Hugo (Martin Scorsese; 2011)

In telling an apocryphal story of the latter days of silent film/visual effects pioneer Georges Méliès, Martin Scorsese implements the greatest use of very contemporary 3D visual effects I’ve ever seen. Hugo is simultaneously the best kids’ adventure film in years and a beautiful love letter to the “magic” of cinema. Converting the Lumière brothers’ “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat” (the famous early film which fooled audiences into thinking a train was coming straight at them) into 3D is the cleverest use of the technology ever conceived.  Although some will deride me for saying this, Hugo is Scorsese’s best film since at least The Age of Innocence, perhaps even since Goodfellas. The material feels personal to him in a way it hasn’t in his past few efforts. A surprisingly important work from one of our greatest living filmmakers.