With 2015 now into its fourth quarter, it might seem foolish to single out one upcoming film and predict that it’s the one to come out on top this year. After all, now is the time when we start heading into awards season, and all the movies that have been saved for this particular stretch will be released in the coming weeks and months, as they vie for entry into next year’s Oscars.
Coming up we still have Steve Jobs, Bridge of Spies, The Hateful Eight, The Big Short, The Danish Girl and Joy, as well as lower-profile efforts like Anomalisa and Carol, which are all bound to wow critics and feature in next year’s Oscar race. Still, even amongst that lot, there’s one movie that stands out as the one that could top the year: Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant.
Released on Christmas day, The Revenant would be one of the most anticipated movies of 2015 based on the talent involved alone. All anyone’s seen of it so far is a couple of trailers and some official stills, but what the studio promises is something powerfully unique – an existentialist survival western made on big studio money.
Here, then, are ten reasons to believe it could very well be the best film of the year.