Hugo

It’s Scorsese’s first movie without Leo DiCaprio in about 12 years. (I’m not counting documentaries.) If you held it up to any of his other movies, you’d be hard pressed to find any similarities. And as much as I loved After Hours and greatly admired The Departed, this might be one of the best movies in his career. There is a love of kids, a love of movies, and a love of making movies fused into Hugo at the subatomic level. There is such a love of things here; it’s more Spielberg than Spielberg. He’s fortunate to have, as his source material, many of his storyboards and conceptual drawings already finished. Every camera move he’s ever done in any movie ever has led him to this point. It’s hard to tell where the computer assist takes over for the actual movie camera. The result is a technical masterpiece. I did find the pace to be a little inconsistent. Important moments that require some breathing room breeze by, while frivolity seems to be lingered upon. (I find the pace of Boardwalk Empire to be a little pokey, too.) Emotionally, Scorsese definitely seems more comfortable evoking fear and anger, rather than sentiment. But the design, the color, the movement and the acting left me astonished. Even the 3-D was good! It wasn’t too dark. When he dies, which will hopefully be a long time from now, and the entertainment press plays all the clips from his films eulogizing his great body of work, it’ll be hilarious to see clips of Hugo along side Taxi Driver.