Foxcatcher

[rascal]

I just watched Foxcatcher at Tiff last Monday and I predict Oscar noms throughout. Steve Carell is unrecognizable as Dupont and brings a creepy unhinged presence to the film. Channing Tatum has done his best work yet (who knew he had it in him) and Mark Ruffalo is warm and kind. It's incredible!! I highly recommend it.

Trailer

[Mutagen]

I REALLY can't wait to see this. I adore Mark Ruffalo.

[canuckcutie]

I definitely think Carrell win get a nom and will be in the running for the lead. Mark was excellent in the movie so I could see him getting a supporting nom. While Channing is good he plays a lunkhead type wrestler and doesn't emote much other than smashing a mirror. Channing is likeable enough that he could get a nomination but I thought Mark brought more humanity to his role.

At any rate excellent performances all around and total Oscar bait.

[scarlet]

I saw this today and sort of aggressively disliked it. It started out promising enough, but then it just meandered and felt overly long--until the last 5 minutes when the climax didn't really feel earned.

Good performances, but it left me cold.

[Hamatron]

Yeah. I think they could have cut out about thirty minutes of blank stares. I also wasn't impressed by Steve Carrell, who I normally find gives great depth to characters. I thought he did fine, but there was a weird combo with his performance that ran from blankness to some sort of serious version of Michael Scott. So much of that role was worst case scenario Michael Scott.

I thought Mark Ruffalo brought an amazing warmth and compassion to his role. He really made the movie to me. Channing Tatum was great, too, but the character/real life person is very internal in his expression. So there wasn't as many beats for him to go through.

[satellite]

I didn't know this was a true story going in so for the whole movie

SPOILER: Click to show

Spoiler
Spoiler
I was tense waiting for Dupont to make a sexual move on Tatum's character, since it seemed that's where things were going. The premise reminded me of that HBO Liberace movie. Then I got bored and dozed off for a bit, and then checked the Wikipedia page on my phone for the ending.

I thought it was very well-acted though.

[Deleted]

Funny you should say that, the real Mark Schultz evidently has a problem with that aspect of the movie.

[Hamatron]

Huh. I get how people could see that in some interactions, but to me they didn't really go there... unless congratulatory hugs are gay?

Wrestling is such a physically intimate sport, and I think they used touch to show communication between men who aren't very expressive or articulate. I took DuPont's physicality toward Mark be more along the lines of wanting acceptance -- maybe even to be a father figure -- and not about sex.

[satellite]

Not so much the wrestling in and of itself- more the unmarried middle-aged rich guy living in the same compound as his mother with no women around besides the help. No women barely mentioned in the movie for that matter aside from Shultz's sister-in-law. And he assembles a stable of young wrestlers like his mom collects horses? The wrestling coaching struck me as a Michael Jackson-ish excuse to surround himself with athletic young guys. Of course your mileage may vary.

[Hamatron]

Oh maybe. I think that is definitely a possibility. I just saw it more as a very emotionally stunted man who never had friends before (as he states at one point) trying to simultaneously buy friendship and prestige. But in the end, the team are just objects to him, not people. He's basically trying to model what he does with wrestling after what his mom does with horses. He seemed asexual to me or possibly deeply repressed.