioneers of film, is how unique Scorsese's vision is and how separate it is from his hard, gritty gangster films like Goodfellas and The Departed.  The movie works hard to build the story in the right way while keeping the characters relevant, all the while proving that a beautiful film doesn't have to be short on story or heavy on explosions (MICHAEL FREAKING BAY).  Where so many studios now-a-days don't give a shit about bringing a story to life and building a strong connection between the audience and the characters on screen, Hugo does only that while it tells the story of an orphan boy who lives in a Paris train station and attempts to rebuild a automata (robot) as a way to rebuild himself.

What the film boils down to, at it's rawest form, is that dreams are something worth having and without them, you may never find your way in the dark, reality that is life.  Each character has their own dreams, each character deals with these dreams in their own way, but the whole film plays like a blue tinted dream itself, while keeping it's feet on the ground.  You won't see this kind of affection from a Transformers or a Twilight movie, because they filmmakers and producers don't give a damn about sending a message or making something worth testing time.  They're after dollar figures and capitalizing on the audiences willingness to pay money to see poorly executed everything.  I suppose we are to blame for that, because we are the ones who  put up the cash.

Hugo is not that.  Hugo is anything but that.  Hugo is the work of a film genius, who genuinely cares about quality and story and wanted to get a great story out.  Scorsese went way out of his niche mainly because he is the kind of diverse auteur who can, but also because he believed in what the story of Hugo Cabret was and wanted to share that with the world.

I've heard one of two people say the movie is slow paced, which I don't believe is the case here.  I do, however, believe we have forfeited what cinema is about in order to be entertained by mindless fireworks and flat, nonredeemable characters.  We'll never get back to the days where a filmmaker's labor was made from love and money lines or box office receipts, but with Hugo, at least it's good to know some of them are still after making art and dreams.

TyT's Vertict : Must See, Bitches  

Hit TyT up on Twitter @Bakstar_Inc or @ThoseDudesShow and be sure to check out Those Dudes Podcast on www.ThoseDudesShow.com