The overwhelming front-runner at this year's Academy Awards is a French-made, black-and-white silent film. It doesn't seem like the conventional choice on paper, and yet "The Artist" is arguably the least daring film in the Best Picture race.

Don't get me wrong. It's virtually impossible not to like "The Artist," especially for those who claim to be students of classic cinema. The film is stuffed with loving nods to the silent era, and it plays with the conventions and restraints of the form without making it play like a stuffy history lesson.

I'm just not sure "The Artist" is anything without the novelty of silence. In its most basic form, the film is a simple story of redemption with broadly drawn characters and an adorable dog. Without the nostalgic references, it doesn't carry much weight in a Best Picture race.

Another Best Picture contender, Martin Scorsese's "Hugo," uses admiration of the silent film era as a pivotal plot point. The film begins as a relatively innocuous children's tale about an orphan who lives in a clock tower. It's unfair to spoil the experience, but "Hugo" turns into something very similar in theme to "The Artist."

Both are about the celebration (and preservation) of a lost time. The difference being the message in "Hugo" is revealed through story and character rather than a gimmick. Scorsese's film celebrates the movie past while also utilizing the best technology of today - his use of 3D is more fluid and thrilling than anything we've seen in its modern incarnation.

Nostalgia factors into other Best Picture nominees this year. Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" is about a struggling writer who dreams of living in the Roaring Twenties. Through magical happenstance, he gets to hobnob with artists of the era, including Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It's a fun little movie with a smart screenplay... apparently enough to call it one of the Best Pictures of the year.

Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" would be an insufferable experience without its stunning cinematography and obvious inspiration from the Westerns of John Ford. It isn't even Spielberg's best movie this year, but voters obviously couldn't resist the image of a sunset-soaked horse surviving the perils of World War I. The "look" of the film screams Best Picture even if the movie itself is less than worthy.

In theory, I like the concept of selecting more than five Best Picture nominees. This year, however, the field of nine seems bloated. Of these nostalgic offerings, only "Hugo" transforms into something more substantive than mere homage.

The entire process is entirely subjective, of course. I just wish "The Artist" wasn't the default front-runner. Everyone liking the movie doesn't necessarily make it great. It won't stir the passionate opinions and contrasting ideas the way something like "No Country for Old Men" does. Everything good about "The Artist" is right there on the surface. Best Picture should offer some surprise - something to talk about in the years to come.

I'd say that movie this year is about baseball statistics and co-stars Jonah Hill. But don't get me started.

Ticket Stubs is sponsored by the Hayden Cinema Six Theater. Showtimes at www.HaydenCinema6.com. Tyler Wilson can be reached at [email protected].