The Revenant (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2015)

Loosely based on a real story, The Revenant is set in a frozen winter in the American North-West in 1823, amongst trappers and local Indian tribes. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, a scout who is left for dead by his compatriots after being mauled by a bear. The film follows his single-minded agonising journey to recover and track down one of the party, the killer of his half-Pawnee son.
It's hard to believe that two-and-a-half hours of watching a man crawl through snow could be so compelling. The adult DiCaprio is a commanding presence on screen, but the film really belongs to the landscape and elements, shot with imperious beauty, aloof and utterly above human concerns, in effect becoming a character in the story. You feel the cold and pain to the bone in every scene, and the knowledge that the basic revenge quest plot will inevitably be followed through hardly matters when the experience is so immersive. It's like watching Terrence Malick edited to the vital essence by John Hillcoat, and probably Iñárritu's greatest achievement as a director.

8/10