FILM: The Revenant
CAST: Leonardo Di Caprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall, Forrest Goodluck 
DIRECTION: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu


Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who had aearlier given us Biutiful, Babel and Birdman, has once again delivered a masterpiece with The Revenant. He spares nothing in immersing viewers in the savagery of the narrative.
A brutally depicted epic survival and revenge tale, set against the nineteenth century North American frontier, the film is the story of a fur trapper and frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio). Loosely adapted from Michael Punke’s 2002 novel of the same name, it is a true, chilling story of betrayal, survival and obsession.
The narrative, fluctuating between hallucinations and reality, begins with Glass on an expedition with his half-native, teenage son, Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) and a group of other trappers led by Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson). All of a sudden, their camp consisting of roughly 35 members is attacked and slaughtered by Arikara Indians and the group is reduced to a mere 10.
The survivors escape in their boat, downstream, but fearing an attack once again and on the recommendation of their guide the experienced hunter Hugh, they venture out on foot to their base camp, Fort Kiowa. The decision bothers some, particularly John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), who is hostile towards Glass and his son as he was partially scalped by the native years ago.
Glass’s ordeal begins when he is brutally mauled by a bear and acknowledging that he will soon succumb to his injury, he is left behind by those who promised to take care of him.
How Glass survives the rugged terrain, the weather, the Arikara Indians and overcomes insurmountable odds, only to later obsessively hunt the person who left him for dead, forms the crux of the tale.
The film is believable and of course, a lot of this realism comes from DiCaprio’s convincing performance. He has put in an astonishingly physical and mental effort to portray Glass. He doesn’t say a word for long periods of time and yet spellbinds you throughout with some visceral and seriously gruelling ordeals.
As good as he is, though, Hardy is no less his equal. He brings that dead-eyed stare and ferocity that only Hardy can. His John Fitzgerald is a terrifying and a despicable human being but, under the surface, Hardy hints at something more and manages to turn a fairly straight forward villain into an intriguing, three-dimensional character. — IANS


Stark and visceral


By Katie Walsh


FILM: Son of Saul
CAST: Geza Rohrig, Levente Molnar, Urs Rechn, Jerzy Walczak
DIRECTION: Laszlo Nemes


This first feature film from director Laszlo Nemes is a stunning achievement of cinematography, choreography and performance from lead actor Geza Rohrig. Son of Saul is a film about Nazi concentration camps unlike any you’ve ever seen before, capturing the existential and bodily horrors of a place that is incomprehensibly savage. 
Son of Saul doesn’t try to make this world comprehendible — one of its strengths is to show just how morally upside down it is, how nothing means anything. It follows the journey of one man as he tries to assert meaning, a small gesture of humanity in the face of hellish destruction.
Cinematically, Son of Saul, has a scheme. In the first shot, Saul walks into frame and his face is the focus for the duration — we only see what is directly around him. That’s a blessing in a film like this. Saul is a sonderkommando, part of a special group of prisoners within the camp who were forced to be the human labour that kept the death machine running, and therefore to bear the Nazis’ most terrible secret. Because of their knowledge, they were killed every few months.
Saul is a dead man walking, and therefore he is an automaton. He puts his head down, does his job — collecting the clothes of the people screaming and pounding on the walls of the gas chamber, searching for “shiny” in the pockets, scrubbing and disinfecting the floor, shovelling piles of coal and ashes. He’s hauled around by the scruff of his neck, and jerked around by his lapels, ordered around by the higher-ups and SS officers. He’s shoved both into and out of danger, narrowly escaping the inevitability of death time and time again.
Saul becomes determined to complete a task outside of his duties. It seems small; it is enormous. He wants to give a proper burial to a young boy, and he puts his own life and others’ in danger in order to do that. 
In the face of so much carnage, so many human bodies dragged and piled and burned like cords of wood, his task seems dangerous and stupid. This dogged persistence of humanity is its own small form of resistance.
The filmmakers have created an intensely stark and visceral representation of this hellish place, and the cinematography is intimate and stunning. Director of photography Matyas Erdely follows Saul so closely, you’re with him in every moment, in long takes as he moves from place to place, murder and chaos erupting around him. Rohrig’s performance is remarkable — Saul’s own existence is a performance. You’ll walk away from Son of Saul thinking “how did they do it?” - the sheer amount of bodies, choreography and background performance is a marvel of blocking and camera work on the part of the filmmakers. But that question needles at the core of the film’s themes too; it’s the moral and philosophical question that drives at the historical context and facts of the film — how could anyone do this?  — TNS


Wandering plot


FILM: Misconduct
CAST: Josh Duhamel, Al Pacino, Anthony Hopkins, Alice Eve 
DIRECTION: Shintaro Shimosawa


The CEO of a pharmaceutical firm, Arthur Denning (Anthony Hopkins), comes under fire due to clinical drug trials that go awry. And then someone kidnaps his girlfriend Emily Hynes (Malin Akerman) and threatens to kill her within the next 12 hours.
From there, Misconduct takes viewers a week back to see what led to these events. Attorney Ben Cahill (Josh Duhamel) gets a social media “friend request” from Emily, an old girlfriend of his who apparently threatened suicide when they split. Despite this troubled history — and a strained relationship with wife Charlotte (Alice Eve) — he accepts the request and also meets up with Emily at a bar.
This leads Ben down the rabbit hole. Emily reveals that Arthur knew of the flawed drug’s issues and did nothing about the fatal side effects, so Ben persuades her to provide the info. Complications ensue and Ben finds himself in a variety of predicaments.
Despite the presence of Hopkins and fellow legend Al Pacino, Misconduct remains Duhamel’s show, for better or for worse. 
Not that the meandering plot deserves much better, as the story tends to wander. Misconduct proceeds in a less than logical manner, and it occasionally feels like scenes go missing. — CJ


DVDs courtesy: 
Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha