STACK #139 May 2016

DVD & BD REVIEWS

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Man in the wilderness. THE REVENANT

Release Date: 18/05/16 Format:

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Documentary: A World Unseen Image Gallery

DID YOU KNOW...

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s temperamental nature, along with the high-pressure schedule and unpleasant filming conditions, made it a very difficult shoot and caused several crew members to leave the project, or were fired. Iñárritu explained, “As a director, if I identify a violin that is out of tune, I have to take that from the orchestra.” The origin of the title is rooted in the French verb “revenir,” which means “to return.” Revenant in French also means (reverting to) “spirit” or “ghost.”

In the harsh frozen wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, fur trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is viciously mauled by a bear 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,

moving to Hollywood, the director 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 that has been his forte since Amores Perros . Moreover, Oscar-winner DiCaprio, whose performance is limited to grunts, gestures and vengeful stares, makes us feel every chilly moment of this primal homage to old school wilderness adventures. SH • See page 30

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. 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

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Everest

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Break the story. Break the silence. SPOTLIGHT

Release Date: 04/05/16

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Uncovering The Truth: A Spotlight Team Roundtable A Look Inside The State of Journalism

DID YOU KNOW...

Although the movie never mentions it (even in the follow- up text prior to the closing credits), the Boston Globe won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for the Spotlight reporting team’s articles on the church sex abuse cover-up. The real Walter Robinson said about Michael Keaton, who plays him in the film, “It is like watching yourself in a mirror, yet having no control of the mirror image.”

It’s not surprising that Spotlight received the Best Picture Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards. Tom McCarthy’s riveting account of The Boston Globe ’s Pulitzer- winning exposé on child abuse within the Catholic Church in Massachusetts is, to use a cliché, a story ripped from today’s headlines. As the Spotlight team (comprising Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Brian d’Arcy James) doggedly pursue leads, the sheer extent

investigative journalism procedure into compelling viewing. The film doesn’t sensationalise the findings; it simply reports them as methodically and thoroughly as its players. In the tradition of great newsroom dramas like All the President’s Men and Zodiac , Spotlight is a must-see. SH • See page 28

of the abuse and cover-up becomes apparent, and they realise they’ve uncovered a monster. From interviews with victims and the legality of accessing confidential files, to the potentially explosive repercussions their story will have, Spotlight turns the minutiae of

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All the President’s Men

MAY 2016

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