The Revenant: If You Like Being Murdered and Getting Stuck in the Plains

Have you ever seen Apocalypto? Did you like it? If so The Revenant may be for you. A movie so intense that murder is one of its low points. I probably don't have to tell you what this is about, but let's get into it.

The year is 1820-something. Hugh Glass and his son, Hawk, are trackers, and part of a fur trapping expedition in the American wilderness. After the company's camp is attacked by native Americans, the remaining men try to make it back to the fort where their company is based. Which works pretty okay-- until Glass gets attacked by a bear. Miraculously, though he survives the attack, he significantly slows down the journey back to the fort. After three men are enlisted to stay behind and care for him, a mistake and betrayal is made and tragedy strikes. Glass is left for dead. There's only one problem -- he's not. The remainder of the film is seeing Glass fight his way back to the fort while touching in on what's happened to the rest of company, the native Americans who first attacked them, and the innumerable other, untrackable people that inhabit the American wilderness.

The main thing that The Revenant does well is to make you stop and think about how incredible it is that anyone survived the West at all. Watching each step that the men make in trying to reach safety is nothing short of miraculous. Never mind Glass cheating death, infection, and a lot of other things, even the men who are in good health have their safety threatened every single day. Between rival fur trappers and the native Americans defending their land, it's a small wonder that anyone would survive and then decide to take up permanent residence there.

The Revenant also does a good job of not playing Good Guy/Bad Guy. Throughout the movie we get to see the perspectives of not only the newly settled Americans, but also the French, and the native tribes who were there before either of them. We also get to see a full spectrum of how easy it would be to become paranoid in those days, and untrusting of the minimal company that surrounded you day-to-day.

"You hear that?"

And now for the not-so-good.

To be honest, this is one of those films that I wish I hadn't heard about. I tried to turn a blind eye to all of the hype that it was getting but heard a few tidbits here and there about the things that the crew had been through in the reach for authenticity. But to be honest, it made the movie incredibly distracting. "Wonder if those shoes are real...Could you really outlive a bear attack like that...Wonder what the rate of infection is for a grizzly attack like this..." and of course "Jeez, wouldn't that kill you?....Wouldn't THAT kill you?...Okay, seriously, how is he not dead yet..."

The other thing that bothered me, and maybe this is just my foolish, outdated desire for everything to be black and white, is that I wasn't vehemently rooting for Glass.

SPOILER ALERT

So for those who have seen the movie, you know that Glass's son is murdered by Fitzgerald. The movie suggests that there is an ulterior motive for this happening. However, I couldn't stop thinking that, when you take into account everything that happens before this, his actions are understandable, though they may be the result of extreme paranoia and racism. It's not as though he was out to murder the kid for sport. Half of his scalp is missing, for God's sake. If we're to notice this, we can then take Fitzgerald to be a die-hard survivalist in a land where there's no honor and no rules. While it is of course despicable to murder another human being, looking at the way these guys live their lives, I would consider a teenager shouting at the top of his lungs to be a huge liability, and especially after seeing 35 of my colleagues murdered I might make an impulse decision as well (okay probably not murder, but who knows, I've never been a white guy in 1820s America before). While Glass's survival is still incredible, it makes the ending scene a little more thought-provoking. Maybe that's why they decided to make Glass shove Fitzgerald downstream in the way that they did.

Anyway.

OK IT'S SAFE

The other thing that has been bugging me is why THIS is being tagged as Leo's Academy Award-winning performance. I would've much rather seen him get nominated for Shutter Island or Inception or a movie where he gets to show a little more depth of emotion and character. Are there scenes in this where he does that? Absolutely. Are they overshadowed by his eating of a raw buffalo liver or whatever? In this critic's eyes, yes. 

7 outa 10. Is The Revenant a good movie? Yes. Was it my kind of movie? Not really. Lack of dialogue and gruesome violence were a turn-off for me -- though it must be said that it's all incredibly well done.

Frank: Papier Mache, Fassbender, and the Meaning of Art

Michael Fassbender wearing a giant papier mache head? Weird band making music out of weird stuff? Domhnall Gleeson? Streaming on Netflix?

How can you say no?

Jon Burrows (Domhnall Gleeson) is not a good song writer. Despite trying his hardest, he seems to be continually grasping at straws to write even the simplest melodies. But then he happens upon an eccentric band in need of a keyboard player and finds himself swept up in their weird ensemble. Fronted by a guy named Frank, who wears the aforementioned papier mache head, the group is...hm...weird as hell. As Jon is thrust into the mentality of a group that unquestioningly does whatever Frank tells them, he sees golden opportunity for growing as a musician. Trying to grow their fan base (as is the modern way), Jon creates a social media profile of the band unbeknownst to them, and ends up compromising their structure and, worst of all, their sound.

This movie was pretty cringe-worthy at times. Jon's sheer obliviousness at his own lack of talent is exacerbated by the fact that all of the band members (except Frank) totally hate him. While his acceptance into the band is a revelation on his side, especially after spending the opening scene of the movie trying to compose (hilariously) horrible songs, the rest of the members look at him like an itch they can't scratch. And ultimately, everything that he does to try and make the band more mainstream only serves to alienate him further from the others.

It opens up really interesting questions, though, about what people consider "good music." The band's members are, for the most part, mentally unstable. But that only serves to make their music more interesting, and to give them all a different perspective on their form of expression. Ultimately, it's because they're all a little loony that they can make the music that they do. And the driving force behind why it's so good.

Jon, by contrast, is trying to make the band into a mainstream success and that is just not who they are. By trying to make their sound all bubblegummy and catchy, he only succeeds in destroying what makes them them. His best efforts end up sounding pedestrian, basic, and (honestly) terrible. Tt becomes more and more obvious, he's not an artist, and that his music is not expressive of anything that he actually feels.

Favorite parts: Jon's hilariously awful songs in the first scene ("LADY IN THE RED COAT, WHAT YA DOIN' WITH THAT BAG??" I died.), Maggie Gyllenhaal's performace in general, the "I Love You All" song.

Very thought-provoking despite being the most offensive waste of Fassbender's beautiful, beautiful face in recorded history.

7.5 outa 10.

About Time (and Also About Love)

So first up on yesterday's schedule was a noon screening of About Love, Richard Curtis's latest. As a fan of Love Actually (like most other humans with souls), I was excited by the premise of this movie, which cleverly blends lessons about human love with the exceptional addition of time travel.

The movie is about the life of Tim (Domhnall Gleeson, who you might recognize from Harry Potter). When he turns 21, his father calls him down for a chat and reveals to him that the men in their family have the ability to travel through time. The plot then follows Tim as he uses this extraordinary ability to try and make the most of his life, perfecting interactions with those around him and making the most out of the relationships he has with the various people in his life.

God I love you people.

It really must be said that Richard Curtis is a scholar on the cinematic realism of love. Tim's journey goes effortlessly from a young man who uses this talent (rather hilariously) to try and nab a girlfriend to a grown man trying to make sure that the lives of the people he loves are reaching their full potential. It gives commentary on the hardest things there are to do for the people we love (which is so often just simply having faith that they'll be able to know what's best for themselves) while simply and poetically celebrating how much FUN real love can be as well. Romantic love between Tim and Mary (Rachel McAdams), a son's love for his father (played by Bill Nighy, who I LOVE IN EVERYTHING), a brother's love for his sister (Lydia Wilson), a person's love for his friends, a father's love for his daughter, and every other kind of relationship I can think of.

Aaaand the tears were free-flowing at this point.

While Tim uses time travel to try to make his life perfect, they don't really dabble with the technicalities of it (which can get really messy if you think about it too much). The film focuses more on Tim's conscious decisions rather than the "he stepped half an inch to the left and it changed his life!" variety of consequences. The time travel element is more a way to reflect on the consequences of the everyday decisions that we make, not so much material from the sci-fi genre.

Soooo, you gotta get outa here, Tardis. No sci-fi elements in this one.
(Anyone? No? Okay...)

The sharp sense of humor that works so brilliantly with Love Actually is in this as well, keeping the emotion from getting too heavy and bogging down the film. Tim as a character is also just so damn likeable. Actually, everyone in this movie was. Especially the members of Tim's immediate family. Tim outlines them all within the first ten minutes of the movie and his descriptions of them all hold perfectly throughout. His father is scholarly and bookish and always reading. His mother is "rectangular" and "bases her fashion choices on the queen." His sister, Kit Kat, is (and I loved this) a "nature thing," so-called because of her childlike emotions and actions. And the romantic love of his life, Mary, is absolutely adorable.

You got a real family of winners, Tim.

His relationships with these people change as he becomes older and his own life changes, but the love they have for each other is so tangible that it makes this quick view of his life a real treat. The cinematography only serves to enhance this, too. Very romantically filmed with lots of warm lighting, beach scenes, and quirky characters. Keeps the whole thing feeling very timeless.

Give me your life right now.

Many a sentimental, humorous moment and extremely enjoyable. If you need a lesson on how to live your life, watch this movie.

9.5 outa 10. .5 due to Bill Nighy's performance.

Comes out November 1st!