Two of the most powerful performances in movies this year have perhaps the least dialogue: Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant and Benicio del in Sicario.
For a two-and half hour movie, the dialogue in Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu's The Revenant could probably fill a page. The story, about a survivor of a bear attack seeking revenge in the American frontier, is all action, much of it brutal. The bear attack pits man against nature: a mother bear goes after the man, mauling him badly, but the landscape itself cold and harsh too seems a malevolent force for the Indians, trappers, and cavalry in these wilds in 1820. Leonardo DiCaprio, bearded as Hugh Glass, is not his usual handsome self but a primal force seeking out John Fitzgerald (an excellent Tom Hardy), the man who took what was most precious to him, and left him for dead. The acting is all in Leo's eyes.
Another man seeking revenge in a different tortured landscape is Benicio del Toro's Alejandro in Sicario, Denis Villeneuve's movie about the Mexican drug cartels. He doesn't say much, but del Toro is a force in every movie, a giant of manly action. Something precious has been taken from him too, and his revenge defies humanity. Playing opposite Emily Blunt's Kate Macer though, the audience sees the suggestion of another side, the man he once was, a compassionate family man. Cinematographer Roger Deakins' work contributes to Sicario's look at a grim Mexico. He and Villeneuve are now working on a sequel to Bladerunner.
The Revenant and Sicario are two of the best movies of the year, not to be overlooked for awards, and for the sheer excitement of watching two pitch perfect performances featuring men of few words.
A version of this post also appears on Gossip Central.