It is a rare pleasure to view of movie that appears to be what I call, “handmade.”  THE ARTIST is such a movie, and not just because it is the first silent film I have ever seen in my life nor because it is in black and white, but because every frame on screen is on purpose, crafted, and punctuated by a score that provides emotion so differently than endless dialogue does.

I have no idea where they found Jean Dujardin to play the lead character, George Valentin, but it looked like he was from a different era himself, and that he was a veteran of silent movies.  I found his performance to be mesmerizing.

It did take quite some time to get used to there being no spoken dialogue.  My ears kept straining to hear words that were not there, then my eyes took over trying to read lips, and finally I just watched.  Once the viewer is able to do this, the immersion into the world of the late 1920s and early 1930s provided by THE ARTIST is complete.

Valentin is the biggest actor in Hollywood(land) filling that role to the delight of his fans.  Movies are silent, acting is exaggerated, and the cast appears on stage after movie premieres.  By chance he meets an energetic young woman, appropriately named Peppy, and gives her some key pieces of advice that ultimately lead to her replacing him as the toast of the town as the movie industry abruptly shifts from silent films, to talkies.

Valentin is not interested in speaking on film.  From that point on I truly had no idea what to expect from the movie, it was just so different.  There is no dialogue, just watching Valentin become more and more anonymous, though ever by his side is his faithful dog and man servant.  Valentin’s pride stops him from evolving even though Peppy still holds a fondness for him.

THE ARTIST is not a tragedy though.  It is a marvel, a comedy, an intimate look into what happens to an artist when his craft is no longer wanted, and ultimately about accepting change.

THE ARTIST is one of the ten best movies of 2011.

If you do not think a person can believe in something so strongly that no matter how astronomically improbably it is, it can still happen, then you need not see WAR HORSE.  If you are, however, a person who does, as I am, then you will find WAR HORSE inspiring and raising your own confidence that what you are trying to believe in can be done.

Movies featuring the lives of animals are very emotional for me, and WAR HORSE was no exception.  There is a unique bond that can exist only between a boy and an animal.  WAR HORSE shows the power a relationship with a special animal can have, on surprisingly, not just the boy you see in the trailers, but on everyone the horse comes in contact with.  For WAR HORSE is not at all what I expected, the boy and his horse, who he names Joey, part early on, with his belief in finding him again the driving force of the story.

What I liked best about WAR HORSE is that no matter how harsh the company of men Joey found himself in, there was always at least one man among them who loved animals.  The German solider who says “go to hell” rather than be parted with the horse stood out most to me.

Joey also had a relationship with another war horse, Topthorn.  Their friendship and the loyalty they showed each other again is not for those who cannot accept two horses being capable of outwardly displaying such emotions.  Perhaps the most inspiring scene of the whole movie was when Joey accepted a burden Topthorn was called upon to take, but physically could not.

Director Steven Spielberg personifies the horse Joey with such an incredible spirit, that it is impossible not to root for him, and indeed much of the movie I was sitting up leaning forward helping to drive Joey on as I could.

WAR HORSE was almost entirely not what I thought it would be.  Joey is by far the main character of the film.  The war is the background.  The humans are the supporting actors.  The fate of Joey is the movie.

WAR HORSE is one of the ten best movies of 2011.

If not for Demian Bichir getting nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, and deservedly so, I may never have watched A BETTER LIFE because up until then I had not even heard of it.  I hope this review helps people find this movie about a father wanting for his son exactly what the title says.  This movie is incredibly sincere and real, and therefore on those accounts alone, one of the ten best movies of 2011.

Carlos is a loyal landscaper for Blasco, but the latter is selling the truck and tools and business to return to Mexico.  He really wants Carlos to buy it from him, though he hesitates to.  Carlos has a 14-year old son teetering on the edge of getting involved with gangs and succumbing to the neighborhood they live in.  The movie tells the story of Carlos trying as hard as he can to save his son from such a fate.

Though the basic themes of the movie can be found in many others, a father trying to reach a troubled son and protect him, there are really no cliches in the telling of this often used storyline in A BETTER LIFE.  What you expect his son to do next is never what you expected.

Carlos works so hard and tries so hard, it is impossible not to root for him and feel empathy when he is seemingly on the cusp of providing that better life for his son, only to see it all possibly go away in an instant.

A BETTER LIFE tells its sincere story without malice, without violence and with a great lead character.

It amazes me how in some many individual calendar years two movies of the same small niche come out (think Armageddon/Deep Impact, Dante’s Peak/Volcano).  For 2011 it was movies about large planetary objects approaching Earth in small, ordinary person films.  Exactly two weeks ago I saw MELANCHOLIA and tonight I saw the perhaps superior ANOTHER EARTH.

ANOTHER EARTH is a science fiction movie wrapper on a tragic drama.  On the same night a new planetary body becomes visible in the night sky, a horrible car accident not unrelated takes place.  Rhoda, played by Brit Marling, is the distracted driver.  She was about to go to MIT, but instead spent the next four years in prison.  What follows is by far the most morbid romance I have ever seen, yet it is also sweet.

We get updates on the new planet, and it is a mirror image of Earth!  Theories about cracked mirrors and us only being the dreams of the people on Earth 2 come up in snippets from the characters catching the news.

The big question for the two main characters is, what if the other versions of themselves did not suffer this tragedy?

The ending is great.  The movie is very subtle, almost silent.  It is very deliberate and tactile.  The movie is a mood you have to feel as much as watch.  I found it to be very effective storytelling with a very creative use of science fiction making the audience fill in a lot of blanks.