1. The Artist
A movie set in Hollywood's silent era that is virtually wordless: a gimmick? No, a delightfully inventive comedy about a swashbuckling star (Gallic charmer Jean Dujardin) and the peppy waif (Brnice Bejo) he befriends. Think Singin' in the Rain, but silent and in black and white. From French writer-director Michel Hazanavicius comes an effervescent treat for anyone open to sheer joy.
2. Hugo
Martin Scorsese, the movie-mad child who grew up to be both a supreme picturemaker and a diligent savior of old films, creates a fantasy autobiography in this rapturous 3-D vision of Brian Selznick's novel about...