The Revenant (2015)

The Revenant (2015)

The Revenant is a breath-taking movie, a visceral experience that not many movies can provide and while it may not be super-deep (as some critics accuse it to be), it resonated deeply with me on a pure emotional and symbolic level. Leonardo DiCaprio gives a great performance, but then he always does, so a real surprise for me was Tom Hardy. His performance is impressive in the many layers he finds for his character and put him on my radar (where DiCaprio has been for a while already). But no review could ignore the director Alejandro González Iñárritu because the movie is really noteworthy for its amazing filming style. The incredible long takes, the beautiful shots of snow and forests and mountains and horizons, the savageness of many scenes and at the same time the courage to analyze how we depict others as savages. Emmanuel Lubezki must be one of the greatest cinematographers of our time and he would just with this movie and Children of Men alone (and I loved the similarities like the blood on the lenses). The score by Ryuichi Sakamoto (and many others) is great, even the visual effects work quite well for such a seemingly naturalistic movie. I loved it and wasn’t bored for a second of its 152 minutes, even if not that much happens.

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Opportunists Don't Knock

Opportunists Don't Knock

In my 8th grade I’m doing something I normally don’t do: I do what everyone does. Which, in this case, means reading Wilhelm Tell by Schiller, the standard drama 8th graders have to get through. I’m not a fan of Schiller (or Goethe) and had in fact never read the play at all, so in a way it was an experiment for me and I never shy away from an experiment. Also I thought, this being basically a play about a rebel fighting an oppressive government, there must be something in it for me and therefore also for the students. Up to now I would say it sort of works. The language is tough for everyone (including me), but there are interesting aspects to discuss, from resistance to superheroes.

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