Film The Modern Epic? I think it might well be.
So here we have The Revenant. Aka The One With The Bear, aka Just Give Leo An Oscar, Already. But the pop culture image of the film does it a real disservice in my mind - there is far more to it than those memes.
The basic plot is simple enough, a quest for revenge and a battle against the elements combined together. It's the style and the panache it's done with that will set this film apart, the style most provided by the director who uses several of the long 'one shot' tracking tricks previously utilised to great effect in Birdman.
The opening fight scene is an excellent example, following a nameless extra before he is killed, then sweeping after the killer before he too is slain. But it's the natural scenery that is the film's real USP and the now-infamous insistence on using natural lighting wherever possible now seems a stroke of genius. The sheer inhospitality of the frontier world is shown in a way that no special effects could convincingly replicate entirely.
The bear attack deserves mention as a particularly convincing example (to a reviewer whose never in fact been attacked by a bear, at least.) The bear is never treated as 'wrong' or evil, merely protective of it's cubs, but just how horrifying an attack by a colossal, enraged grizzly bear would be was better illustrated in one sequence here than a dozen schlocky nature-horrors.
As alluded to, this is the film getting Di Caprio his now annual 'Oscar Buzz.' Will this be his year? Possibly. He certainly throws everything he's got into it, perhaps slightly too much so. A few times a more cynical viewer might be tempted to wonder if there's a checklist he's working through - physical weight loss, working in horrible natural conditions, Big Themes and his character is the only one to understand those poor mistreated Native Americans, and even married one. But even if this is true, it should not take away from an astonishing performance.
But not the only one. Tom Hardy is gifted with a role to really sink his teeth into and tucks in with gusto, bringing depth to a basically bad person and his trademark physicality and customary accent-du-jour to raise Fitzgerald to near deutaragonist status. Will Poulter and Domhnall Gleeson stand out in an excellent supporting cast.
Overall, I would say that whatever the Oscars say, this is a film you should watch at least once.
Film The worst of the 2015 Oscar Race...
... Not counting Carol, The Danish Girl and Brooklyn, which I'm yet to watch(already watched them all, they're all better). Even Joy is a more engaging film, and everyone seemed to agree that the only good thing about that one is represented in the only nomination it got, namely Jennifer Lawrence.The only truly astonishing feat of the movie is its cinematography. If there's an Oscar it should win (and it sure as hell tried to bait them all, except for actress stuff), it's for Lubezki's beautiful work. But only that.
Someone needs to tell AGI and his editor when to make cuts. Overlong shots are only interesting if there's something actually happening (Cuarón is better at those). Iñárritu's self-indulgence here was almost palpable, you could almost taste it like DiCaprio pretending to eat a raw fish. However, since there wasn't a lot going on regarding interesting camera-work, that self-indulgence is unearned.
The only truly riveting scene is the one people are understandable most talking about. That bear deserved an oscar nomination more than Tom Hardy; who, now that we're on it, played, as usual, Tom Hardy... but eeeevil, and with a nearly unintelligible accent I'm sure he thought passed for texan.
Poulter also made a better job so for me it was a coin toss between he and the bear. Tremblay from the Room deserved the nomination more than either anyway.
Now, while Tom Hardy played his trademark character of Himself™, DiCaprio went full ham. He wants his Oscar and no amount of ridiculous screaming, gasping, spitting, constipated moose braying are going to be enough for him until he gets it. God, when Iñárritu could have exercised his prima donna ways and tell Leo to rein it in, he didn't; and we end up in a Dark, Gritty, Serious Movie™ with a comically over-the-top lead performance.
I feel bad for Fassbender, who actually did a good job.
All in all this is the movie this year that was made with the explicit intention to win Oscars (like Birdman or The King's Speech in years prior) so, if almost everyone involved failed at actually creating something interesting, they at least succeeded at what they intended.
Exit, pursued by DiCaprio.