Just saw the year’s best film today

But before I get to that, here’s the Fall Movie Report, half-way through:

Caught Immortals a few weeks back. It’s one of those flicks that was great fun in IMAX 3D, but I wouldn’t make it through the first half if I was watching it at home. I honestly don’t remember a thing about it, other than thinking its debt to recent big screen swords & sandals films like 300 and Clash of the Titans was over-evident.

Caught the new Muppet movie over the weekend with the Bastardson side of the family. It was better than I expected (I only used to watch The Muppet Show if the guest was somebody I really liked) and what little plot there is, I actually remember. It’s a road movie with a “Save The Muppets” theme. It treads well-paddled water with good humor and in terms of sticking the dismount, comes closer to the easy, off-the-cuff vibe of the original Muppet Movie than any other entry in the franchise’s considerable filmography. It’s a shame Frank Oz (Miss Piggy, Rolf the Dog) decided not to participate.

While I can hold my head high and report that I will not be seeing the latest Twilight installment, I do have to admit having paid actual American currency to see the most recent Adam Sandler vehicle, Jack & Jill, where he thespianizes-up both himself and his twin sister. I have two excuses. One: Al Pacino plays a send-up of himself in an extended cameo as a pompous movie star who falls for Sandler’s hideous twin sister and Two: Did I mention Al Pacino is in it? He’s slumming, but it’s clear he’s doing it as a lark, as opposed to, say, Robert DeNiro, whose participation in a film used to make it an event, but these days is a red flag as often as not.

Puss & Boots was a gas. Better than any of the Shrek movies, which I disliked very much. But the trailers convinced me to give this one a try and for a change, they left a few good parts out of the trailer to include in the movie. Funniest animated kiddie flick since Rango.

In Time was a rip-off. I thought it was going to be a time-travel flick, and all I remember without checking is that it was not a time-travel flick!

Tried to see Eddie Murphy’s alleged return to form in Tower Heist, but the local theater screwed the pooch on that one. That was the weekend they were transitioning all their screens over to digital, and the 1:45 screening of Tower Heist ended up collateral damage. Oh well. I’m sure it’ll be out on video in time for Christmas.

Want to see J. Edgar, but Eastwood’s record as a director is all over the place, from well-meaning but predictable (Invictus), to overwrought (Mystic River) to terrific (his twin Iwo Jima films; Unforgiven). And then there’s Leo Decaprio’s participation, whose only credible performance since Titanic was in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, which is still technically a fluke, as well as a testament to director Scorsese’s deft touch with his actors, as far as I’m concerned. Probably will wait for J. Edgar to hit video unless it has staying power past the holidays.

Speaking of Scorsese, he has made the best movie I’ve seen all year and it’s honest-to-goodness good, clean fun for the whole family. I saw it with The Boy today, and asked him tonight which one he liked better, between the Muppet movie yesterday and the one today, and our six-year-old Sesame Street fan promptly answered, “Today’s.”

The name of the film is Hugo. I went in expecting nothing other than to give The Missus a couple hours of peace and quiet, and there happened to be a screening at just the right time. I saw it was another 3D extravaganza and grumbled about all the extra damn money this stupid 3D shit has cost this year, mostly for idiotic fluff like The Immortals.

But Hugo? This was that rare case of 3D being used both brilliantly and subtly. About 1/3 of the film takes place in a wide-open, mile-high clock tower overlooking 1930s Paris. There are some truly vertigo-inducing scenes that advance the story instead of distract from it. It has all the dream-like visual POW! of a brilliant animated movie (which most of the environments are) and hits all the heart-warming, family values-oriented buttons middle-America could possibly hope for. Everybody is redeemed in the end, even the bad guys, by the love and innocence of a child. Are your eyes misting up yet?

And the CGI environs are eye-popping and dreamlike. It seems almost like something I imagined, rather than something I went out to see at the theater. With a distinctive glowy, sepia palette and sparkly things that float in the air like snowflakes or drunkard fireflies, Scorsese shoots every scene as if it is a painting rather than a moment of narrative fiction.

It features Borat’s Sacha Baron Cohen in a B-role as the comical evil nemesis of the film’s protagonist, an amazing child actor named Asa Butterfield, who plays an orphan tinkerer living secretly on his own above the Paris Train station. Butterfield is so good, he holds his own onscreen with Ben Kingsley in his not-in-it-for-the-money mode. The Ben Kingsley of Murderers Among Us and Sexy Beast.

Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) is also winning as the pal/potential love interest of Butterfield’s character. Rumor has it this young American actress went into her audition with Scorsese and had him believing she was actually a British child actress, until she let on she was just doing an accent. She classes up any film she’s in.

Moreover, the movie is the Oscar bait of all Oscar bait; the Academy is going to wet itself. Hugo is a completely sincere, wet-kiss-sealed love letter to the motion picture industry, past, present and future. Only Marty Scorsese or Speilberg could have pulled this film off with this much conviction. Come award season, it’ll be raining Oscar gold for Hugo, and deservedly so. I don’t throw around words like “masterpiece” casually, but this holiday surprise absolutely qualifies.

Mark my words, even if it tanks in its initial release—I can’t imagine how they’re going to market an almost black-and-white, 2-hour-plus European period piece with non marquee-name actors to American audiences—it will be discovered over time, the same way the Wizard of Oz was, and for the same reason.

Movie magic this potent is timeless.