You can't fault it as smart entertainment, which eschews parody to make a sincere tribute that also serves as cogent current commentary. full review

"The Artist" drags, as any film telling its story with its mouth and ears tied behind its back can be expected to. But it's a lovely bit of froth, the meringue on a cinema season that is both high-minded and awards oriented. full review

The movie ever fully shakes off its air of skillfully executed experiment, but it's spirited and charming nonetheless. full review

'The Artist': Michel Hazanavicius's novelty film owes much to Jean Dujardin's irresistible smile full review

For a movie that is so much about technique, it's surprising how affecting the story is. full review

The Artist is the most surprising and delightful film of 2011. full review

A silent movie shot in sumptuous black-and-white, no less. A silent flick made with not a jot of distancing winking, but instead born of a heady affection for a bygone, very bygone, era of filmmaking. full review

It's a rocket to the moon fueled by unadulterated joy and pure imagination. full review

Strangely, wonderfully, The Artist feels as bold and innovative a moviegoing experience as James Cameron's bells-and-whistles Avatar did a couple of years ago. full review

"The Artist'' is a small, exquisitely-cut jewel in a style everyone assumes is 80 years out of date. full review

A beguiling tale about Hollywood's silent movie days that is itself silent, this made-in-L.A. French feature will charm cinephiles with its affection for one of the movies' golden ages. full review

This effort often manages to duplicate the magical pantomime of the era; a lovely scene in which Bejo drapes herself in the arms of a hung jacket as if it were a human lover could have come straight out of a Marion Davies picture. full review

The Artist is charming as all get-out, a delightful little movie about the movies. full review

"The Artist" is such an engaging, delightful film that, if you like movies, you will walk out of the theater with a smile. You just will; it's that inspired. full review

Is "The Artist" a screwball comedy? A sentimental melodrama? A spoof? Serious? What? Yes, yes, yes and yes. full review

Yes, it's virtually silent, it's black-and-white, and you might not know the leads. But if you don't take a chance on this film, we can't be friends any more. full review

My, The Artist is delightful, ingenious, funny, poignant and, in its own small way, profound. Put Oscar on high alert. full review

Says something about stubbornness and ego (look at the pretension in that title again) and about the dangers everyone faces when they refuse to see that their world is changing around them. full review

In many ways - in all ways - "The Artist" is a profound achievement. full review

This slight but enormously likable picture seems destined to be an awards magnet: A holiday release with enough formal sophistication to appeal to cinephiles and enough old-fashioned showbiz bravado to win over a general audience. full review