The Revenant

"I ain't afraid to die. I've done that already."

                                          

A man wakes and pushes himself out of his frozen, half-covered grave. He is injured and left for dead in the cold, harsh winter of the wild American frontier. He crawls across the ground in obvious agony to the snow-covered corpse of his loved one, the last of his family. He checks the corpse for breath or a heartbeat before laying on the chest and vowing to never leave. The camera, low to the ground, pushes in on this broken man and as his breathes become more ragged and heavy, the camera fogs. The scene transitions to an aerial shot close to a patch of thin clouds, high over the snow-capped mountains and plains of the rugged, brutal countryside as time and space pass. These clouds then become the smokey, slightly nervous breath of the murderer. A man, as tough as the land, who inhales his pipe while his companion nearby is unaware of the man's crimes. He is contemplative, eager to survive this moment and willing to do anything but to survive he must keep his companion alive without alerting him to his crime. The murderer and his companion are unaware that the injured man is hell-bent on revenge and hunting them across the wilderness.

Alejandro González Iñárritu won Best Picture last year with Birdman, Or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, a comedic-drama about the decayed mind of a star actor that was most presented in one take thanks to some nifty digital editing, In 2015/2016 he and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki return for The Revenant, a breathtaking journey through the uncharted American frontier that has made headlines throughout the year due to its troubled production. Moving the entire production from Canada to Argentina to follow the weather, overblown action scenes and shooting in harsh wilderness and natural light. The Revenant stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter as prominent members of a band of hunters during America's early days who, after their camp is destroyed by Pawnee Native Americans and their hard-earned cargo of animal pelts lost, are forced to march across the frozen mountains and tundra's back to the safety of their frontier fort. Meanwhile the Native American tribe search and hunt for their chief's missing daughter.

The concept of breathing is the central thematic concern of the film, whether that be the physical embodiment of it, the emotional significance of it or even the psychological motivation such an innate part of life can provide within the perils of such a brutal environment. The score invokes the concept with percussion and low tones briefly swelling, booming and dissipating like heavy breaths, or higher more tense tones emulating hyperventilation in some action scenes. The transitions and editing within and between scenes uses the setting to its fullest, specifically bodies of water, to add the feeling of breathing through editing besides just communicating the advancement of time, and this extends to Iñarritu repeatedly using the emergence of characters from womb-like positions to echo the first breaths of life. Breathing is an integral part of the performance of the antagonistic leads DiCaprio and Hardy, often used instead of dialogue and feeding into the simplistic manner of this well-told story. Hardy again especially puts in another fine performance this year disappearing into the role of Fitzgerald, and this certainly is exemplified in his scenes with the other leads such as DiCaprio's silent skilled survivor, Poulter's youthful moralist and Gleeson's passionate, rational and tested noble captain who all often run foul of Hardy's brutal simplistic logic, lack of scruples and antagonism fueled by his desire to live in spite of those around him. The performances of the cast, the film's production design and costumes are flawless, brilliant and brutal, creating unique characters, and are never stock in appearance or performance but the true star of the film is the cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki who, if all is right with the world, should take home his third straight cinematography Oscar because of his work on this film.

Iñarritu and Gonzalez collaborated last year on the Oscar-winning Birdman and enough of the camera styles of that film are evolved within The Revenant to warrant the connection between the two films. While far from a single-take film there is plenty of single-take scenes and digital editing, "invisible cuts" achieved through matching moments and using digital editing software to manipulate and create the appearance of an unbroken moment, within large moments and the low-angle, diagonal close-ups on faces that made Birdman such a stand-out visually. But The Revenant is bolstered by a camera that almost breaks the fourth wall, that uses the breath-taking scenery and natural light to un-matched effect, and pushes digital film-making forward with its enviable clarity. Simply put, this is easily the best looking film in a good long while. Some of the landscape, establishing and aerial shots could be directly compared to the westerns of Sergio Leone and his unparalleled eye for capturing the location, while others appear as though directly taken by a seasoned wildlife photographer. Certain moments of action and tension are tastefully shot in one take, but the night shots prove especially beautiful with incredible scenes captured supposedly without artificial light sources. Lubezki committed to using the ALEXA 65 camera on the shoot and the results are instantly and emphatically apparent.

On the downside The Revenant does feel its 156-minute run-time with more than enough scenes of birth-like emergence and hairy men breathing heavily while hungrily devouring meat, Hardy's voice again borders on impenetrable at moments, a multi-lingual exchange has its immersion destroyed by the necessity for the subtitles to tell the audience that they're in French, and the final shot is a bit of a cop-out. But that hardly matters, The Revenant is worth the hype on the strength of the cinematography alone, and the reality that behind that is an intense, affecting, tragic story by a director in his prime, a brilliant cast and skilled crew (with a perfect score to boot) makes The Revenant a must-see film.

Christian Bale as Steve Jobs

So fresh on the heels of the previous Steve Jobs biopic that nobody saw (although I hear Ashton Kutcher did a passable job) comes news of another biopic of the Apple founder. It will be written by the prominent Aaron Sorkin, who is famous for his work on the TV shows The West Wing and The Newsroom, as well as winning Best Adapted Screenplay for The Social Network. He will this time be adapting Walter Isaacson's biography and if The Social Network is anything to go on, this film should be sharp.

Sorkin has recently stated in an interview that Christian Bale has been cast in the role. He praised him for his work and said that "we needed the best actor on the board in a certain age range and that was Chris Bale". Sorkin also said of the film that role will be extremely difficult and that "he says more words than most people in three movies combined". Other actors rumoured for the role were Bradley Cooper, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Leo DiCaprio was attached at one stage too. Danny Boyle will direct.

Where this will fit in terms of previous films about Jobs is anyone's guess. Whether it will focus on his early career like jOBS (2013) or his rivalry with Bill Gates a la Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) is a mystery. Certainly due to the scope of both the biography and Sorkin's method of writing, I'm sure that it will be dialogue heavy and epic in scope.

The Wolf of Wall Street

Leonardo DiCaprio seems to be drawn to movies about excess. And excess is the name of the game in The Wolf of Wall Street.

Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) begins his career working for the shady Mark Hanna (Mathew McConaughey). Belfort loses his job after the firm he works at fails on Black Monday (which is something I'm guessing people in economics will know about). His wife Teresa (Cristin Milioti) encourages him to get a job at boiler room outfit that sells penny stocks, run by Dwayne (Spike Jonze). Once Belfort realises that he can make a higher commission selling these stocks, he begins to accrue wealth and begins a company with Donny Azoff (Jonah Hill), where the two embark on a lifestyle of excess and debauchery. This behaviour grabs the attention of FBI Agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler), who begins to investigate him for a number of financial frauds.

The film is fantastically hilarious from beginning to end. Leo once again proves he is one of the greatest actors of his generation and that he can also be comedic. The film runs for 179 minutes and by the end I did start to feel the effects of that length of time. Although it's a gripping film, I felt as though it ran twenty minutes too long.

Leo's performance is fantastic and he has a great chemistry with the rest of the cast, especially Margot Robbie, who plays his second wife, and Rob Reiner, who plays his father. Robbie is insanely good in this film and I can't imagine how hard it is for an Aussie to pull of a Long Island accent like that or for such a long time.

Jonah Hill also shows that he has game as a serious actor. I know he's been trying for a while and he really breaks through with this film, whilst still drawing on his talents as a comedian. Jon Bernthal is someone who I've had a hard time getting behind (mainly for his role of Shane on The Walking Dead), but his talent playing for playing the scumbag is well utilised in this film. Also the Spike Jonze cameo just made me laugh.

Verdict: Martin Scorsese crafts a wonderful piece of art about the excesses of the Wall Street rich whilst being devilishly funny and accurate. Bonus points for the hilarious joke about cerebral palsy (which I laughed at harder than anyone in the cinema).

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby showcases the glamour of the Roaring Twenties in New York, but also explores the dark seedy underbelly of the people who lived during that time.

The story follows young writer Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) moves to New York and gets caught up in the extravagant world of his neighbour, the enigmatic Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), a mysterious businessman with an undying love for Nick's cousin, Daisy (Carey Mulligan). Daisy lives with her husband Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton) on the other side of the bay to Nick and Gatsby. Carraway endeavours to find out more about Gatsby, his background and his fierce love for Daisy.

The relationship between Gatsby and Carraway is an interesting one. Nick is enamoured with Gatsby and not just his lavish lifestyle as many people who attend his parties are. It is interesting to note that early on, Buchanan makes reference to Carraway's voyeuristic tendencies.

The performances by DiCaprio and Maguire are quite amazing. DiCaprio plays this long sense of loneliness perfectly and Maguire's Carraway evolves from a naive, wide-eyed believer in life into a cynical person of the world around him.

Although Daisy's character is central to the plot and Mulligan's performance was superb, I felt as though her character was just a facilitator for confrontations between the male characters. I also felt as though there was no character development on her part. Relative newcomer Elizabeth Debicki shines as Jordan Baker, a professional golfer and friend of Daisy. She is one to look out for in the future.

Normally I am not a fan of Baz Luhrman's overindulgence (the only other film of his I enjoyed was Romeo + Juliet), but here it works. The film is visually stunning and does have a great ethereal feeling to it. However, when shots would pull back from the foreground and reveal a CGI horizon in the background, I did feel a bit removed from the world. Likewise, there are a few scenes in which the film looked like it was running at a faster frame rate, that while extremely subtle, through me off.

One aspect of the film that I thoroughly enjoyed was the soundtrack. I was a bit skeptical when I heard that Luhrmann was going to use hip-hop because 'it currently shares the same status that jazz held in the 20s', but he integrated it seamlessly into the film so that it was unnoticeable next to the jazz tracks.

Verdict: Despite some visual issues and character flaws, I felt as though this was an enjoyable look at drama in the Twenties. And it had one hell of a soundtrack.

Django Unchained

I remember on my first day of film school, one of my teachers asked me what I wanted to be in the
industry. When I replied that I wanted to be a director, he preceded to ask me who was my favourite. I said Tarantino, because like most young filmmakers my age, he was one of the people who inspired me to get into film. He then started to mock me for being inspired by a man who was incapable of being original and someone who stole scenes from other films. In my own naive way I thought this to be true, but as I saw more and more films by other directors I realised that everyone makes homages to their favourite films and filmmakers. But it isn't until now that I feel fully vindicated. Of course after my dressing down in front of the class, my newfound friends all told me they liked Tarantino as well. So, the reason for my vindication, you might ask, is Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. And that is because this movie is a movie that covers such a controversial, heart wrenching topic that affects the majority of the population of the US.

The movie follows the story of the titular Django (Jamie Foxx), who is sought out by the cunning bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) to help in discover the whereabouts of three of his targets, in return Django will earn his freedom. As they move on and Dr. Schultz trains Django as his protege and they embark on numerous bounties, we find out that Django's wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), was sold to someone different to Django as punishment for running away. Dr. Schultz agrees to help Django find his bride. She is being held at Candyland and her master is the downright evil Calvin Candie (Leo DiCaprio), a francophile who doesn't speak a word of French. Dr. Schultz and Django concoct a master plan to get Broomhilda to safety and the film ends in classic Tarantino style (going into any further depth on the plot would just be unfair).

Tarantino has said that there is something for everyone to hate in this film and I have never heard a truer statement. Whether it be the stylised but gratuitous violence, the overuse of one of the worst racial slurs one can utter (although in the context of 1858, that overuse is understandable) or the graphic depiction of the punishment of slaves (which is the one that wrenched at me) there really is something for everyone to wince at.

Also there is not a single weak performance in this movie. Everyone is exemplary. Jamie Foxx should win an award, any award for his performance. Django is a sympathetic character who you hope everything comes good for. I haven't seen Christoph Waltz in anything since his depiction of sadistic SS Colonel Hans Landa in Tarantino's previous effort Inglorious Basterds. Dr. King Schultz couldn't be further away from Landa. Even though he is in effect a glorified assassin, he is still a friendly and affable character, that's of course if you're not one of his targets. The stunning Kerry Washington is unfathomably fantastic as Broomhilda. She is obviously loved a lot by Django and in return she loves him in equal amount. One of the scenes which disturbed me most involved her being released from a hotbox, which I can only imagine was a punishment for slaves in that time.

And then on the other side of the coin we have the heinously evil Calvin Candie and his manservant, Stephen, played respectively by Leo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson. DiCaprio's performance as such a despicable character renders him so completely unnoticeable from any of his previous roles. There is one scene where he smashes a glass with his hand and suffers quite a bad cut, but the character keeps going. Sam Jackson is just as excellent as the devious Stephen, who orders the slaves around like he is their master. There are also a huge number of cameos by respected actors from around the globe, but they are too numerous to mention one by one.

Verdict: This film is an epic sprawling across the southern states. It is also classic Tarantino and probably the best film of his career. A must-see.