Hugo

This was always going to be a film that was essentially critic-proof. It's a movie-geek's dream, a story about the early years of cinema, and a quasi-biopic of early practitioner Georges Melies. So it's no surprise that Hugo is getting some of Scorsese's best reviews in years. But the good reviews are deserved, in me humble opinion. It's a beautifully filmed tale of an orphan who surreptitiously lives in a Paris train station. There are multiple storylines but they all somehow relate to the early advent of cinema, and the movie itself, with its myriad of cinematic tricks, is all about the magic of cinema. There were lots of standouts in this film but in particular, Sacha Baron Cohen as an orphan-hating gendarme with a doberman, and Chloe Grace Moretz as an intrepid girl adventurer, were my particular favorites. If I had to nitpick (and Charlene really put this idea in my head) Ben Kingsley is too earnest and self-important as Melies. He telegraphs his importance from the very beginning of the film. It's small potatoes in a really lovely film.