BOOK VS MOVIE: The Revenant

The willpower to survive is unlike anything else. Once one puts their mind to it, it's an unstoppable force. Heaven helps whomever gets in their way.

An endless amount of reality TV shows and works of fiction that revolve around the pursuit of survival. Many depict the harsh wilderness the protagonists are in but sometimes a fierce lust for revenge is depicted as well. Combine the two emotions together, and you have someone who should be outright feared.

Michael Punke's The Revenant depicts in grim detail what trapper Hugh Glass endured in the unsettled wilderness of the Louisiana Purchase. From the extent of Glass' injuries to the downfalls his company faced, Punke paints a portrait of the vicious side of both the past and within humanity.

Granted the screen credit says "based in part on the novel by Michael Punke", but Alejandro González Iñárritu's adaptation feels like something entirely different from what Punke presented. (That's not generally a good thing, mind you.) It plays up the revenge aspect of Glass' story more than anything else (even making Glass a more tragic figure), which feels forced in some scenes. At least the work from Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter and Domhnall Gleeson is good.

Both Punke's novel and Iñárritu's film are clearly different works despite revolving around the same story. Punke shows Glass' journey to civilization with a heart filled with rage while Iñárritu dramatizes (and glorifies) said rage with a brutal perspective. One may preferred one more over the other but tastes vary from person to person.

What's worth checking out?: The book.

Birdman

You have to admire the meta-induced irony throughout Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman. After all, the main character is a washed-up actor trying to escape his most famous role in a comic book movie. And who better to play that role than Michael Keaton?

But it's not just about Keaton's casting and performance that should interest you in seeing Birdman. As expected from an Inarritu film, the rest of the actors are great. Among them are Emma Stone, Edward Norton (also playing an exaggerated version of himself), Zach Galifianakis, Andrea Riseborough, Naomi Watts and Amy Ryan. (There's also Lindsay Duncan in a small but effective role.) Of them, Norton stands out the most. (Apparently self-parody is the way to go for acclaim.)

As with any piece of fiction revolving around those in the performing arts, it's only a matter of time before life starts to imitate art for the characters. For Birdman, this is applied on both a fictional and meta level (as previously mentioned). Talk about life being stranger than fiction.

Much like what Joseph A. Valentine, William V. Skall and William H. Ziegler did with Rope, Birdman is shot in a way to make it look like it was shot in one continuous take. Thanks to Emmanuel Lubezki, Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione, the film's story becomes more ambitious in depiction. (It's also easy to see why it's a feat not often attempted.)

Birdman is certainly an ambitious film from both a storytelling and production standpoint. It might not rank among some of the other films about show business to others but the handiwork from Inarritu and the actors will certainly keep people talking.

My Rating: *****

Biutiful

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Biutiful is a relatively simple film. Nothing too flashy, nothing too daring. It certainly feels like a stark contrast to his earlier films like 21 Grams and Babel yet it keeps a similar nature to the previous two.

The film stars Javier Bardem in a role that's very much a far cry from his Oscar-winning role in No Country for Old Men. How so? Well, for starters, he's not a sociopath with a bad haircut. But more seriously, Bardem is much more restrained here.

Likewise, Biutiful doesn't possess the same hyperlink narrative that 21 Grams and Babel have. Granted, Biutiful does focus on a few of the smaller roles but not at a great length as Inarritu's two earlier films. Still, the narrative works...to an extent.

Though I feel that's one of the flaws of Biutiful. It has too much of the emotional weight on one character (Bardem's). With 21 Grams and Babel, the collective emotional burden is felt throughout several characters. But here, it's one character and only one whom all of the weight is on, and it just feels...lopsided.

All in all, Biutiful is an adequate film. There's nothing too remarkable about it and it feels a little long in the tooth in some scenes. But Bardem's performance and Inarritu's direction make Biutiful worth at least a look.

My Rating: ****

21 Grams

Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu is one of those directors whose movies stand out from the rest. They're movies that wouldn't work if made by other directors.

Take 21 Grams for instance. The way the movie is constructed is the surefire way of telling it's Inarritu's work. It's not told in normal time like other movies but rather where the story is told in fragmented time. You have to pay close attention to the movie to get a good understanding of the tale Inarritu is telling.

Also pay close attention to the acting by Sean Penn, Naomi Watts (in perhaps her least glamorous role), Benicio del Toro and Melissa Leo. They're acting not only with their words and bodies but also their eyes. One look into any of their eyes reveals more than anything they'll say.

21 Grams is a very good movie, though it might be a little too gritty and depressing for some people. The work from Penn, Watts, del Toro and Leo is fantastic, probably some of the best work I've seen from any actors. (Don't ask me to pick my favorite; that'd be impossible for me to choose one.) One of the best movies of the last decade.

My Rating: ****1/2

Babel

Usually when I choose a movie to watch, the plot has to be appealing to me. That's the main requirement.

Richard (Brad Pitt) and Susan (Cate Blanchett) are a troubled married couple on vacation in Morocco trying to work out their differences. While on a tour bus, Susan is shot by an unseen assailant. Their story is connected with Mexican nanny Amelia (Adriana Barraza), the two boys responsible for the shooting and a Japanese businessman whose deaf daughter Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi) longs for affection.

Hmm, another movie focusing on people with different lives but they're somehow connected. Apologies if I sound negative, but the "interwoven storyline" seems a little...cliched. But that doesn't make Babel a bad movie. In my humble opinion, Kikuchi gives the best performance. The movie definitely has a gritty feel to it. Babel also captures the struggles on each individual nationality.

My Rating: ****1/2