In an expedition of the uncharted American wilderness, legendary explorer Hugh Glass is brutally attacked by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team. In a quest to survive, Glass endures unimaginable grief as well as the betrayal of his confidant John Fitzgerald. Guided by sheer will and the love of his family, Glass must navigate a vicious winter in a relentless pursuit to live and find redemption.
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman was one of my favourite movies from last year, and in addition to being a great performance from Michael Keaton and a weird, hilarious tale of theatre weirdos, I was completely dazzled by the impossible camerawork. Well, it looks like Iñárritu is bringing some of that long-take magic to The Revenant, a movie where Tom Hardy tries to kill Leonardo Dicaprio in a snow-covered frontier land. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this movie is that it was apparently shot entirely using natural light, which is just totally insane. Anyway, I think The Revenant looks like a masterpiece waiting to happen, but I’ll reserve judgement for now, because the last time this happened, Alfonso Cuaron went from doing long-take tricks in Children of Men to doing way too many long-take tricks in Gravity. And don’t get me wrong, Gravity was great fun, but it was no Children of Men. Here’s hoping Iñárritu doesn’t fall victim to the same follies as Cuaron. But hey, if nothing else, we’ll finally get a movie about how brutal Canadian winters are.
The Revenant comes out December 25, 2015.