Room Review

Room Review

http://www.mediamikes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/room.jpg

Five year old Jack has lived in room all of his life, his friends are wardrobe, sink and plant, and his only connection to the outside world is a TV with bad signal. Lenny Abrahamson's new film Room is an extremely moving display of childlike wonder and innocence, and is one of my favourite films of the past few months.


Jack's mother has been trapped in a small 10x10 room for 7 years, with her only point of contact to the outside world being 'Old Nick' who comes every Sunday to drop off groceries and abuse her. For Jack, room is all he has known, and his mother tells him that room is all there is in the world. Television comes from TV planets, and everyone on TV is flat and made of colour, the only thing outside of room for Jack is outer space. The magical fairy tale type world that Ma has created for Jack becomes the main point of focus in the film when she decides she wants to escape room. Jack fights and argues with his mum when she starts to try and explain the real world to him, that there are trees and oceans and dogs outside room. The two of them escape fairly early on into the film, and the story becomes about what happens afterwards, when Ma discovers that life has been carrying on without her outside.

This is an extremely powerful and moving piece of work, largely down to the fact that most of the film is seen through the eyes of Jack. His struggle to adapt to the outside world is fascinating to watch, as he tries to comprehend everything around him, while his mother is struggling to cope with the fact that the world has changed since she left. The relationship between mother and son is the most convincing I have ever seen in a film, newcomer Jacob Tremblay is a revelation as Jack. Jacob gives a true and honest portrayal of childhood, much like Quvenzhane Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild. He is both quiet, gentle, angry, loud, scared and fearless all at once, displaying an emotional maturity far beyond his years. Brie Larson as Ma however is the standout performance in the film, her strength crumbles after leaving room, and as her role as Jacks mother changes, she falls apart. We don't often see the aftermath of these kinds of events in films, Ma's fairy tale ending of being reunited with her family is not what she expects, as she tries to cope with the fear and memories of room and what happened. Jack begins to grow up and adapt to this new world, while Ma is trapped in limbo between the two, testing their relationship and exploring the often under addressed post traumatic stress disorder that she experiences.

The melancholic soundtrack of Room, consisting of traditional music pieces and contemporary post rock in the form of band This Will Destroy You add to the emotional intensity of some of the scenes, particularly when Jack and his mother and reunited after their escape. Jack's narration of the story works perfectly too, he describes the world outside of room using the magical terminology he's been taught by his mother to draw us into his mind and what he is thinking. The trembling documentary style of filming is nothing special, but does a good job of not getting in the way of the story and characters, this is not in any way a pretentiously technical film, but rather a human story made to be absorbed directly to the heart, not the brain.

Come awards season Room will surely do well, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone and everyone, a must see film this season.

9.5/10

The Revenant Review

http://dl9fvu4r30qs1.cloudfront.net/80/9f/a6afc7384cc1acb88de59c4d2d34/revenant-leo.jpg

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I didn't quite realise Iñárritu's The Revenant was a full blown body horror gag-a-thon until I saw it the other day at an Odeon pre release screening. By the end of the film I felt physically and mentally exhausted, I'm still unsure if that's a good thing or not.

I managed to see The Revenant early through Odeon's Screen Unseen secret film screenings, much to my delight, I had originally guessed the film would be The Big Short. The film is Spanish Auteur Alejandro González Iñárritu's latest feature, who directed the magnificent Birdman last year, so my hopes were high that The Revenant would carry on the directors string of critical hits. In many areas, the film succeeds magnificently, and will surely do well come awards season, however there are a few issues that hold the film back from greatness.

The plot of The Revenant is simple, this is a revenge film set in the American Frontier of the early 1800's. Our leading man Hugh Glass (Leonardo Di Caprio) is mauled by a grizzly bear while on a fur trading expedition with a group of American explorers, leaving him on the brink of death. Talk of rewards and money leaves the group split, with some staying to look after him and the others heading off towards town, when Glass is betrayed by one of his men he must survive on his own through a brutal and cold landscape to get his revenge. The plot is very simple and well trodden, and therein lies one of the films main problems. Iñárritu has dedicated the majority of screen time to brutality, shock and physical endurance, which in itself wouldn't be a problem had the plot been something memorable. As it happens it's easy to forget exactly why this struggle is so important until the final section of the film. For two hours we see Glass walking, stumbling and crawling through the snow, eating raw fish, sleeping inside of a horse and committing brutal acts of violence against anyone that stands in his way. Something is missing, the emotional connection to what he is fighting for is lost in the never ending struggle to stay alive.

Aside from this, the film is stunning to look at, swirling long takes and natural lighting give the film an almost ethereal Malick quality at some points, while also being rooted in the gritty reality of the landscape Glass is fighting against. The film's many shocking body horror scenes are enhanced by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's gruelling close up shots, some of which are very difficult to watch without looking away.

The standout performances in The Revenant are Leonardo and Tom Hardy, both do an excellent job of saying a lot with their eyes and body language, without the need for much dialogue. These are performances of spit, snot and blood, of screaming and agony, and they do a damn fine job. I would hesitate to say that this is either of their best performances, and I don't think that this will give Leo his much deserved Oscar, but both are worthy of nomination. Similarly to Birdman, the soundtrack is drum heavy, but this time the drums are pummelling and mighty, the sounds of war, and make the few and far between action sequences all the more exciting. In terms of technical details then, The Revenant cannot be faulted, the film is clearly a well crafted piece of cinema directed by a supremely talented man.

While I enjoyed The Revenant for its visuals and performances, I wouldn't that I enjoyed the watching the long and gruelling struggle that Glass goes through quite as much. Impressive for sure, but not something that I would personally dedicate nearly two and a half hours to again any time soon.

7.5/10