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And the Academy Award (Should) Go To...

Big budget movies like,,,,,had a ho-hum quality. While some were really good, they didn't have the creativity and imagination that have distinguished lower budget movies of recent winners.
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The nominations for this year's Academy Awards have not yet been announced, but right now I can tell you which movie should win, even if it doesn't.

In recent years, the top award has gone to off-beat movies -- not necessarily to the blockbusters that used to win, even when they weren't particularly deserving.

Big budget movies like Titanic, Gladiator, The Godfather, My Fair Lady, Ben-Hur, and The Greatest Show on Earth had a ho-hum quality. While some were really good, they didn't have the creativity and imagination that have distinguished lower budget movies that were recent winners like The King's Speech last year, The Hurt Locker, Slumdog Millionaire, No Country for Old Men, and The Departed.

This year's Academy Award for the best picture will go -- should go -- to The Artist, arguably the most daring financial investment in a movie in modern times.

What's so unusual about The Artist -- unprecedently unique -- is that it's in black and white and a silent film: a throwback to the old days of movies before the "talkies." In fact, it's opening credits are done in the old style. During the film, a sentence occasionally appears on screen to stimulate your brainwaves.

How the money guys were ever persuaded to invest in making this movie is a mystery. How I was even persuaded to go see it reinforces the basic concept that no one in their right mind would pay today's movie prices to see a black-and-white silent movie mindful of the 1920s.

But it's brilliant. Poignant, moving, delightful.

Yes, the story line involves the shift in America away from silent movies with theatre music to talkies, and the difficulties some actors had in adjusting to the new form.

Without giving away the ending, what's even more brilliant is using a lead actor and actress that no one's ever heard of or seen before. Maybe that's just me, but if the lead were played by a Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp it might have been a financial safeguard, though wouldn't have had the same impact.

As it is, the lead actor is reminiscent of Douglas Fairbanks Jr., dashing in costume or tails, with a flashing smile and manners. He's utterly unknown to North American moviegoers, and is superb in the role. Funny, vain and narcissistic, but also kind. A nice guy.

Apparently, the two leads are both French actors.

He might even get the best actor nod, but that's a crap shoot.

A nomination for best supporting actor should go to the Jack Russell terrier in the movie, whose off-camera name is Uggie and who is a natural. As a dedicated owner of a succession of Jack Russells, I'm always entranced by their personalities and their enthusiasm to share the spotlight.

This little guy's performance rivals the Jack Russell in the Jim Carrey movie The Mask, and invokes memories of other great dog movie stars: Lassie, and Rin Tin Tin, the gallant German Shepherd who specialized in WWI movie roles (he made something like 20 movies in the '20s and '30s).

In life or on film, Jack Russells tend to be scene-stealers. W.C. Fields would hate them almost as much as he hated Baby LeRoy, whose orange juice he spiked with gin, then claimed the drunken toddler was "no trouper -- send him home."

I don't pay much attention to credits in a movie. But The Artist is so daring in its topic and unusual in its casting, that it remains a wonder it was ever made. Also, it's incredible how quickly one adapts to the lack of talking, without losing the thread. A touch of genius.

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