Observer by Rex Reed

Get ready for a smash hit. Gimmicky but delicious, this is a valentine to the movies I promise you will cherish.

Boxoffice Magazine by Pete Hammond

The film's charm and delight of discovery, plus its sterling international performances, could make it a breakout hit in theaters.

NPR by Bob Mondello

The delighted gasps in the theater will make you glad you took a chance on The Artist. Silent black-and-white movies are not coming back, but this one is such a rewarding labor of love by all of the artists involved that it just might make you wish they could.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey

With elements of "A Star Is Born" and "Singing in the Rain," The Artist is a rarity, an ingenious crowd-pleaser.

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

This is not a work of film history but rather a generous, touching and slightly daffy expression of unbridled movie love.

Movieline by Stephanie Zacharek

It's a picture that romances its audience into watching in a new way - by, paradoxically, asking us to watch in an old way. The Artist is perhaps the most modern movie imaginable right now.

San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle

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

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

Here is one of the most entertaining films in many a moon, a film that charms because of its story, its performances and because of the sly way it plays with being silent and black and white.

Arizona Republic by Bill Goodykoontz

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.

Tampa Bay Times by Steve Persall

Hazanavicius crafted more than a replica of the silent era; this feels like a time capsule found 80 years later, right on time to be revolutionary in a louder world. Yet The Artist is a masterwork that likely won't be imitated. How many movies in 2011 can you say that about? Only the best one.

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

The Artist encapsulates everything we go to movies for: action, laughs, tears and a chance to get lost in another world. It just might leave you speechless. How can Oscar resist?

The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson

It's a beautifully shot, beautifully acted piece of fluff.

Variety

A love letter to silent cinema sealed with a smirk, The Artist reteams director Michel Hazanavicius with dapper "OSS 117" star Jean Dujardin for another high-concept homage, delivering a heartfelt, old-school romance without the aid of spoken dialogue or sound.

Village Voice by Melissa Anderson

The Artist is movie love at its most anodyne; where Guy Maddin has used the conventions of silent film to express his loony psychosexual fantasias for more than a decade, Hazanavicius sweetly asks that we not be afraid of the past.

Time Out by Joshua Rothkopf

A fascinating experiment is about to happen, and who doesn't want to be part of a little fun? That rarest of birds - a b&w silent film - is set to swoop into multiplexes. Trust us, it won't bite.

The New Yorker by Anthony Lane

The Artist is not just about black-and-white silent pictures. It is a black-and-white silent picture. And it's French.

Miami Herald by René Rodríguez

A brazen stunt that pays off. Writer-director Michel Hazanavicius, simultaneously channeling "Singin' in the Rain" and "A Star is Born," tells a story about 1920s Hollywood made in the style of that era.

Slant Magazine

The Artist neatly sidesteps this unsolvable dilemma by ignoring everything that's fascinating and memorable about the era, focusing instead on a patchwork of general knowledge, so eroded of inconvenient facts that it doesn't even qualify as a roman à clef.