First Reactions: ‘The Revenant’ Thrills and Polarizes
Reviews are embargoed until December 4, but critics and Oscar-watchers got their first look at “The Revenant” last night, and the insta-reactions were both awestruck and overwhelmed. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 156-minute survival odyssey drew frequent comparisons to Terrence Malick, with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki shooting with natural light in a forbidding and frozen landscape. Repeating his “Birdman” strategy, González Iñárritu stressed the rigors of the shoot at the post-screening Q&A, likening it to the scene where Leonardo DiCaprio’s character does battle with an angry bear — that sound you hear is Werner Herzog texting a thousand eyeroll emojis — and DiCaprio compared the struggle to shoot in the waning light to the rush of shooting “Saturday Night Live,” only without the jokes. Talk quickly turned to whether DiCaprio or Lubezki would wind up as Oscar winners, but critics who keep their distance from the race cast a more skeptical eye on the film, suggesting its flash isn’t backed up by much in the way of substance. “The Revenant” doesn’t open until Christmas Day, but with longer reviews breaking next week and an aggressive awards campaign being waged on the film’s behalf, we’ll be hearing much more about it before then.
THE REVENANT is ferocious, brutal, ambitious as hell, and seems like it was hell to make. DiCaprio suffers better than almost anyone.
— Adam B. Vary (@adambvary) November 24, 2015
The Revenant: classical revenge/survival story buoyed by Lubezki’s idyllic touch. Brutality swallows emotion, yet compelling in its excess.
— Jordan Raup (@jpraup) November 24, 2015
THE REVENANT (A-): Inarritu and diCaprio reconstitute the Western as visceral survival epic, rich in astonishment and Mallickian metaphysics
— Tom Shone (@Tom_Shone) November 24, 2015
THE REVENANT is physically persuasive, emotionally remote, Malick with machetes
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) November 24, 2015
The Revenant is very Malick with minimal dialogue, dreamy voiceovers, and stunning Lubezki visuals plus Sakamoto score. Actors superb.
— Anne Thompson (@akstanwyck) November 24, 2015
THE REVENANT or from Birdman to Bear-man. A return to miserabilism for Iñarritu; where Malick finds wonder, he only finds pain and grunts.
— Jose Solís (@josesolismayen) November 24, 2015
Everyone’s going to invoke Malick, but in many ways THE REVENANT is a big dreamy Mamet movie.
— Russ Fischer (@russfischer) November 24, 2015
The bear attack in The Revenant will give you nightmares. It’s what you imagined Herzog heard in Grizzly Man, but you watch it in real time.
— Germain Lussier (@GermainLussier) November 24, 2015
I’ll say this about THE REVENANT: I’ve never been grabbed as hard or for as long as I was during the grizzly attack scene. Great date flick.
— Josh Lincoln Dickey (@JLDlite) November 24, 2015
The Revenant is intense, gripping & amazingly well-made. Not my fave of the year but undoubtedly one of the best. Hardy & Leo own.
— Germain Lussier (@GermainLussier) November 24, 2015
The craft of “The Revenant” is beyond reproach, which really makes me wish it was in service of something more profound on the page.
— Kristopher Tapley (@kristapley) November 24, 2015
In all serious, THE REVENANT is gorgeous, but at least three times I caught myself thinking about something else.
— Mike Ryan (@mikeryan) November 24, 2015
THE REVENANT: next time it would be great if Iñárritu just murdered his leading man & saved everyone some time. as banal as it is beautiful.
— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) November 24, 2015
Can’t tell from early tweets if The Revenant is amazing or just internet-amazing.
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) November 24, 2015
