The Revenant Review

What does Leonardo DiCaprio have to do to win an Oscar? In The Revenant, there have been rumours that his character gets raped by a grizzly bear. That should probably do it. Leo plays Hugh Glass, an 1820s frontiersman who is on a hunting expedition in the wilderness along with his mixed race son, when his team are attacked by Native Americans. Glass is then savaged (but not raped) by  a bear, leaving him with horrendous injuries. Although two men (Tom Hardy’s Fitzgerald and Will Poulter’s Bridger) are left with Glass and his son to watch over him and give him a proper burial when the time comes, Fitzgerald betrays Glass and leaves him for dead and with a bitter taste for revenge. Glass must survive alone in the wilderness and find the men responsible for killing his son.

The Revenant is a story of rebirth and revenge, a howl for tolerance and a poetic, tragic look back at an America that has all but disappeared. It might seem like a deceptively simple story; man is mauled, must survive his injuries and being left to die, and man seeks revenge against those who wronged him, but there’s much more beneath the surface. It’s hero is a man who has embraced America and it’s native inhabitants, whereas Tom Hardy’s Fitzgerald is a ruthless, self-serving bastard whose intolerance and hatred seethes inside him. They aren’t particularly complex characters, but their eventual showdown becomes much more than a bloody brutal fight between two men.

The scale of the suffering of the characters (and the cast and crew) is all up on screen. The camera lens is constantly fogged up by the actors’ breath, reminding just how damn cold it is. The beards are pure icicles and the shivers rack through the actors’ bodies. By getting his team out into the untouched parts of Canada and Argentina’s harshest backwoods, Inarritu has pushed them to the limit and The Revenant’s ode to suffering feels more real than it could ever have felt if any of this had been faked. If Oscars were given out for effort, Inarritu and his crew and actors should be applauded for getting away from the green screens and California sunshine and making their movie in one of the most inhospitable environments imaginable.

Nature is the real star of The Revenant. It dwarves the characters. It’s the most vicious antagonist, but also the helper that aids Leo’s Glass most in his escape from other men. He uses waterfalls, cliffs and dead horses to survive. The landscapes are impossible to fake and The Revenant gets its real power from being filmed out in the incredible wilderness. One scene sees Leo crawl to the edge of a cliff. The sight of a massive river cutting through the earth far below the cliff is nothing short of breathtaking. DOP Emmanuel Lubezki savours it all, making this look like the bloodiest, but most beautiful Malick movie you’ve ever seen.

Filmmaking should be hard. But The Revenant takes the challenges of bringing a story to the screen to a new level. The struggle to make this film is reflected in every frame. It’s a brutal film, born out of brutal conditions. Don’t just give Leo his Oscar at last; everyone involved deserves an award for their commitment.

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The Revenant Teaser Trailer Reveals Leo Still Not Winning That Oscar

Goddamit I just know that The Revenant isn't going to get Leonardo DiCaprio his long overdue Oscar. Doesn't matter how bloody epic the film looks, somebody in some plain old, possibly very boring biopic is going to come along and snatch it away from him.

To be fair, judging from this teaser, Leo's going to be doing a lot of screaming his lungs out and running and fighting for his life, but this doesn't even look like it's his film.

Firstly he's joined by Tom Hardy, Will Poulter and Domnhall Gleeson so this could be just as much their time to shine as it is little old Leo's.

More importantly, from the look of this footage, this is another chance to see what director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki can come up with together after the wonderfully shot Birdman. You just know we're going to be immersed right in the middle of those stunningly harsh landscapes, as well as the bloodshed and chaos of all that fighting. If anyone is getting Oscars, it will be one of those two.

Even if it doesn't bag Leo Best Actor (and I pray that I'm wrong by the way), it's my most anticipated film of 2016, as I wrote here for The Daily Heckle. I think it looks absolutely brilliant, even if Leo does miss out AGAIN on taking home a golden baldie.

Birdman Review

Actor Riggan Thomas (Michael Keaton) once played iconic superhero Birdman, helping to usher in the age of comic book movie franchises that (to some) are the plague of modern multiplexes. Now, Riggan is washed up and putting all of his money into a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver’s short story ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’. Demonstrating some strangely powerful telekinetic abilities, but struggling with voices in his head and a personal life in tatters, Riggan has days of previews to go before the opening night of his big Broadway comeback. With a new cast member in place, the arrogant and annoying Mike (Edward Norton), and a daughter fresh out of rehab (Emma Stone), Riggan faces challenges to his sanity both on and off the stage.

Birdman is as bonkers as its deluded, self-destructive main character. Don’t go in expecting a straightforward story of a struggling actor with ego issues trying to stage a comeback. Birdman is far more than that. It’s about actors and their issues, about critics and their power, and it’s about families and their complications. This is from the director who gave us 21 Grams and Biutiful so it deals with deep depression, but this time with plenty of harsh laughs to boot. The references to superhero movies come thick and fast at the start; Robert Downey Jr and Jeremy Renner are namechecked, while Keaton, Norton and Stone have all had their turns at superhero franchises in the past. Birdman is as ‘meta’ as films come, from the casting to the script to the fact that the music (which seems non-diegetic) is often being played by a randomly appearing drummer.

The character of Birdman is a constant shadow over Riggan, but he is also undoubtedly the reason for him being in the position he is. Being an adored superhero has had a lasting effect on Riggan, expanding his ego so much that he might be destined for the biggest fall of his career by trying to do something different and daring. Keaton is really put through the wringer by the script that tears apart these actors and their delusions of grandeur, but also explores their deep seated insecurities and desperation to be loved.

Birdman isn’t all about its whip smart dialogue though and Inarritu directs with a visceral mixture of simplicity and complexity. Long takes complement the fluid dialogue, while the drumming score and use of real locations keep things grounded, even as Riggan really starts to lose his mind. Unlike the superhero movies it rails against, Birdman is smart and requires way more than one sitting to fully appreciate its complexity. If only it could beat The Avengers at the box office in 2015.

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