In collaboration with a variety of UI and community partners, the committee will offer two free events to the public. The first event will be a book signing and reading of Common’s 2011 memoir, “One Day It’ll All Make Sense.” The event will be held at the Englert Theater at 2:30 p.m. on October 6. The event is free and open to the public, no tickets are required. Seating will be given on a first-come, first-seated basis.

The second event will be a lecture by Common titled “Greatness.” The lecture is set to be held at Hancher Auditorium with a 7:30 p.m. start time later on October 6th. Tickets for the lecture are free but must be reserved beforehand. They will be released for UI students first on Friday, September 21 at 10 a.m. with a two ticket limit per person. Tickets will open for the general public on Monday, September 24 at 10 a.m. with two ticket cap per person as well.

Common is best known for starring in the 2015 film “Selma,” which documents pivotal moments of the Civil Rights Movement. He and John Legend won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for their song “Glory,” featured in the film. Common propelled into stardom as a rapper and member of the group Soulquarians.

You can read more about this event on the University Lecture Committee’s website here.

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For many, politics and entertainment are meant to be in distinct categories and politics shouldn’t enter our areas of entertainment. The way that I’m defining politics in this article isn’t as a policy related discussion or by our political party but it includes the political issues of woman rights, social issues, and race.

The biggest examples of people being upset when celebrities talk about political issues have always been when celebrities chose a platform in which millions of U.S. viewers were watching like the Superbowl and the Academy Awards.Speaking about these issues with a large audience allows for people to listen and hear what the discussion is about.

An example of woman’s rights, more specifically, the pay gap between men and women, being discussed by a celebrity on a big platform is Patricia Arquette’s 2015 Oscar Acceptance Speech. The speech started out normal before finishing with the statement that it was time for women to receive equal rights within America. This speech was received in both positive and negative ways.

Positive reactions consisted of people supporting her remarks and continuing the conversation over the pay gap difference as well as Meryl Streep’s and Jennifer Lopez’s reaction at the actual event itself.

Arquette was able to get the discussion about woman’s rights out on a bigger scale than if she had said these statements in an interview. Even if that interview was on a top talk show it wouldn’t have received the same amount of attention that her 2015 Oscar Speech did. Twitter hashtags were made to continue promotion of her comments on social media.

Negative reactions towards her comments were also abounded as many people felt like Arquette shouldn’t have discussed this at the Oscar’s and others felt like her opinion was wrong.

Arquette was thus able to start a debate about women and their rights as human beings. However, when she was asked to expand on her comments, Arquette made it obvious that she was advocating for equal rights and equal pay for white woman and not all women.

When asked to clarify her comments, Arquette stated, “It’s time for women in America and all the men, all the gay men, the people of color, to fight for us now.” While she was promoting woman’s rights, Arquette failed to realize that being a woman, a person of color, and be a part of the LGBTQ community could all be attributes of a single person. Reactions towards her failure to discuss intersectionality were quick.

Even after her comments, many still applauded Arquette because any discussion was good enough. Since Arquette’s Oscar Speech, many have continued the discussion of woman’s rights and equal pay. While Arquette may not have realized that she didn’t include intersectionality in her speech, many others have.

An example of race being discussed in a popular entertainment event includes Beyonce’s 2016 Super Bowl 50 halftime show.
(Watch it here.Skip to 7:04 to view Beyonce’s performance).

Her performance was deemed political from her song choice, outfit choice, and the entire performance as a whole. Her performance was considered by some to be pro-black and anti-police alongside many other things. Reactions varied from those who supported Beyonce’s support of people of color and were thrilled that someone with her stance in our society spoke out. Others were upset at Beyonce’s support for the Black Lives Matter movement and for what they believed to be an “anti-police” performance.

Reactions against Beyonce’s Performance:

Anna Kooiman, at the time, was the host of Fox News’ “Fox & Friends”:

“Beyonce got a police escort there and then gives a salute to the Black Lives Matter movement.”

National Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Jonathan Thompson:

“Art is one thing, but yelling fire in a crowded theater is an entirely different one.”

“At this point, I think the NFL had a serious error in judgment.”

Rudolph Giuliani, former New York City Mayor.

“I thought it was really outrageous that she used it as a platform to attack police officers who are the people who protect her and protect us.” Also stated that he would have preferred a “decent wholesome entertainment.”

Reactions in Support of Beyonce’s Performance

The article titled “Why the Outrage Over Beyonce’s Super Bowl Performance is Completely Ridiculous.” 

Jessica Williams in response to Rudolph Giuliani saying that the performance wasn’t “wholesome’ enough for middle America.”

“Are you saying you can’t talk about race issues to middle America? What are they, so delicate and unaware and maybe so white that Beyonce is too much for them?”

Damon Young, Editor-in-Chief of www.verysmartbrothas.com

“I think that you’re hard-pressed to find that demonstrative an example of performative blackness on stage, on such a high profile stage”

—

While the reactions to both the examples above are split, with some in support and others against. It’s clear that both of them managed to do one thing.

Keep the discussion alive.

The public attention span is very short. Meaning that when something happens, we talk about it for a few days, weeks, or months and then we move on to the next thing. Injecting politics in entertainment whether that be in award shows or sports shows is a good time to get the voice out even if some people are against this.

Politics within our entertainment is a good thing in the sense that it allows for a bigger pool of opinions to be heard. It’s also a way for us to be confronted with the issues that we may not want to discuss. Politics within our popular culture ensures that we are consistently aware of what is happening around us.

What’s your opinion? Do you believe that politics have a place in entertainment or do you feel that politics and entertainment should be kept separately?

Fill out this short survey below and voice your opinion! It’s anonymous!

https://uiowa.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3OEWB9AW4TtvgPj

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While certainly entertaining in an overtime Super Bowl, “Holy crap” sort of way, this ultimately serves to take away from Moonlight‘s stunning victory. Sadly, it is entirely plausible to think that this whole controversy will be better remembered than the film itself. Taking away how it won though, the victory is nothing short of the largest Oscar upset in memory.

La La Land was set up in every way possible: it is a film about Hollywood, it is a fairly easy watch (which means the Oscar voters are far more likely to open their screener and watch it), and it actually made money. In short, it is popular.

Moonlight is a million dollar budget movie that is a hard watch for some. A coming-of-age journey about a gay black man in Miami would have seemed out of place as recently as last year’s Oscars. Remember #OscarsSoWhite? Moonlight‘s victory marks a David vs. Goliath strike against heavy Oscar favorites, and is a huge step forward for film awards on the whole, as Moonlight is the first Best Picture winner with an all black cast.

Best Picture controversy aside, 2017’s Oscars were fair in terms of the distribution of awards. La La Land did not really deserve a clean sweep in thirteen categories, but it did have great musical numbers, a very Hollywood look, and fantastic direction. So it won in the music categories, cinamatography and production design, and in direction (Emma Stone also took best actress). Moonlight had great performances, was well written in its elegance and simplicity, and was an overall important film. It won its awards accordingly.

Seemingly every major film nominated won in an appropriate category. Fences and Manchester by the Sea were propelled by profound acting, and won Best Supporting Actress and Best Actor respectively. Arrival and Hacksaw Ridge even won some well deserved praise in various technical categories. The major awards on the whole were not too surprising.

Of course everyone has their own picks and predictions that may have been upended by the Academy. I for one would have liked to see some love for Lion and Hell or High Water, two movies that went overlooked by most Academy voters as well as movie watchers on the whole. And as much as I enjoyed Zootopia, I will fight anyone who tries to convince me it was a better movie than the morally deep and visually stunning Kubo and the Two Strings.

The drama and the disappointments are part of what make the Oscars enjoyable. Could you imagine what would have happened if the Best Picture mixup had happened the other way around? No doubt, Twitter would have imploded from all the Hollywood haters coming out to bash La La Land. But you can’t deny it would have been something to see.

Either way, it is another Oscars in the books. Good movies were fairly awarded. Jimmy Kimmel did a serviceable hosting job. No one will ever forget Moonlight winning Best Picture. Hopefully this will draw more viewers to Moonlight and the other nominated films, as the stories they seek to tell are far more important than the media stories surrounding them.

The Movie Dude reviews limited release movies, independent films, and smaller theatrical releases.

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My assignment of watching a movie each day this year has taken a serious blow. Professional football season has begun. I enjoy just about every major sport including college football, but when the NFL season starts, it seems that all I have time to do is either watch football, analyze football teams, or watch talking heads overanalyze football teams. Still, this movie thing has got to get done.

I could have just watched a bunch of football movies, but any of the ones worth watching are about high school or college ball. God knows I am not wasting my time writing about Draft Day. So instead I decided to look at my list of movies and see which ones resemble which teams in today’s NFL landscape. I am a bit of an asshole when it comes to football, so if I go hard on your team, sorry. Just keep in mind I’m a Detroit Lions fan.

The Dallas Cowboys are the entire modern DC Comics film franchise. America’s Team. Not a great nickname considering most people you know probably find the Cowboys and their fans to be insufferable. Year after year, the Cowboys come out of training camp as one of the most hyped teams in the league. Even when their quarterback breaks his back in the preseason and they have quite literally no defense, they are still supposed to win it all.

Just like Man of Steel, Batman Vs. Superman, and now Suicide Squad, it seems impossible for the Cowboys to live up to the hype. These movies (and the Boys) always come primed and ready to become financial successes, but no one really made sure to bother that they would be good or even entertaining. Yes, I am very excited for 2017’s Wonder Woman, and yes I still think the Cowboys will suck next year.

The Baltimore Ravens are director Ridley Scott. Both have celebrated and storied pasts. Both won their respective industries’ highest honor in early 2001 when the Ravens won the Super Bowl and Scott’s Gladiator won the Oscar for best picture. Most important of all, no one has any idea what to expect of their next effort. Scott’s last movie, The Martian, won awards, made tons of money, and was hailed as an unmitigated success. He is also responsible for instants classics such as Blade Runner and Alien. Recent flops however, like Prometheus and Exodus, have shaken viewers’ confidence much like the Ravens’ last season. Much like Scott’s recent films, the Ravens could go 6-10 with a sluggish season or 10-6 with a playoff berth or better.

Finally, my Detroit Lions are the film Requiem for a Dream. Year after year I find myself coming back to football just as excited as the year before, even though my favorite team is historically one of the worst in the NFL. They were the only team to post a winless 0-16 season after all. Much like the lives of four people who are tragically ruined by drugs in Requiem for a Dream, my world seems to come apart each fall. I keep coming back to my Honolulu Blue-clad team with high expectations that are set simply to be crushed almost instantly. The fact that I can even make a comparison between being a Lions’ fan and a drug addict shows just how bad my team is. At least I will have more time to watch movies when they start the season 1-7 and the sweet high of football season wears off.

For those interested to take a look back into some of the greatest football matches, then you should take a look at the history of St James’ Park here.

Watch and Talk is a column that discusses movies. They are not always reviewed, but are simply talked about. Watch and Talk looks at the various cultural aspects and impacts of films.

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Due to the lack of Latinos who have made been recognized for their talent I want to use this article to acknowledge the Latino actors, actresses, directors, composers, and cinematographers who have won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Primetime Emmy or all three.

The Academy Awards

The honor of being the first Hispanic actor to win an Academy Award belongs to Puerto Rican Jose Ferrer. He also was the first Hispanic actor to be nominated more than once. He won Best Actor in a Leading role in 1950 for Cyrano de Bergerac.  Mexican-American Actor Anthony Quinn won Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1952 for Viva Zapata! thus becoming the first Mexican actor to win an Oscar. He also won this category in 1956 for “Lust for Life“.

Javier Bardem, a Spanish actor, won an Oscar in 2008 for Best Supporting Actor in the film No Country for Old Men. Another Puerto Rican to win an Oscar was Benicio Del Toro who won Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 2000 for the film Traffic.

Emile Kuri, who was born in Mexico, was nominated for Best Art Direction eight times and won twice. He won for The Heiress (1949) and for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). In 1995, Argentine painter and film set designer Eugenio Zanetti won Best Art Direction for Restoration. 

Emmanuel Lubezki is a Mexican cinematographer who has been nominated in the category of Best Cinematography a total of eight times. He won for Gravity in 2014, Birdman in 2015, and this year, 2016, he won for the The Revenant.  Another Mexican to win the award for Best Cinematography is Guillermo Navarro who won in 2006 for Pan’s Labyrinth.

Mexican production designer Eugenio Caballero and Spanish film set decorator and art director Pilar Revuelta won Best Art Direction for Pan’s Labyrinth in 2006. Chilean-born cinematographer Claudio Miranda won the award for Best Cinematography in 2012 for his work on Life of Pi.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, a Mexican Director, has won Best Director a total of two times, the first in 2015 for Birdman and the second in 2016 for The Revenant.  He became the third director to win this category back to back and the first Latino to do so.  Alfonso Cuaron, a Mexican director, won both the Best Director and Best Film Editing awards for Gravity in 2014 after having been nominated in the categories of Best Film Editing, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Luis Bacalov, an Argentinian-Italian composer, won the award for Best Music-Original Score for the film The Postman. Argentine composer, Gustavo Santaolalla won Best Music-Original Score in 2005 and 2006 for his work on Brokeback Mountain and Babel.  Uruguayan musician Jorge Drexler won Best Music-Original Score in 2004 for The Motorcycle Diaries. He was the first Uruguayan to be nominated and the first Uruguayan to win an Academy Award.

Rita Moreno, a Puerto Rican actress, won Best Supporting Actress in 1961 for the film West Side Story. She was also the first Puerto Rican to be nominated for this category.  In 2008, Spaniard actress Penelope Cruz won Best Supporting Actress for Vicky Cristina Barcelona becoming the first actress from Spain to be nominated and win this category.  Another winner of the Best Supporting Actress category is Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o for her role in 12 Years A Slave in 2014. Brigitte Broch, a German-born Mexican, won Best Art Direction in 2001 for Moulin Rouge!. Mexican make-up artist Beatrice De Alba won Best Makeup in 2002 for her work on Frida. 

Counting up all these Latinos results in a total of 21 Latinos who have won an Academy Award in the categories of Best Art Direction, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Music-Original Score, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Makeup.

For a look at Latino/as who have been nominated for an Academy Award click here.

The Golden Globes

Rita Moreno, the Puerto Rican actress, won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for West Side Story for her role as Anita in 1961. Luis Puenzo, an Argentine director, won a Golden Globe in 1985 for the film The Official Story.

Edward James Olmos, a Mexican actor, has won two Golden Globes. The first in 1986 in the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television for his role in Miami Vice and he won the same award again in 1995 for his role in The Burning Season.

In 1990, Cuban actor Andy Garcia won a Globe for the category of Best Supporting Actor for the film The Godfather Part III for his role as Vincent Mancini. Nuyorican actor Jimmy Smits won a Globe for Best Actor in a TV Drama Series for his role as Bobby Simone on the show NYPD Blue.

Pedro Almodovar, a Spanish screenwriter, producer, and director, has won two Golden Globes in the Best Foreign Language Film category. One in 1999 for All About My Mother and another in 2002 for Talk to Her. Benicio Del Toro won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Traffic (the film which also earned him an Oscar.)

Alejandro Amenabar, a Spanish-Chilean director, won a Golden Globe in 2004 in the category of Best Foreign Language Film for The Sea Inside. (Which featured Academy Award Winner Javier Bardem). Mexican director, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu earned a Golden Globe in 2006 for Babel. He has also won Golden Globes for Best Screenplay for Birdman and Best Director for The Revenant. 

In 2007, America Ferrera took home the Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series for her role as Betty in Ugly Betty. Continuing with Latino winners at the 2007 Golden Globes, Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for his role in  No Country for Old Men. (Which also earned him an Oscar.)

Last year, in 2015, after eight years of no Latina winning the category of Best Actress in a Television Series or Comedy, Gina Rodriguez took home the Globe for her role as Jane in Jane the Virgin. (A show that has good representations of Latinos.)

This year Oscar Isaac, a Guatemalan actor, won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in A Limited Series or Motion Picture for his work in the HBO movie Show Me A Hero. Gael Garcia Bernal, a Mexican actor, won the Globe for Best Performance in a Television Series Musical or Comedy for his role in Mozart in the Jungle. (The show won Best Comedy Series.)

Counting up all the Latinos and Latinas only a total of 14 have won a Golden Globe.

The Primetime Emmy Awards

The talented Rita Moreno has two Emmy awards to her name. She won the Individual Performance – Variety Or Music Program award in 1977 for The Muppet Show and in 1978 she won Outstanding Lead Actress – Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series for The Rockford Files.

In 1978, Ricardo Montalban won an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Series for How the West Was Won. In 1985, Edward James Olmos won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role in Miami Vice.

Jimmy Smits has been nominated for an Emmy 12 times but has only won once. He won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role in L.A. Law.  Colombian actor John Leguizamo won the award for Individual Performance Variety or Music Program for his one-man show Freak in 1999.

In 2002 Kenny Ortega won Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program for his role in the XIX Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. In 2006, he won Outstanding Choreography for the film High School Musical. In 2007, America Ferrera won in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Ugly Betty.

In total, there are 7 Latinos who have won a Primetime Emmy.

Combining the numbers results in only 42 Latinos  who have won either an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, an Emmy or all three. Comparing that to a total of 117 (30 Golden Globes, 31 Oscars, 56 Emmys) people who identify as either African American or Black who have won one, two, or all three of these awards. When researching the number of Asians and Pacific Islanders that have won these acting awards, I couldn’t find any information for the Golden Globes or the Emmys but a total of 38 have won Academy Awards. The majority of all the awards won by people of color are typically behind the scenes.

A total of 2,947 Oscar statues have presented meaning that only 90 awards have been handed out to non-white people. With an estimation of about 1,898 Golden Globes having been handed out means that only 88 (excluding number of Asian people since I couldn’t find number of Asian winners) awards have been handed out to people of color. About 1,742 Emmy Awards  having been handed out that means that only 63 (excluding number of Asian people since couldn’t find a number for Asian winners) have been handed out to non-white people.

If we add everything up means that 241 awards out of 6,587 have gone to people of color. People of color aren’t winning acting awards because for some reason Hollywood still believes that the white man should portray a person of color. Just take a look at this article which describes multiple times in which white actors were cast as a different race.

Latinos, African-Americans, Asians, and other minority groups need opportunities to portray intellectuals instead of criminals and maybe white actors shouldn’t accept roles meant for people of color. If we aren’t given the chance, how will we ever succeed?

Check out the Huffington post’s article 16 Times Latinos Were Honest Hollywood’s Lack of Diversity to get some perspectives from talented Latinos.

This is the seventh article of the column titled “Living in White America.” Every month there will be a new article discussing how one immigrant group, Hispanics/Latinos, live in America. This column will have articles dealing with anything and everything that concerns Hispanics/Latinos, this could include political and social talks. Some articles may discuss a culture of a different Hispanic/Latino group and interviews with a variety of Hispanics /Latinos will be added as well as interviews with non-Hispanics asking for their opinion. Discrimination against Hispanics and Latinos has gone on long enough and now it’s time people get a look into a world they dislike so much. 

The post Living in White America: Award Winning Latinos appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The story revolves around self-help author Michael Stone, who is incredibly lonely, and to whom everyone’s voice sounds the exact same. While never explicitly stated, this clearly an allusion to the Fregoli delusion, which affects its victims with similar symptoms (Kaufman wrote the original play under the name Francis Fregoli, and the hotel that serves as the setting is called The Fregoli). While he is traveling to Cincinnati on business, he meets Lisa, the one person who has a unique voice. The film tracks their relationship, and Stone’s increasingly loose grip on reality.

One of Anomalisa‘s biggest talking points has been its animation style; the film uses stop-motion to capture photos of 3-D printed models. Click here to see an article explaining the process. Stop-motion is a form of animation that largely fell out of style decades ago, but every so often a director resurrects the form for a major motion picture (like Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox). The 3-D printed models make push the medium to a new level of realism that hasn’t really been seen on a large scale before. However, this newfound realism has the film precariously perched on the sharp descent of the uncanny valley. The film is in an uncomfortable no-man’s-land between overtly stylized and creepily realistic.

Luckily, directors Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman are smart filmmakers, and use this facet of the animation to their advantage. There are numerous visual gags throughout the film that call attention to the artificiality of the models. It also stylistically emphasizes the unreal-ness of Stone’s increasingly powerful delusions.

However, the models also serve some more subtle purposes. In particular, they allow for a visually unique take on sex and bodies. By making the bodies un-real, the film is actually able to have a more frank and honest depiction of real human sexuality. Gone are the “perfect” bodies of Hollywood actors/actresses; instead, they are replaced with more “normal” looking bodies, especially for the characters’ ages. Although it is true in most every scene, the sex scenes in particular highlight just how artificial the bodies are. However, this artificiality is so highly contrasted with their intensely human characters and interactions, that it strongly emphasis just how relatable the characters are.

On the subject of “relate-ability” of the characters, there’s a problem that needs to be addressed. With the #OscarsSoWhite discussion brewing up so much controversy, and possibly even resulting in some changes to the Academy’s system, Anomalisa is a particularly un-diverse film. In the whole of the movie, I counted one single person who was not speaking English. This individual walked past Michael in the hallway for a split second, so the audience only viewed them from behind. With the possible exception of this individual, every single other character I remember in the film was white. There were a few women who were prominent characters in the film, but their importance was tied directly to their (usually sexual) relationship to Michael.

Of course, this is totally understandable in a film that closely follows only one character. Of course other characters in the story will only be important due to their relationship to the protagonist. But do we really need another story about the personal issues of old rich white guys?

Now, perhaps the film is also an in-depth look at mental illness, and thus breaks it away from the typical glut of whiteguyprobs movie. I didn’t really get that vibe, but maybe that’s just me. I’ve also heard some say that it is a sort of commentary on male (and white) privilege, which I can maybe begin to see. But again, if we want a film that discusses the effects of white privilege, do we really need to first and foremost focus on the effects of privilege on the privileged? This is definitely an issue that needs further discussion, but it’s a discussion far too large for a small weekly column to tackle. Nonetheless, it’s something important to consider.

Click here to see if Anomalisa is playing in a theater near you. Check out the trailer for the film below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT6QJaS2a-U

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The Revenant tells the tale of Hugh Glass, played by the Oscar-starved ageless hunk Leonardo DiCaprio. The film opens with Hugh and his half-Native American son, Hawk, hunting in the North American wilderness of 1823. We cut between them and their company, a group of American fur traders looking to haul their loot back to town. What follows next is one of the most intense action sequences I’ve ever seen, and one that I’m sure will have a profound influence on the way violence and action scenes are shot from now on. Hints of Birdman can be seen in these longer takes.

Where other films look to make jarring cuts quickly and often during action scenes, The Revenant often chooses to prolong the cuts. Instead of jumping between viewpoints, the camera helplessly pans around, slowly taking in all of the chaos enveloping it. This scene sets the tone for the hellish journey that unfolds over the next few hours.

These traces of Birdman aren’t from the director alone; Inarritu used the same cinematographer as his last award winner, Emmanuel Lubezki (who one an Oscar for both Gravity and Birdman, and is looking for the three-peat with The Revenant). Lubezki’s cinematography throughout the film is stunning. It manages to capture the enormous sky always looming above, and the endless sea of forest trees, while still managing to inspect and analyze the smallest insects and blades of grass. Cutaways to the starry night, streaked with Northern Lights, are intermingled with Malick-esque closeups on nature. The beauty and harshness of nature are both celebrated and feared through the camera, and the cinematography of the film is certainly among its strongest points.

Another major talking point of The Revenant is the performance of Lenoardo DiCaprio. Specifically, whether it will be rewarded with the beloved actor’s first Oscar. Unfortunately, most predictions seem to suggest that the award may once again slip through DiCaprio’s fingers. While his performance is undoubtably moving, I can’t help but feel that it was a bit one-dimensional. It’s clear that DiCaprio went through hell to bring the character to life, as can be seen by the brutal physical torment that he must endure though the film. However, the award is for best actor, not for most physically challenging role.

In the end, DiCaprio ends up crawling, grunting, and shuffling through most of the film. He speaks very little, and doesn’t do a whole lot beyond wince, cry, and scream. His performance as Jordan Belford in The Wolf of Wall Street was much more worthy of an award. On the other hand, Tom Hardy‘s portrayal of the shifty John Fitzgerald is much more nuanced. Part of this has to do with the characters themselves; Glass is a reserved protagonist who becomes driven solely by revenge, while Fitzgerald is a much more complex character. In the end, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Fitzgerald win Best Supporting Actor, and Leo come home empty-handed once again.

To truly appreciate The Revenant, you have to look at it as an experience more than a film. For the particularly squeamish, it may feel like an endurance test. The film is brutal and visceral. Not only does it feature extreme violence and some amount of gore, it refuses to allow the audience to distance themselves from it. That’s what separates The Revenant from something verging on torture porn. It doesn’t simply torment Glass for the audience’s sadistic enjoyment. Instead, the audience is set in Glass’s shoes and forced to feel his pain. By the end of the film, it’s hard not to feel physically and emotionally drained. And in conjunction with the film’s themes, and in particular its ending, the audience feels as if a feat has been accomplished; a journey complete.

But what was the final prize, and was it worth the heavy cost?

Click here to see if The Revenant is playing in a theater near you. Check out the trailer for the film below:

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