The Revenant

Leonine Leo struggles through universally hostile snowy subconscious while Tom hardly breaks a sweat even after a bear feasts on Cobb in Native Americanception.  Luscious florid cinematography and brutally gritty violence keep a surprisingly simple plot on its feet as it treks through merciless hours.  Beautiful malice shot like Malick.  

Birdman

Black-Swan-man embraces gravity with style despite feather-ruffling from Norton’s Norton and stoned Stone.  Watts electrifies with return to Mulholland while Galifaeioukis galls by emerging from comedic ferns.  Inairitu’s mockery of editing and soundly designed sound design give wings to a film that seemed like a long shot and still does.

Babel

Alejandro Inarritu takes his multiple storyline structure international to interweave several tales of communication breakdowns. Barraza and Kinkuchi perform as well as Pitt, Blanchett and Bernal. Many will argue that inclusion of Asian story doesn’t make sense, but confusion may not be a bad thing; the film is called Babel.

21 Grams

Title refers to the amount of extra brain tissue needed to fully comprehend this film. Basically, take a shotgun to a good drama and treat the falling confetti as a shooting script. Seemingly random non-chronology proves intensely clever on second viewing. Brilliant performances from lead players solidify film’s emotional power.