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:

The post Cinema Spotlight: The Revenant appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The Hateful Eight has had a strange and painful journey to the silver screen, starting with its script being leaked to the internet in January 2014. Tarantino was so distraught by the leak that he threatened to scrap the film all-together. Fans wishing to remain spoiler-free were left with nothing for a while, besides rumors of private staged script-readings with the actors, and false trailers for the film. Finally came the first official trailers, announcements of a 70mm road show tour, and a nationwide release date.

The story of the film is rather contained, especially for Tarantino. It deals with eight (well actually nine (well really actually more than nine)) characters stuck in Minnie’s Haberdashery as they wait out a brutal blizzard. Knowing that the story would almost entirely take place in a small cabin, Tarantino relies on his famed use of dialogue and his star-studded cast to make the film come alive. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be enough life in The Hateful Eight to make it a truly great movie. Tarantino has been known to use scenes that appear to be dialogue for the sake of dialogue, but never has he taken it to such an extreme. In a way, The Hateful Eight feels like the first scene of Inglorious Basterds, but set in the Post-Civil War South and lasting almost 3 hours.

That’s not to say that the movie is a flop, however. It still has its fill of wonderful one-liners, tense moments, and stylized gunplay. It just seems that none of these moments really stick the way they should. One particular trademark “shocking” Tarantino moment involves a scene of truly brutal and cruel sexual assault and torture, and it ends up leaving a bad taste in the mouth more than truly provoking an emotional reaction from the audience. And in light of some of Tarantino’s comments about the political nature of this film in relation to America’s on-going history of racial issues, these scene becomes layers and layers more problematic.

One truly bright spot of the film is its wonderful soundtrack. Composed by none other than the legendary Ennio Morricone (click here, here, and here for a taste of his career’s work), it is one of Tarantino’s main points of praise to himself (among many others). Morricone is one of the all-time greatest movie composers, and for him to win another Golden Globe award for his work is a great thing to see. Tarantino has always been a master at creating atmosphere with music, and The Hateful Eight is no exception.

While it may not top the list of greatest films of the year, I still recommend checking out The Hateful Eight. Fans of Tarantino will likely find enough to be entertained, but don’t expect anything truly groundbreaking or unbelievable. With a filmography as impressive as his, Quentin Tarantino is allowed a few films that aren’t perfect. But that doesn’t mean they should be ignored entirely, especially by fans of his work, or of the preservation of old-school film.

Click here to see if The Hateful Eight is playing near you, and check out the trailer for the film below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnRbXn4-Yis

The post Cinema Spotlight: The Hateful Eight appeared first on KRUI Radio.