Art Come to Life

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2016)

Alejandro González Iñárritu is on an absolute roll. For what is essentially the second year in a row, Iñárritu has put out arguably the most ambitious and well-crafted film of the entire year. The Revenant is art come to life in the form of a genre-bending survival/revenge epic.
First things first, I believe Leonardo DiCaprio has given the best performance I have seen out of him. While there isn't the humor or charm in his character that there was in The Wolf of Wall Street's Jordan Belfort, DiCaprio manages to make a turn against type as introverted bilingual woodsman Hugh Glass. While Leo has been known to turn on the charisma with his previous characters, he gives a more reserved performance in The Revenant and primarily uses physicality and body language to inform the audience of his Hugh Glass' state of being. It plays very well against the confrontational and loudmouthed antagonist that is Tom Hardy's John Fitzgerald.
Speaking of which, Tom Hardy is magnificent here as well. There's been a lot of talk about Hardy upstaging Leo in his own film, though I wouldn't go as far as that. Hardy gives a magnificent performance as Fitzgerald, but is given much more dialogue and traditional characterization than Leo's Glass. Other supporting actors such as Will Poulter and Domhnall Gleeson turn in terrific performances particularly in the second half of the film.
One of my favorite things about The Revenant is how it is shot. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki captures an impressive amount of beauty and detail utilizing only natural lighting throughout the course of the entire film. One of the best examples of this is the tracking shot of the opening assault on the camp (in particular where it begins to follow characters in combat). The Revenant might not be one of the best-shot films of the year, but one of the best-shot films in the last decade or so. Set to the backdrop of a haunting primal score by the impressive trio of Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, The National's Bryce Dessner, and German electronic musician Alva Noto, The Revenant is transformed into a feast for the eyes and ears.
The narrative of The Revenant is fairly straightforward, though it is delivered in the most interesting, raw, and violent ways possible. Much like a favorite film of mine from 2013, Lone Survivor, every bit of violence is felt because of how it is presented. Every gasp, cringe, and wince from the audience is well earned because it isn't too over-the-top and it isn't over-saturated like many action blockbusters tend to be.
I can't really think of too many negatives against The Revenant, however I can say that this is not a film for everybody. It's a brutal film that goes at a pretty slow pace, so those who were planning on watching this because they thought it was Leo vs. Bear like the trailers suggested, will probably be turned off. The Revenant is a film that also utilizes silent techniques and forces the viewer to look beyond what is being said. This works for some times and not for others. Personally, I feel as though the surrealist dream sequences are a bit unnecessary and break up the flow of what is essentially a fairly realistic take on a survival/revenge story. Though, seeing how much this film is able to do right, it is a rather small complaint that I have there. Overall, The Revenant is a film that deserves your attention. If you are not opposed to a more slow-paced style of storytelling and enjoy survival movies, The Revenant will be able to deliver in spades and then some.