Foxcatcher Review

Foxcatcher...I've been waiting for Foxcatcher for over a year and I am so glad that it was worth it. It's been a great year for movies but Foxcatcher might be my favorite of the year. It's a true experience. Arguably a really dark deconstruction of The American Dream, Foxcatcher is weird, creepy, and often disturbing but never at the expense of the compelling story.

For those who don't know the plot, I'll give a quick synopsis. It's the last 1980s and Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is an Olympic Gold wrestler though he's frequently lived in the shadow of his brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo), also an Olympic Gold wrestler. Mark is taken in by Jon du Pont (Steve Carell), a millionaire wrestling enthusiast. du Pont has issues to say the least and a very strange relationship begins between the two.

Lets talk about the acting, though it's hard to add much new to the already praised performances. Steve Carell will hopefully have a bright future ahead of him now as a serious film actor. It's such a bizarre performance since Dupont is such a bizarre character but Carell drew me in from the start. The image of the goofy Michael Scott, the goodhearted Andy Stitzer, even the depressed Frank Ginsberg, were all gone. Jon DuPont was stuck in my head and he was the only thing that I saw. It's a shame he's no longer an Oscar frontrunner.

And it turns out Channing Tatum can act! Who knew? While he did prove himself to be a good comedic actor in 21 Jump Street, I still had my doubts about him as a serious actor especially after seeing films like Dear John. I'm glad I was proved wrong. It was definitely a risk casting him but it clearly paid off. His performance is a  wonderful mix of intensity and innocence/naivete.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Ruffalo. I knew his performance was acclaimed but he was a lot less highlighted in the trailers. Well, I've considered Ruffalo to be a pretty reliable actor since Zodiac and I'm standing by that statement. He definitely deserves a second Oscar nomination. It's a wonderfully subtle and non-flashy performance delivered with the perfect amount of nuance. The scene where he's being interviewed on camera should win the Academy voters.

Vanessa Redgrave also deserves an honorable mention. She has less than 10 minutes of screentime and only speaks in one scene but she did an amazing job. But it's Vanessa Redgrave so that shouldn't really surprise anyone.

Bennett Miller has now officially become one of my favorite directors. I feel he's made 3 masterpieces with Capote, Moneyball, and now Foxcatcher. Foxcatcher is definitely the best of the three.

My only real complaint is that there's a scene near the end where the film jumps forward several years. At least it jumps several years forward in real life. The film gives little indication that that much time has passed. There's no real reason for the movie to not include a title card to make things more clear for the audience.

Regardless, Foxcatcher was one of the most engaging movies of the year. I'm surprised that some people have found it slow or boring. Sure, it's not exactly fast paced but I was intrigued by the twisted relationship between Jon DuPont and Mark Schultz from their opening scene.

Overall rating: 5/5