When ever I’m asked to describe myself in one word, the first word I reach out towards is storyteller. My entire being has always been about telling stories. Stories ranging from The monstrous maniac attacking the village to a Magician and his magical hat. I try to keep my imagination fresh, and I always have a tale cooking in my brain. I’d love to explore different mediums to tell my stories, but the one I use the most is film.
Film is an amazing medium that, when used most effectively, can take you on a journey like nothing else. Film has a magical way of bringing a story to life right before your eyes. These days, sadly, we don’t see the magic in film that often. Production companies and such have made films more business and less art. Every weekend you see pointless remakes, sequels to terrible movies, and many other lousy films that make you dread paying for your tickets.
However, every now and then, a movie comes out that reminds us why we love the movies in the first place. That’s the kind of movie Hugo is, and in more then one sense. Hugo, based on the novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Is the story of a poor lonely little boy named Hugo. Hugo has a knack for fixing machines. Once finished, the machine is more then fixed, Its improved. Now, there is one Machine that has Hugo’s attention. An automaton his father found in the museum he works in. Hugo and his father decide to fix the abandoned machine, but Hugo’s father dies in a fire before they could finish.
With his Father gone, Hugo Is stuck living with his drunk uncle who takes care of the clocks at the train station. Even worse, Hugo’s uncle abandons him. Leaving Hugo to attend to the clocks, and fend for himself at the train station. However, It looks like Hugo’s bad luck would cease when he discovers a strange and interesting connection between the Automaton his father found, and this old toy maker whose basically the scrooge of this tale.
At this point, your probably asking what I meant about this film reminding you why we love film in more then one way. Well, one of the characters in this film is based on a real film director during the beginning of movies. Georges Méliès, played by Ben Kingsley in this film, was a wizard in the world of film. He was one of the first to actually tell stories in the medium. He saw something in movies that no one else did. If it wasn’t for him, and many others, I’m sure movies wouldn’t be anything like what they are today.
This film is simply a beautiful love letter to all of cinema. Martin Scorsese, who directed this film, is a lot like Georges Méliès. He always sees something in cinema that no one else does. When ever you watch one of Scorsese’s films, even if your not a fan, you can always see the passion he has for movies. From the way he edits his films, to the shot choices, Scorsese shows hes a film legend for a reason. In Hugo, Scorsese shows his passion more then he ever has.
As far as performances go, the cast was just spectacular. No one really stood out for me as the best, but that’s because everyone brought their A game. I’ve never seen Asa Butterfield before, but he did a wonderful Job playing Hugo. Chloë Grace Moretz is becoming a favorite of mine. From Kick-Ass to now, she’s been blowing me away with every performance. I can’t wait to see her in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows adaptation next year. The rest of the cast, which is a wonderful mixture of actors, really did well in this film. My favorite of the secondary performances was Sacha Baron Cohen as Inspector Gustav. Simply hilarious stuff when ever he was on the screen.
The 3D was amazing in this film. I normally avoid the 3D versions, but This one HAS to be viewed in 3D. I would go as far as to say the 3D was better then Avatar. Well, this movie is better then Avatar in alot of ways, but i don’t have time, or space, to list them all. Over all, Hugo Is probably the best film I’ve seen this year. Its different then what we’ve seen before from Scorsese, but its just as amazing as Scorsese films usually are.
Hugo gets 5 automatons outta 5!
(This was a review written by Richard L. Purnell from Channel23hahaha on Youtube)