The Revenant

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Writers: Mark L. Smith, Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter

Synopsis:
A frontiersman that was on a fur trading expedition in the early 1800's ends up doing a survival quest after being nearly killed by a bear and left for dead.

Review:
The movie, first and foremost, is beautiful. It's also brutal, from the first scene all the way till the ending. The use of natural lighting causes the night scenes to have some of the blackest blacks, and there's a constant bluish hue to everything. There's nothing that looks quite like this, at least in the past few years. Not only does the movie look beautiful, but the performances are just as powerful.
Leonardo, does it again, honestly though, I can't think of anyone coming close to his performance in this, especially when he can't fully speak through most of the beginning. Which leads me to believe that he will be getting his first Oscar with this movie, like most people are predicting.
Tom, plays a great villain, not over the top, nor does he do stupid stuff just to do stupid stuff, but he does things that make sense. He's very believable in his decisions made throughout the film and that makes this movie just that much more engaging, because you want to see how this all plays out because you want to see this man get hurt in some way.
This movie runs at a somewhat breakneck speed, at least that's how it feels, even if there's a lot of walking and riding and usual nonsense to lengthen normal movie run times nowadays, this one actually does that in a way that feels natural and doesn't hinder the audience, mainly in part with the scenery and the unique look this movie has.


Rating: 5 stars


Recommendation: This movie brings 2016 in at a high bar for other movies to follow, so high in fact that I really don't see much topping it as December 31^st rolls around come 12 months from now. Highly recommend seeing this this weekend and paying full price for it, especially before the Golden Globes Sunday evening.