Thoughts on "The Descendants", "Hugo"

I've been furiously trying to put together my final projects for school, spend time with the family and still keep up with the latest movies, so consider this a what-have-I-seen-lately purge, of sorts.
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First up for Thanksgiving week was Alexander Payne's "The Descendants", a nearly de facto Oscar contender far before anybody had the chance to see it, what with its behind-of and in-front-of-the-camera talent. 
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What I found was a film that was certainly the work of a singular artist, of brave tenacity and real-life sensation (how else do you describe a film that so dryly, so openly spews vitriolic daggers at a helpless, soon-to-be-deceased loved one?) that nevertheless produces a highly unemphatic and resoundingly pat resolution about the importance of family. 
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Considering the pedigree of Mr. Payne (a man I still adore for his smashing 1999 high-school satire, "Election"), the biggest condemnation I can lay at the feat of "The Descendants" is that, despite its warped, almost uncomfortable mid-life cynicism, it's resoundingly bland. 
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Its more elevated attempts at a laugh are both broad and vulgar and rely almost solely on a paper-thin iteration of a supporting character, the long-haired, surfs up boyfriend, Sid, who seems to be there for no other reason than he makes a good punching bag. 
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Not to mention the film's nearly unlistenable soundtrack, which barely wavers from emotive native-tongued moaning over a ukulele or other slack-key guitars, proving about as useful an adhesive between scenes as a moist piece of chewing gum. 
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I do give the film credit for important yet all-too-rare refusals to adhere to formula and going in some surprising places with a few supporting characters, yet these exceptions eventually prove to be far too infrequent, the film, far too floral and flavorless. [C]
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On Thanksgiving Eve Day, I ventured into Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" blissfully unaware of the magical cinema voyage that I was about to embark upon. Upon first glance, the film may seem like an artist attempting to slum it with a base genre film (in this case, a eye-popping children's 3D adventure), yet the film that "Hugo" is at the beginning is far from the one you end up with in the end. 
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Surprisingly, it's a Scorsese film through-and-through, full of his technical virtuosity and camerawork, his protracted, elusive story structure and his impassioned love for the cinema and its history and preservation. 
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It's very much a film that will leave too many young viewers a bit groggy and tired with its bloated running-time and scarce comedic gags, yet their paying adults will recognize and respond to its sweet, cathartic resolution of life-remembrance and the reconstruction of a lost artist. 
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In this way, "Hugo" is the stealthiest, most auteuristic family-marketed film since Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are". Both are not only fantastic films, but examples of talented directors working outside of their comfort zone (established properties for big money studios) that nevertheless feel like the work of nobody else. [B+]