One pie, extra laughs, hold the pepperoni.

The silent film era lives again in The Artist, a loving (and entirely silent) homage to the grand Hollywood productions of the '20s. Written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius, the film follows the changing fortunes of two white-hot movie stars, silent screen legend George Valentin (Jean Dujardin, who deservedly won the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival) and rising starlet Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo). While Peppy's career takes off with the arrival of sound, George finds his prospects drying up. The movie blends dozens of silent film genres -- Chaplinesque comedy, grand melodrama and even a Rin Tin Tin rescue sequence -- into a totally enjoyable whole. No wonder The Artist has emerged as a leading Oscar contender: It's an unabashed, but entirely genuine celebration of old-school movie magic. Writer/director Michel Hazanavicius talked to us about the process of making his passion project and why he chose to shoot a black-and-white movie on color film.

Avoid the crowds at the multiplex by seeking out some of these independent films over the long holiday weekend:

You wouldn't normally expect to see Martin Scorsese listed as the director of an adaptation of a popular children's book. But that's one of the many delightfully strange things about Hugo, a lavish adaptation of Brian Selznick's best-selling period novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, in which a young orphan living in a Parisian train station unwitting befriends the pioneering silent filmmaker, George Méliès. The cast and crew of Hugo appeared at a press conference in New York recently to talk about their involvement in bringing Scorsese's vision for the film to life.

Like every other kid that grew up watching The Muppets in their '70s and '80s prime, I've been eagerly awaiting the release of Kermit and the gang's big-screen reboot, The Muppets. It's no secret that Jim Henson's gaggle of colorful puppets lost their way somewhat in the wake of their creator's death, as classic features like The Muppet Movie giving way to embarrassments like Muppets From Space. Certainly, the creative team behind The Muppets -- which includes screenwriter and star Jason Segel, his co-writer Nicholas Stoller and director James Bobin (making his feature film debut after co-creating HBO's terrific Flight of the Conchords series) -- have been saying all the right things about their intentions with this movie, namely bringing back the same playful spirit and toe-tapping score that defined the first three Muppet features, The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper and, my personal favorite, The Muppets Take Manhattan. As an added bonus, it was exciting to think that my own kid's first big-screen encounter with the Muppets (he's already been introduced to the earlier films on DVD) would be a good movie in its own right and not a disappointing reminder of the characters' past glories.

After two previous Oscar nominations, former Dawson's Creek star-turned-in-demand-Hollywood-actress Michelle Williams looks set to three-peat, playing iconic screen legend Marilyn Monroe in the new film, My Week With Marilyn. Adapted from a memoir by Colin Clark, the film takes viewers behind the scenes on the ill-fated 1957 British film The Prince and the Showgirl, which co-starred Monroe and Laurence Olivier (played by Kenneth Branagh here). The two repeatedly clashed during the shoot and Monroe sought solace by briefly befriending Clark (Eddie Redmayne), then a young production assistant. My Week With Marilyn director Simon Curtis spoke with us about Williams' take on Marilyn and why The Prince and the Showgirl probably should never have been made.

Since breaking into Hollywood in the early '00s, writer/director Nicholas Stoller has written jokes for such big-name comic actors as Jim Carrey, Jack Black and Russell Brand. But those assignments paled in comparison to his most recent gig, scribbling jokes for Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear and the rest of the Muppet crew for their upcoming big-screen relaunch, The Muppets. Paired with his good friend and collaborator Jason Segel (who starred in Stoller's directorial debut Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and served as both the co-writer and human lead of The Muppets) Stoller describes The Muppets as a "dream" assignment. He spoke with us on the phone from Los Angeles about the four-year process of writing the movie and why Kermit never, ever says anything mean.

When Abrams met Spielberg...

As one-half of the New Zealand folk duo Flight of the Conchords, Bret McKenzie has toured the world with his onstage partner Jemaine Clement, serenading audiences with such hilarious tunes as "Bowie", "Foux du Fafa" and "Robots." Now he's helping another crop of characters get their musical comedy groove on: those lovable, indefatigable Muppets. McKenzie served as music supervisor on their highly anticipated comeback vehicle, The Muppets, a job that required him to oversee productions of all of the movie's original songs, including two that he wrote himself. McKenzie spoke with TWoP by phone from L.A. about growing up as part of the Muppet generation, plans for a Conchords reunion and how he learned that Muppet chickens don't sing.

The release of a Clint Eastwood-directed Oscar hopeful has come to be one of the hallmarks of the holiday season, right up there with Black Friday sales, Christmas decorations and yet another live-action Chipmunks sequel. Since 2003's Mystic River, the iconic actor/filmmaker has released at least one prestige picture (and sometimes two) almost every year at around this time looking for box-office success and awards love. Sometimes it works (Million Dollar Baby, Letters From Iwo Jima) and other times, it doesn't (Flags of our Fathers, Hereafter). Based on the underwhelming reviews and grosses of his latest film, J. Edgar, an expansive biopic of the legendary FBI director written by Oscar-winning Milk scribe Dustin Lance Black and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover, this is shaping up to be one of his off years.