style and subject

The Artist is a contemporary silent film that speaks volumes

Robust orchestrations, pitch-perfect characterization and playful visual storytelling reeled me in as I watched the award-winning film, The Artist, written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius. The silent French film, which contains no spoken dialogue, features a romance between silent film veteran George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) and the naive, yet ambitious actress Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), whose career flourishes as talkies take the country and silent films become passé.

The industry doesn’t fair so well for Valentin, however, whose success crumbles as fast as Miller’s star rises.

Although the romantic storyline proved enticing enough, what I found more interesting was how the story unfolded in the well-executed contemporary silent film style.

Ironically, Hazanavicius chose to set his silent film remake in Hollywood as the industry is taking its final bow. This decision creates an interesting dynamic between the film’s style and the film’s subject. What better way to tell the story of the death of silent film than by resurrecting silent film itself?

This film is as much about print journalism, the railroad industry and The Ziegfeld Follies as it is about silent film.

The combination leads to deliciously self-aware moments in the film, like when ex-star Valentin “overhears” Miller in an interview berating old Hollywood and reducing silent film acting to simply “mugging.”

But the acting in The Artist is much more than mugging. Dujardin, Bejo and John Goodman (who plays a stubborn Hollywood exec) all create delightfully large yet realistic characters, who move grandly and gracefully across the screen. Yet, somewhat betraying the style, some of the facial subtleties in these performances are what give the film a real heartbeat, like a close-up on a coy smile.

At first glance, The Artist is a whimsical pastiche, though with a more critical lens one might also see a broader narrative. By following Miller’s rise to fame and Valentin’s simultaneous fall, The Artist explores the tragedy and beauty of evolving crafts and art forms and the careers that are ruined in the fray. In that way, the film is as much about print journalism, the railroad industry and The Ziegfeld Follies as it is about silent film.

The Artist gives voice not only to silent film stars, but all silenced artists. The story might be slow moving for those without an appreciation for the classics, but anybody with a soft-spot for the art of storytelling must make a trip to the theater soon. The nostalgic experience just won’t be as powerful on DVD.

The Artist is currently showing at Landmark River Oaks Theatre, located at 2009 West Gray.

Movie Review

Rachel McAdams goes feral in Sam Raimi's gory new comedy Send Help

Rachel McAdams in Send Help

Photo by Brook Rushton

Rachel McAdams in Send Help.

Director Sam Raimi has gone through different phases as a filmmaker, including leading the first Spider-Man trilogy and joining the MCU with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But he first gained notice with the gory and funny Evil Dead movies, a sensibility he’s returning to with his latest film, Send Help.

Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is a meek and eccentric middle manager at a financial firm that’s just named Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien) as its new nepo CEO. Bradley’s dad had promised Linda a promotion to vice president, but she gets passed over in favor of one of Bradley’s frat buddies, sending her into a mild rage. Still, she gets invited along on a planned business trip to Thailand, during which she hopes to prove her worth.

Unfortunately for most of the passengers on the private plane, it crashes into the ocean, leaving only Linda and Bradley alive on a deserted island. Linda, who has privately developed survival skills, adapts quickly to the forbidding environment, while Bradley tries to revert to bossing her around. But Linda quickly understands the power dynamic has shifted, and she uses this knowledge to try to keep Bradley in line, turning their stranding into a battle of wills.

Directed by Raimi and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, the film is the classic “so bad it’s good” kind of experience. McAdams, inarguably an attractive and charming person, is given stringy hair, an antisocial personality, and quirks like eating tuna fish at her desk to make her as off-putting as possible. Bradley, along with almost everyone else at her office, is stereotyped just as hard in order to set up the twist of fate.

When the action shifts to the island, things get even more over the top. The audience has already been primed for Linda to demonstrate her survival expertise, but the film does way more than just show her making fire. Whether it’s flawlessly building a shelter or hunting a wild boar, everything Linda does is portrayed in a slightly off-kilter manner. Then they turn everything up to 11, indulging in gore that is so unnecessary that you can’t help but laugh.

The filmmakers prove they’re in on the joke the rest of the way, including a variety of preposterous but hilarious scenarios that would cause massive eyerolls if they were actually trying to take the film seriously. While they do a great job of showing Linda’s ability to handle herself in the wild, they also show that she is somehow the only person in the world who could get a glow up after a plane crash and weeks living in nature.

McAdams, an Oscar-nominated actor for Spotlight, is way too high class for a movie like this, which makes her presence here all the more interesting. She is all-in on whatever Raimi wants her to do, and she’s at her most fun when she goes the animalistic route. O’Brien, who was great in the recent Twinless, doesn’t get as much of an opportunity to show his range, but he still proves to be an interesting foil for her.

Were it released in any other month, Send Help might be looked at as bottom of the barrel material. But with the movie year just getting started, it’s easier to forgive its outrageous plot twists and just have fun, especially since Raimi and his team put the rest of the film together so well.

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Send Help opens in theaters on January 30.

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