Reel Entropy

Audacious production sunk by poor writing, editing decisions

Posted on January 7, 2016 by reelentropy

The Revenant is yet another show stolen by Tom Hardy. Considered a 2015 release for awards reasons, this is his fourth major movie of the year — and his fifth lead role. As overrated as I find him, he just keeps ending up delivering the best performance in a given movie. Photos courtesy 20th Century Fox.

And for his followup to last year’s Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and should-have-been Best Actor winner, the astounding Birdman, acclaimed director Alejandro G. Iñárritu takes his crew to the northern edges of the world in the Western Canadian wilds to bring the viewer what feels like two and a half hours of Leonardo DiCaprio limping.

The semi-true story of The Revenant kicks off with a fur trapping company in the northern reaches of the Louisiana Purchase, for which Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) serves as navigator, being ambushed by local Arikara American Indians. The company is forced to retreat on foot with decimated numbers. Glass, foraging for food, is ~~raped~~ mauled by a grizzly bear. After realizing he can’t be carried all the way to safety, John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) and Jim Bridger (Will Poulter), along with Glass’ son, Hawk (Forrest Goodluck), stay back to protect him until help arrives or bury him if he passes. Instead, Fitzgerald murders Hawk and leaves Glass in a shallow grave. Now a creature of pure vengeance, Glass digs himself free and crawls on his belly, wounds still festering, across the frozen wasteland to claim his revenge.

The Revenant was a daring film to produce and deserves all sorts of credit for the difficulty Iñárritu went through to bring it to the screen. Shooting took nine months. Cast and crew had a several-hour daily commute to shooting locations because they were so far from civilization, and when they got there, it was only to shoot for an hour or two at most. Iñárritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki wanted to use natural lighting and create a 100 percent CGI-free movie. As close to the Arctic Circle as they were, that meant they only had a small window every day when the lighting was right to shoot. This script had been floating around since as early as 2001 because no one was willing to tackle the challenges it presented. This was a truly ambitious undertaking, and they pulled it off. There were some hitches, to say the least, but the fact that filming was completed or even attempted is itself an impressive thing. Ultimately, the film is crushed not under the weight of its ambition, but by poor pre- and post-production decisions.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #alejandro inarritu, #birdman, #daredevil, #leonardo dicaprio, #oscar bait, #oscar season, #revenantmovie, #the revenant, #tom hardy | 1 Comment

The most important female characters of 2015

Posted on January 7, 2016 by reelentropy

Photo courtesy Warner Bros.

Something that escaped mention in the previous year-end post is that 2015 was also a fantastic year for women in film, filled with strong characters and stronger economic motivations to serve a female audience. Given that I completely forgot about it and also don’t want to become that one cis white guy talking about feminism from his high tower, the following is a guest post by multimedia freelancer and actual female person Christina Ulsh.

Fiction presents real life values and problems in a fabricated universe. This allows characters to become yet another standard by which women can compare themselves and girls can try to live up to. Moreover, it can influence the way men view and treat ladies. Thus, Reel Entropy takes a gander at 2015 and the fictional female figures in movies that ignited discussion, shaped attitudes toward women and gave us pause.

Photo courtesy Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios.

The film industry is a dude-dominated field. Women made up 12 percent of protagonists in the top 100 grossing films in 2014, according to The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. The same center found that on-screen men were more likely to be represented by their job, say as business executives and doctors, as opposed to women, who are more likely to be defined by their roles in their personal lives, such as wives and mothers. Guy characters frequently turn to female characters to satisfy their sexual needs, while the women turn to the men for purpose.

Even Daniel Craig recognizes James Bond as a misogynist in an interview with Red Bulletin. Craig credits modern Bond’s chivalry to the “very strong women who have no problem putting him in his place.”

As women make up nearly half the population and are accomplishing more than mothering kids and loving men, it’s necessary to talk about the female characters who are empowering real-life women.

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Posted in White Noise | Tagged #Alicia Vikander, #brie larson, #bryce dallas howard, #charlize theron, #daisy ridley, #dakota johnson, #domhnal gleeson, #ex machina, #feminism, #fifty shades of grey, #fury road, #jamie dorman, #john boyega, #jurassic park, #jurassic world, #mad max, #masculism, #Oscar Isaac, #prattprattpratt, #rape culture, #room, #star wars, #the force awakens, #tom hardy, #we are not things, #wheresrey | Leave a comment

The most important movies of 2015

Posted on January 4, 2016 by reelentropy

Annual top 10 lists are stupid, lame and wrong. They’re easy to write, boring to read and represent everything wrong with modern film criticism. At this site, we aspire to track the progress of movies over time, so instead of simply list-bating out another drop in the ocean of top 10 lists, here we’re going to talk about the 10 most influential movies of the year and what their influence might be.

Image courtesy Universal Pictures.

1) Fifty Shades of Grey

In many ways, the year’s first major hit was pre-ordained. Based on a controversial best-seller, everyone knew it was going to be a smash hit, and everyone who had read or heard about the book knew it was also going to be biblically awful.

The novel’s first-draft feel and hilarious word choice was the butt of every joke for months leading up to the movie’s release, but many who took it more seriously than that took pains to illustrate how unhealthy the story’s central relationship is and how abusive a character Christian Grey (Jamie Dorman) is. For one reason or the other, most people wrote this movie off.

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Posted in White Noise | Tagged #50 shades of grey, #A24 films, #Age of Ultron, #Alicia Vikander, #avatar, #beasts of no nation, #china all the time, #chris pratt, #dakota johnson, #DC comics, #Disney, #domhnall gleeson, #el james, #ex machina, #Fantastic Four, #furious 7, #fury road, #glorious 70 mm, #green lantern, #i love china, #inside out, #it follows, #jamie dorman, #josh trank, #judgment day, #jurassic world, #lionsgate, #mad max, #marvel comics, #marvel studios, #metropolis, #michael b jordan, #minions, #mission: impossible, #mockingjay, #Netflix, #Oscar Isaac, #parks and recreation, #pirates of the caribbean, #pixar, #prattprattpratt, #quentin tarantino, #sam taylor-johnson, #spectre, #star wars, #straight outta compton, #terminator 2, #the force awakens, #the hateful eight, #the hobbit, #the hunger games, #the martian, #the matrix, #the visit, #universal pictures, #venice film festival, #war room, #warner bros., Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel, The Avengers, Transformers | 1 Comment

Hateful Eight the most distinctly Tarantino movie yet

Posted on January 1, 2016 by reelentropy

The Hateful Eight was initially conceived as a Django Unchained sequel titled Django in White Hell, until Tarantino realized the story works better without a moral center. That said, I still love the idea of Warren as a post-Civil War Django who has changed dramatically as a character. Django was really no angel in the first place. Photos courtesy the Weinstein Company.

The Hateful Eight is a double-edged sword. Everything to like about it is also something to dislike.

The film is a bottle movie, with eight — nine, including the carriage driver — strangers snowed into a lonely coffee shop a few years after the Civil War. The collection of questionable characters include John “The Hangman” Ruth (Kurt Russell), a bounty hunter who earned his moniker by refusing to kill his bounties, preferring to see them executed; his prisoner, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), whom he keeps handcuffed to him at all times; Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a fellow bounty hunter who always kills his marks and bears a nasty reputation he earned fighting for the Union; Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), sheriff-elect who earned a similarly nasty reputation for the Confederacy; Bob (Demián Bichir), who has been left in charge of the haberdashery by the owners; Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), the territory’s actual hangman; Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), a cowboy writing his life story in the corner; and Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern), a former Confederate general known for his cruelty to black Union soldiers. At least one of these people is obviously not who they say they are, and suspicion and paranoia take hold over all of them.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #bruce dern, #demian bichir, #django unchained, #jennifer jason leigh, #kurt russell, #michael madsen, #open bar review, #pulp fiction, #quinten tarantino, #reservoir dogs, #samuel l jackson, #the hateful eight, #tim roth, #walton goggins | 1 Comment

Point Break rewards patience with potent second half, stunts

Posted on December 31, 2015 by reelentropy

Photos courtesy Warner Bros. Motion Pictures.

The worst reviewed movie of 2015, bizarrely, is the most impressive of the year’s Christmas Day releases.

Point Break follows Johnny “Utah” Brigham, a provisional FBI agent and former motorcross star who retired after a close friend, Jeff (Max Theriot), died following his line. After a string of bizarrely athletic heists, Utah correctly surmises that the three perpetrators are poly-athletes committing robberies while also performing the Osaki 8, a series of eight extremely difficult athletic feats supposed to bring enlightenment to any who can perform them. Utah infiltrates the group off the coast of France performing the fourth feat, surfing massive waves created by a hurricane swell, and begins to descend into the cultish group’s worldview.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #edgar ramirez, #keanu reeves, #luke bracey, #point break, #ray winstone, #utah | Leave a comment

Reel Entropy

Audacious production sunk by poor writing, editing decisions

The most important female characters of 2015

The most important movies of 2015

Hateful Eight the most distinctly Tarantino movie yet

Point Break rewards patience with potent second half, stunts

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