What is there left for me to say about Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, especially after I used every superlative in the book when it appeared last November? Probably not much. I continue to find it a film of surprising depth and infinite pleasures, and I continue to be absolutely baffled by those who don’t see it that way. I will, however, say that I think a lot of people take away the wrong message from the film. Well, maybe it isn’t the wrong message, but I don’t think it’s the central one. There’s a tendency to think of the film ultimately as Scorsese’s plea for film preservation. Yes, that’s in there, but that’s actually a fairly small part of the movie. To me, it’s much more a plea to treasure our artists while we have them—not relegate them to the dustbin of the unfashionable, or deem them, in that hateful modern fashion, as no longer “relevant.” That’s the idea at the core of Hugo, which makes the film so very special and human. My original review is here: http://www.mountainx.com/movies/review/hugo
The Hendersonville Film Society will show Hugo at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 24, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville.
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