This weekend, a new classic hit the screens, winning my vote for the best film of 2015.
I know the title already went to Mad Max in this space. However, since posting my Best of 2015 list, I have two new additions, the first of which shares the top of the Red Chronicles pedestal.
The Revenant is epic. Full stop. See it in the theatres. This is not one for the couch, no matter how big a TV screen. You won’t see a trailer posted here because I’m not into spoilers, and the trailer is full of them. The folks who make those teasers should be scolded for giving away entire plot turns.
Here’s what you do need to know: There is a bear attack that will forever force a rethink about your next walk in the forest. The first hour alone is unrelenting edge-of-your-seat stuff. As frontier tracker Hugh Glass, Leonardo DiCaprio is badass. Left to die alone in the wilderness, his character must trek 200 miles on foot to exact revenge on his companions who abandoned him. I may have hated his stunts in Wolf of Wall Street-here I’ll give him the statue just for the way he gets his teeth into a buffalo liver.
Oscar-winning director Alejandro Iñárritu put his entire cast through hell in his five-year attempt to bring this true story to the screen; 40 below zero shooting conditions in Alberta, then later Argentina when an unseasonable warm spell forced the shoot south, shooting in natural light in the wild; the cinematic elements of this film make most of what I’ve seen on film this year look like pablum. Extreme close-ups and silent panoramas are broken only by a stunning score breaking in at moments that left me gasping. Yet, as profound as it is brutal, The Revenant is a masterpiece. Not for wimps.
Go prepared for a glorious onslaught of genuinely bold and creative filmmaking. Go too for my man Tom Hardy who has never been as menacing or mesmerizing as he is here, although he might want to consider a love story next to mix things up, no? Charlize Theron stole his thunder in Mad Max. Here, Hardy and DiCaprio are formidable.
My other new addition, seen after writing my best-of-the-year post, is Inside Out.
And yes, this trailer passes as it only hints at the wonder and magic behind this Pixar gem.
We cried, the Friendly Greek and I. Yup. You try watching this magical coming-of-age film as a parent of young adults who grew up in seconds. Living inside Riley’s head for a while is one trippy adventure far different than the one offered up by The Revenant but as profoundly moving. My seven-year-old nephew told me he didn’t like the movie much, and I don’t blame him-this is a film with only surface appeal for children under ten. Like all the best titles in the Pixar library, Inside Out is a film adults will love, especially those who remember having an imaginary friend. As Bing Bong, Richard Kind is the heart of the story in a cast of massive talent. Here’s a peek at the characters.
Genuinely inventive and complex, this is beautiful animation and the best head trip.
Look for both titles at tonight’s celebrity drunk fest Golden Globe Awards and later this week when Oscar nominations are announced.
Meanwhile, I’ll be at TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten which continues through Jan.17th.
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