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.

Will Poulter to play Pennywise the Clown

So we finally have some news about the latest adaptation of Stephen King. His terrifying novel It has been floating around for a while now as something that is in the works and now we have some solid news as to who will be in the hopefully terrifying film.

Will Poulter (of We're The Millers fame) is apparently in talks to play the pants-shittingly scary clown Pennywise, who has already been played to perfection by Tim Curry in the 1990 TV miniseries adaptation.

Apparently this adaptation will follow the 1,138 page novel closer than the previous adaptation and will be darker and scarier as well. It is about a group of adults who come back to their hometown for a reunion and are followed by the same supernatural that haunted them as children. It is a truly scary monster and the main form it takes is that of Pennywise the Clown, because nothing is scarier than a clown.

Here's a gif of Pennywise laughing at your terror.

The Maze Runner

Let the comparison games begin! Ok, so if you've read the book, or even the description, you may draw some similarities between The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games, and you'd be right to draw those similarities. Nevertheless, this is an extremely adventurous and suspenseful movie, that makes itself its own.

Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) wakes up hurtling towards the surface in a wire-mesh elevator, with no memory of who or where he is. When he emerges, he joins a society of teenage boys, living in the centre of an enormous maze that opens, closes and shifts shape every day. None of the other boys know why they're there or who put them there, but they know that they must survive, and that they must escape.

There are several different roles in the makeshift society, led by Alby (Aml Ameen), but one stands out to Thomas, the runners. The runners spend every day sprinting through the maze, mapping its walls and searching for an exit. It's a dangerous job and you have to be specially chosen for it. Soon however, the rest of the boys realise that Thomas is different to all the others.

This is one of those stories that attracts the Hollywood bigwigs to come running with their wads of cash, but it's also one that inspires the imaginations of all-ages. I must admit that I'm a bit of a sucker for any post-apocalyptic themed movies, and whilst there's no implicit mention as to why they're in the situation they're in throughout most of the movie, there is a Lord of the Flies tone to it, with society (or in this case, a small group of adolescents) being forced back to their tribal roots.

From a relatively young cast, the acting is astonishingly good. Some stand outs for me were Dylan O'Brien in the leading role, Thomas Brodie-Sangster (AKA the awesome Jojen Reed from Game of Thrones) and Will Poulter (who I like to nickname 'Matt the Marky Damon Wharlberg').

There's no doubt that a large chunk of the budget went into the film's special effects, and they're truly stunning. The concrete maze structure towers over the audience in quite a menacing way, and the bizarre creatures that lurk within it's walls really come to life. As equally good as the visuals is the engrossing sound design which makes damn sure you hear every creak of the walls, every distant bird and every squealing lovable chubby kid.

I must admit that going into this I was a bit hesitant, but it turned out to be a very strong introduction to the franchise. I don't necessarily think the next instalment will be quite as engrossing, but this is a damn good start. It's sure to draw in even the most hesitant viewer with it's strong visuals and suspenseful plot.

We're The Millers

We're the Millers does an unconventional take on the family road trip movie. There are some elements that people will recognise, but for the most part, you won't.

David (Jason Sudeikis) is a low-level drug dealer working for Brad Gurlinger (Ed Helms), a crazy drug baron who likes to show off his wealth. One day, David gets his stash and money stolen by some thugs and ends up being blackmailed by Brad to do some smuggling for him. He enlists the help of his neighbour, Kenny (Will Poulter), a runaway, Casey (Emma Roberts), and a stripper who lives in his building, Rose (Jennifer Aniston). They pose as a family to bring the drugs to the States from Mexico in a RV. They soon discover that they stole the drugs from an equally crazed Mexican baron, Pablo Chacon (Tomer Sisley), and race to get to Denver before they can be stopped.

This movie is a lot funnier than what I expected. There are a lot of jokes about regular family road trips, but also jokes about how this group isn't a real family. One hilarious ongoing joke involves a weed baby.

Jason Sudeikis (Saturday Night Live, Horrible Bosses) is a great leading man in this comedy and you can see that he is really comfortable doing improvisation, because I'm sure most of his priceless one-liners couldn't be written, even by the funniest comedy writers.

It was amazing to see America's sweetheart Jennifer Aniston play a foul mouthed role. It's always refreshing to see actors go against the grain and take a role that no one's seen them do before. Aniston is  just plain funny as she really gets into the role of trying to be a fake mother to this family. She sort of reminds me of Catherine O'Hara in Orange County.

Will Poulter has been consistently funny throughout his career. He was hilarious in the British sketch show School of Comedy and now he has proven that he can be funny in a feature length film. I look forward to seeing a lot more of him in future.

I know Emma Roberts (Scream 4) has been working in Hollywood for years, but prior to this, none of her films have appealed to me. That's not to say that she isn't a good actress, because this film clearly shows that she is.

Verdict: A genuinely funny and original comedy that will appeal to anyone who's ever been on a family road trip. Or smuggled drugs.