The Revenant (2015)
And then there's Leo.
Seriously, though: Leonardo DiCaprio has been in a film with nearly every single A-list director in Hollywood. He's been directed by Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, Clint Eastwood, and Sam Mendes. Leo's also had very varied roles, playing everyone from Howard Hughes to an undercover cop trying to bust the mob to a plantation owner to a subconscious thief. There's one thing that keeps escaping Leo, however: Oscar gold. He's been nominated many times, but he's never had good luck with the lot of nominees he's been handed. Every single time he turns in an incredible performance and has been nominated, someone else steals the show.
Well folks, if Leo gets snubbed again this year, there will be no excuse. His performance as Hugh Glass in The Revenant is quite possibly the best in a long line of excellent performances. The guy had to lay in a real animal carcass, swim in freezing rivers, and eat things that I barely had the stomach to watch him eat. I feared for his life several times while watching this film, and even though I know for the most part those fears are completely ridiculous, the fact that someone can give a performance that gives me that feeling is insane.
There's something else about The Revenant that makes Leo more likely to win as well: it is an Oscar bait film in its purest form. I have absolutely no problem with this, as much of the Oscar bait I've seen has been excellently made and acted by nearly everyone involved. The Revenant, however, takes things to a completely different level.
Take the direction, for example. Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the director of last year's Best Picture and Best Director winner Birdman, made some very interesting decisions in shooting The Revenant. Like any decent director, he chose to film entirely on location in Canada, the United States, and Argentina. He also would not allow any CGI to be added in post-production, which for a film like this is more than reasonable. One more interesting choice: Iñárritu chose to use only natural lighting for every single shot in The Revenant. This may not sound terribly challenging, but almost every film ever made uses other light sources: in fact, many films try to minimize the impact of natural light on the shot because it's not something that the crew can control. Time after time in The Revenant, I was astounded by the way Iñárritu and his cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Oscar-winning cinematographer of Gravity and Birdman) used natural light sources to their advantage to highlight the bleakness of the landscapes they were shooting. It allowed for a very ethereal look to the film at times and an incredibly raw one at others. I'm fairly convinced at this point that both Iñárritu and Lubezki will win awards in their respective categories, even if The Revenant doesn't fulfill its award season potential.
There are also a host of great performances in The Revenant besides Leo's effort. Tom Hardy, who has also been nominated by the Academy for Best Supporting Actor, is stellar as always and for the first time actually was able to make his performance shine above the film itself. Will Poulter also is surprisingly good and makes the case for a bright career in the future. Domhnall Gleeson, who has seemingly taken over Hollywood after two high-profile roles in Ex Machina and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, continues to show that he is the real deal in The Revenant, often providing an excellent voice of reason for the other characters.
Usually, I describe the plot of whatever film I happen to be reviewing. However, with The Revenant I don't know how in-depth I actually need to go. It's a tale of revenge in the bitter cold American frontier in the 1820s. Yes, there is a defiance of command by Hardy's character and some other elements that add complexity as well, but the essence of The Revenant's story is vengeance. There are some liberties taken in adapting the historical account of Hugh Glass's survival, but this is still a well-told historically-inspired story that lets the filmmaking and acting shine.
Overall, The Revenant is one of the most brutal films I have ever seen. This is mostly due to Leo and Iñárritu's incredible commitment to using the real deal in regard to set pieces, but it's also because of Lubezki's gorgeous cinematography that highlights the silent, elegant killer that nature actually is. The rest of the supporting cast make this a film that is not just an Oscar vehicle for Leo but one that is actually able to showcase the massive amount of talent on hand. It's not something that I'm wanting to rush back to and see again, but that's a testament to how harsh and unforgiving this film is. The Revenant is definitely something worth seeing sooner rather than later.
My recommendation: Definitely watch it on the largest screen possible.
Grade: 96
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