Film Review: The Revenant

The Revenant. Rated MA15+ (strong bloody violence, themes and sexual violence). 156 minutes. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Screenplay by Mark L Smith and Alejandro González Iñárritu. Based in part on The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge by Michael Punke.
 
Of The Revenant’s many contradictions, the main one is how a true story of such relentless brutality can also be one of the most beautiful films in recent memory. It is a film that you will often want to hide from as much as be hypnotised by its immense natural splendour, photographed to perfection by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Birdman, Gravity, The Tree of Life).
 
It is 1823, and fur-trapper Hugh Glass’ (Leonardo DiCaprio) ordeal begins in the deceptive tranquillity of a swiftly flowing creek, where he and his son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) are stalking their prey. At the base camp nearby, the other trappers, lead by the wound-up John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), are preparing to load their precious cargo onto a boat when they are attacked by hunters from the Native American Arikara tribe.
 
Those lucky enough to escape the truly merciless attack, decide to head inland and back to the relative safety of their fort. During a moment of rare respite, Glass finds himself in the presence of two bear cubs and their very angry mother, who wastes no time in taking on the threat to her young.
 
Miraculously, Glass survives the ferocious attack, only to be deserted by Fitzgerald and the young Bridger (Will Poulter), who were to stay with him until he either died or help returned. Dragging himself from his shallow grave, Glass begins his impossibly challenging journey home.
 
Iñárritu (Birdman, Babel, 21 Grams) commands every element of his uncompromising masterpiece, with DiCaprio, and each member of the outstanding cast, delivering performances that are more like incomprehensible feats of endurance. For those who love riveting survival stories, The Revenant is one of the very best – an immersive, unforgettable cinematic experience.
 
This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolf of Wall Street. Rated R18+ (high impact sex scenes and drug use). 179 minutes. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Screenplay by Terence Winter. Based on the book by Jordan Belfort.

Verdict: Vanity project or cautionary tale? You decide.

If there’s a point to this long, raucous and rambling epic about an ambitious young stockbroker’s fall from the dizzying heights of a particular kind of success, it’s difficult to know what it might be.

Through his brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio at full stretch) ripped off unsuspecting investors in the 1990s. Before he was finally convicted of fraud and jailed, lots of people suffered the consequences; except Belfort it would seem, as he went on to the lucrative international motivational speakers circuit. And why anyone thought that this sordid tale of debauchery, set in the darkest depths of a moral vacuum, should take three hours to tell is a complete mystery.

Problematically, Belfort’s fall from a certain kind of power and influence might be easily considered as unremarkable and equally well-deserved, and it is odd that Scorsese and DiCaprio considered his tale of drug- and sex-crazed indulgence a worthy subject for their fifth cinematic collaboration.

The only revelations are the extraordinary, break-out performance from Australian-born Margot Robbie (Neighbours) as Belfort’s wife Naomi, and an excellent sequence of clowning brilliance as DiCaprio attempts to get back into his car while almost completely paralysed by the effects of a high number of drugs.

Scorsese and Winter (Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos) take an each-way bet on the extent to which we will care about their fraudster and his eager band of disciples, led by the loyal and enthusiastic Donnie (the always reliable Jonah Hill). DiCaprio plays Belfort as some kind of financial market revolutionary, when in fact, his collision of business misadventures is a good deal less fascinating than the attention this handsomely over-produced film suspects it deserves.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby. Rated M (mature themes and violence). 142 minutes. Directed by Baz Luhrmann. Screenplay by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce. Based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Verdict: A magnificent achievement from start to finish.

It is curious to consider that F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing his seminal work The Great Gatsby to have been a failure. Only posthumously did his novel become considered as ‘the great American novel’ – such was the impact of the cracked mirror Fitzgerald held up to those in pursuit of unimaginable wealth and glamour, which is all too conveniently referred to as ‘the American dream’.

It is not quite as curious that it should be one of Australia’s big picture dreamers who takes the novel on. Luhrmann’s preposterous ambition for this film incises the novel’s grand themes of hope, optimism and the desolation of a life-long infatuation and lays the threads that both unite and divide us bare in scene after scene of artfully considered cinematic mastery. The finely-wrought screenplay, written with his constant collaborator Pearce, is flawless – and utterly enthralling for every one of its 142 minutes.

The production and costume design from Catherine Martin, Luhrmann’s creative soulmate and constant collaborator, is magnificent – recreating the 1920s with such an alarming level of dazzling, hyper-realistic creativity that it is, at times, simply overwhelming. Martin’s world for this film is both lovingly and carefully considered, and as true to the era as it is possible to imagine for people who never experienced it.

Leonardo DiCaprio, (who first worked with Luhrmann in Romeo and Juliet) delivers a beautiful performance as the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby, whose obsession with winning back the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan (a perfect Carey Mulligan), leads him and everyone involved in his pyrotechnical life to the brink of emotional ruin.

Tobey Maguire is outstanding as the narrator Nick Carraway, delivering a performance of wide-eyed wonder in the face of the increasingly disconcerting influence of the obscenely privileged people that surround his innocent, uncomplicated existence. The standout performance, though, is that of Joel Edgerton, whose morally-bankrupt Tom Buchanan strides and procrastinates through the story like a raging bull from a bygone age. And as his self-righteousness suffocates everyone around him, the real sting in Fitzgerald’s tale becomes less about the perils of soul-less wealth and glamour but more about who it is in our lives who would prefer to see us absolutely fail than succeed beyond our wildest dreams.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Fim Review: Django Unchained

Django Unchained. Rated MA 15+ (strong bloody violence and themes). 165 minutes. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Verdict: A brilliant cast brings Tarantino’s provocative southern adventure to life in high style.

This latest film in Tarantino’s career-long study of the grand theme of revenge is an extraordinarily complicated beast that can be appreciated on a number of levels. Beautifully shot by Tarantino’s (and Oliver Stone’s) frequent collaborator, cinematographer Robert Richardson, Tarantino’s finely-wrought screenplay combines wit, humour, passion, chance and the thrill of the tasks at hand perfectly.

Django Unchained can just as easily be dismissed as a gruesome pantomime from a bygone era that requires us to ignore just how much has changed about the way African Americans are portrayed in contemporary cinema. Either way, there is little doubt that Tarantino is an exceptional provocateur – but if Django Unchained is remembered for anything in years to come, it will be for the fearless performances from his exceptionally committed cast.

When the slave Django Freeman (Jamie Foxx) is purchased by bounty hunter Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), the pair agree that if Django can help Schultz track down the evil Brittle brothers, he will help Django find and rescue his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) who is a slave to the ruthless plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). As the tense negotiations for Broomhilda’s freedom reach a mutually-agreeable conclusion, Candie’s loyal slave Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) realises that Django and Broomhilda mean more to each other than either have let on, and the price for her freedom becomes almost insurmountable.

Built on impossibly high stakes and played in a perfectly-matched style, Tarantino’s vision has been well-served by his brilliant cast who are all at the very top of their games. DiCaprio and Jackson both shed whatever previous association we may have had with them as actors like skin and escort their characters to extreme levels of perversity – with Jackson’s scenes with a shackled, strung upside-down Foxx among the film’s most challenging. Waltz (in a companion piece to his memorable performance in Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds) is mesmerising as Schultz – whose fascinating journey through the film is the one that captures our imagination and refuses to let us go unmoved.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Titanic (re-released in 3D)

Titanic. Rated M (mature themes and coarse language). 195 minutes. Written and directed by James Cameron.

Verdict: ‘Pop-up’ Titanic betrays the splendid original, but it’s an undeniable pleasure to see it on the big screen where it belongs.

Following its original release in 1997, James Cameron’s epic telling of the fate of the legendary, ‘unsinkable’ RMS Titanic went on to create motion picture history. Until Mr Cameron’s Avatar (2009), Titanic was the highest-grossing film of all time – raking in over $2 billion dollars in box office receipts worldwide. Titanic was also nominated for a record-equalling fourteen Academy Awards (a record shared with All About Eve), of which it won eleven (as did Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), including Best Picture. Its stars – Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet – were catapulted to unequivocal movie stardom.

Re-released in retrofitted 3D to coincide with the centenary of the ill-fated ship’s catastrophic maiden voyage, Titanic remains a stunning cinematic achievement. Apart from providing some younger audience members with the opportunity to see it on the big screen for the first time, the timely re-release provides others of us with the opportunity to revisit an old friend – and Titanic (in 3D or not) demands to be seen at least once in the cinema.

Film Review: Inception

Inception. 148 minutes. Rated M. Written and directed by Christopher Nolan.

Three cheers for Christopher Nolan who has delivered one of the most curious, layered, intellectually engaging, visually arresting and superbly crafted films of the year. While it is certainly no masterpiece, it is a film that will have you discussing its grand and adventurous epic story-telling and mind-bending qualities in equal measure.

Nolan has always been a filmmaker to inspire passionate debate. His stunning reboot of the Batman franchise (Batman Begins in 2005), is considered one of the most perfect examples of the comic book big screen adaptations, while his Memento (2000) was a supreme example of reverse narrative engineering.

Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a highly sought-after ‘extractor’ – someone who is able to infiltrate people’s sub-conscious dream state and identify their secrets and ideas before stealing them. A wealthy Japanese businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe) challenges Cobb and his colleagues to perform an ‘inception’ – where instead of stealing an idea that already exists, an idea is implanted in the target’s sub-conscious. The particular ‘target’ of Saito’s ambitious plan is Robert Fischer Jr (Cillian Murphy) – heir to a rival business empire. Robert’s father Maurice (Pete Postlethwaite) is terminally ill, and Saito wants the young heir to dismantle his father’s empire, effectively eliminating Saito’s competition.

In spite of all the advance claims of the film being too cryptic and obscure, it’s actually a relatively simple premise that becomes increasingly involving as the cast find themselves trapped in the dark and threatening, multi-layered sub-conscious world of fear, regret and lost love. Tom Hardy, Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are outstanding as Cobb’s co-conspirators while DiCaprio gives the overall impression of being at sea with the one-note emotional nature of much of the material – particularly the occasionally distracting storyline involving his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) and his memories of the first time he attempted an ‘inception’.

Hans Zimmer’s (Sherlock Holmes) score is brilliant, while Nolan’s regular collaborators cinematographer Wally Pfister and editor Lee Smith are in magnificent form – capturing Guy Dyas’s (Elizabeth: The Golden Age) eye-popping production design and Brad Ricker’s inspirational art direction to absolute perfection.

Film review: Shutter Island

Shutter Island. 138 minutes. Rated MA15+. Directed by Martin Scorsese; Written by Laeta Kalogridis; Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane.

Psychological thrillers (exemplified by masters of the genre such as Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick) don’t come much better than this screen-scorching mind-bender from Mr Scorsese.

It is 1954, and US Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are sent to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a remote maximum-security prison hospital for the criminally insane. As a devastating hurricane closes in on the island, communication with the mainland is severed and the young investigators find themselves at the mercy, not only of nature's full fury, but also the sinister and singularly uncooperative hospital staff.

Mr Scorsese’s fierce, passionate and wildly-involving film could only ever have been possible when the talent involved is at the very top of their game. Robert Richardson’s (The Aviator) cinematography is positively searing, Sandy Powell’s (The Departed, The Aviator) 1950s costuming is beautifully realised, and Dante Ferretti’s (The Aviator, Gangs of New York) production design is flawless. But the virtuosity of the film’s final sequence (and the all-important pay-off where psychological thrillers are concerned), would not have been possible without the editing skills of Thelma Schoonmaker, who has edited every one of the director’s films since 1980’s Raging Bull.

With a performance of astonishing emotional depth and intellectual muscle, Mr DiCaprio proves, once and for all, that he is one of the most extraordinary actors of his generation. And he is in spectacular company. Mr Ruffalo’s is a career-defining performance of incredible range, while veterans Ben Kingsley (Ghandi) and Max von Sydow (the Exorcist in The Exorcist) are simply superb. Michelle Williams (unforgettable opposite Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain), here, again, uses every one of her chameleon qualities to devastating effect, while Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson excel in their cameos as one of the patients.

And while it’s only February, Shutter Island could well be the most exciting and rewarding couple of hours we’ll spend in the cinema this year.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspapers Group and was published in the print edition of the Geraldton Guardian.