With three Golden Globes under its belt and having bagged 12 Oscar nominations, The Revenant is undoubtedly the most talked-about film the year so far.
Set in the 1820s in the frozen American hinterlands, and loosely based on a true story, Leonardo DiCaprio (who bagged a Best Actor gong at the Golden Globes and is highly likely to follow that up with an Oscar) plays Hugh Glass, an expert tracker and part of an expedition of fur trappers.
In an early, mesmerising sequence, Glass and his companions are set upon by a group of Native American warriors.
Reminiscent of director Alejandro González Iñárritu resounding 2015 success, Birdman, the camera glides through the resulting chaos in a continuous and utterly breathtaking shot, as arrows, knives and tomahawks fly through the air and many meet with a vicious end.
Leonardo DiCaprio is tipped to win an Oscar for his performace
The few survivors - including Domhnall Gleeson's principled military man Captain Andrew Henry, Will Poulter's well-intentioned youngster Jim Bridger and Tom Hardy's malevolent John Fitzgerald (all excellent) - retreat, with Glass leading the way, until - in an astonishingly visceral sequence - he is mauled to within an inch of his life by a grizzly bear (computer generated, but you wouldn't know it).
Left with bones broken and flesh ripped to shreds, the expedition goes on, leaving him and his son, Hawk (newcomer Forrest Goodluck) in the hands of Fitzgerald and Bridger.
Tom Hardy has also been nominated for an Oscar for his performance as John Fitzgerald
The deceitful Fitzgerald is quick to ensure Glass is abandoned and left to die, but he fails to account for the character's extraordinary will to survive and seek revenge.
It's a hell of a turn from DiCaprio, whose performance from this point is almost entirely wordless, expressing his pain - both internal and external - through only wheezes and grunts.
Despite this, Glass' gruelling journey is utterly absorbing and, thanks to the extraordinary work of Iñárritu and his cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, completely immersive.
The Revenant is currently out in UK cinemas
The images that the movie conjures are stunning: glacial, gasp-inducing landscapes that are enough to make the viewer physically feel the cold, and hazy, hallucinogenic sequences plucked from Glass' subconscious.
The Revenant may not make for comfortable viewing but it's undoubtedly a tour de force, brutal and beautiful in equal measure. Come Oscar night expect this one to triumph.
FIVE out fo five stars
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