Hugo is an unusual movie, straddling the worlds of both “art cinema” and technical showpiece. It won many awards for cinematography, as well as visual and sound design. Even its 3D version was widely lauded for using the technology in service of the storytelling, rather than simply for flash. And it was made by acclaimed director Martin Scorsese, who’s not typically known for putting effects in the foreground of his work.At the same time, it works as both fictional adventure story and historical remembrance; Hugo mainly concerns itself with the namesake (fictional) main character, an orphaned boy living on his own in a railway station and trying to avoid notice by the authorities, but Hugo’s fate is tied up with that of a toymaker who also happens to be Georges Méliès, a real-life French film pioneer and visionary director. Hugo’s search for a connection with his father leads into the world’s search for the lost Méliès, who has disappeared from public life.It’s a magical tale that is itself about the way movies can be both emotionally and literally magical. But it also takes true joy in the victories of a little boy who misses his dad and refuses to give up hope.