There’s an embargo until December 4th on reviewing Alejandro Innaritu’s “The Revenant.” The film stars Leonardo Di Caprio, Tom Hardy, and Domhnall Gleason. It’s 156 minutes, and it was screened tonight in New York and then in Hollywood.
I see already social media is buzzing. Will Leo be nominated? Will he win an Oscar at last? Will people make it through the movie?
And who plays the bear?
So I can’t review it except to say the cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki (Morgenstern) is absolutely stunning. You could frame half the frames in the film and put them on your wall. The music by Ryuichi Sakamoto et al. is quite wonderful. Everyone is top notch. The movie is rated for gore and sexual violence, and they are not kidding.
Nevertheless, “The Revenant” will be a major factor in the Oscar race. That’s a prediction, not a review. Innaritu just won the Oscar for “Birdman,” remember, so that plays in as a factor too.
More soon, promise.
PS There are no interior shots, no scenes set in restaurants, no one working at a desk. Grooming is at all time low. Everyone needs a comb. The dichotomies of nature’s beauty and danger are the themes.
Leo will be up against a lot of great actors. I would not count out Michael Fassbender as “Steve Jobs” because the movie hasn’t done well at the box office. It’s a great performance. Ditto Matt Damon in “The Martian,” Mark Ruffalo in “Spotlight,” Steve Carell in “The Big Short,” Tom Hanks in “Bridge of Spies,” Michael Caine in “Youth,” and from what I’m hearing, Samuel L. Jackson in “The Hateful Eight.”
Stay tuned…
