Foxcatcher
Dir: Bennett Miller
2014
*****
Bennett Miller's 2014 Foxcatcher is a slow-burning thriller that will have your toes curling long before the climactic conclusion. The intensity is almost unbearable but what is really impressive is how this is achieved. The pace is rather slow but dignified, the performances are subtle but effective. It's easy to be distracted by Steve Carell's prosthetic nose and Mark Ruffalo's reseeding hairline at first but it is soon apparent that these add to the realism of the characters and that the performances speak for themselves. It's easy to make people look when casting a comedian in a serious role and to disguise a couple of well known actors but there are no gimmicks here, they were the best actors for the job. The preparation was grueling, both Ruffalo and Channing Tatum trained for six solid months to gain weight and technique while Carell watched hundreds of recordings of John du Pont so he could impersonate his mannerisms perfectly. While there are a couple of changes to the facts, it's only really the time scale in which events happened that have been altered. Each actor looks and acts just like the real people they portray and the three leads excel in their performances. Both Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo were nominated for a whole host of awards while Channing Tatum was quite unfairly overlooked, having only been nominated by MTV for 'Best Shirtless Performance', which he still didn't win. Good old MTV. Bennett Miller rightfully won best director at 2014's Cannes film festival but overall I felt that the film in general has been overlooked. The feeling of impending doom that the film cleverly conjures is astonishing and only adds weight to the feeling that Miller is one of the most dynamic and exciting directors of our time. He understands people, the characters he wants to explore and the people he casts to play them. It's a relief to see a film of such substance among so many pretenders and over-hyped charlatans during the award season. When Capitol Pictures boss Jack Lipnick asked Barton Fink to write a wrestling picture, I can only imagine he had this type of film in mind.