STACK #135 Jan 2016

CINEMA REVIEWS

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ALSO SCREENING IN JANUARY

Quentin Tarantino's latest strands the titular number of rogues in a snowbound cabin for the usual talkfest punctuated by moments of graphic violence. Ever the old school purist, QT has shot The Hateful Eight on film in glorious 70mm, so it should look magnificent. We highly recommend that you see it in the director's preferred widescreen format in selected cinemas prior to its wide release on Jan 21 . THE HATEFUL EIGHT

RELEASED: Jan 7 DIRECTOR: Alejandro G. Iñárritu CAST: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson RATING: MA15+

THE REVENANT

Man in the wilderness.

A rriving with the reputation of being one of the most gruelling shoots in cinema history, Alejandro G. Iñárritu's bleak and beautiful frontier survival story is far removed from his theatre-set Oscar-winner Birdman and the fractured narratives of his Mexican productions, but no less technically astounding. In moving to Hollywood, Iñárritu hasn't sold out to the mainstream; filming in long unbroken takes and using only natural light and remote locations, he achieves the sense of verisimilitude and immediacy that has been his forte since Amores Perros . Putting his cast through an arduous experience both on screen and behind the scenes also helps, and the film is likely to be showered with nominations come Oscar time. Set in 1823 in the harsh frozen wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, a fur trapper who is viciously mauled by a bear (not raped, as risible rumours suggested) and left in the company of his half-Pawnee son and a surly mountain man, Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). When Fitzgerald murders Glass's son and leaves the wounded man for dead, Glass's survival instincts kick in. He's harder to kill than Jason Vorhees and begins an endurance-testing journey across a forbidding landscape to seek revenge – a dish that is best served cold, after all. A dramatisation of actual events (documented in Michael Punke's novel of the same name), The Revenant shares the same DNA as '70s adventures Jeremiah Johnson and Man in the Wilderness , albeit resequenced by Iñárritu's aforementioned technical virtuoso and grand vision. The initial bear attack is extreme (and features the screen's first truly convincing use

of ursine CGI) and sets the tone for a long and harrowing slog. However, you're more likely to find yourself admiring the scenery and the filmmaking prowess than sharing Leo's anguish, pain and exhaustion. The usually one-note DiCaprio is good here, although his performance is limited to grunts, gestures and vengeful stares when he's not cauterising a throat wound with gunpowder, chowing down on raw buffalo, or slipping into a gutted horse to stay warm (a la Luke Skywalker). Ignore the occasional segue into mysticism and allusions to revenge as a force of nature, and enjoy The Revenant as a sensory experience and a primal throwback to old school, Old West wilderness adventures. Scott Hocking

The 1991 Keanu/Swayze action favourite has been reimagined with Luke Bracey and Edgar Ramirez as FBI agent and heister, respectively. Surf's up on Jan 1 POINT BREAK

CINEMA

Jack Black headlines this live-action feature based on author R.L. Stine's creepy best-sellers for kids. A meta-movie of sorts, the books' most frightening creatures are unleashed on Jan 14 . GOOSEBUMPS

FURTHER VIEWING: The Hateful Eight

The first film adaptation in a new Young Adult trilogy based on the books by Rick Yancey. Set in a post-apocalypse world (of course) in the aftermath of an alien invasion, Chloë Grace Moretz plays the 16-year-old survivor we're all meant to root for. Jan 14 . THE 5TH WAVE

JANUARY 2016

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