The Revenant did very well for itself at the 88th Academy Awards, taking home Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Cinematography (but not Best Picture, mercifully). It was also, in many people’s estimations, kind of terrible, and the latest Honest Trailer from Screen Junkies explains why.
The trailer gleefully exposes this Oscar-bait success story’s numerous cinematic sins. To wit, The Revenant confuses endurance for acting and demands equal endurance of the audience; undercuts its “based on real events” tagline with fake plot details; contains more grunts, mumbles, and growls than actual dialogue; and sky-gazes more fawningly than a daydreaming astronomer. (Haters have, of course, made such observations before.) It’s not all bad, though—the film is beautiful, and epic, and it showcases some underrated acting by the likes of Sad Max and Sexual Harassment Grizzly.
