Wrestling with the American Dream

Rating: 10/10 (29 December 2014)

If Stanley Kubrick had ever gotten around to making a sports movie, it would look and feel a lot like Foxcatcher. Director Bennett Miller's former feature films make him an apt artist to deliver the haunting story of the Schulz brothers and their financial supporter, John E. du Pont. Miller has crafted an unforgettably ominous picture that combines the real life crime genre he chronicled in Capote with the theme of American sports he mastered in Moneyball. The steady stream of subtle foreboding that courses throughout the entirety of Foxcatcher places the film on a trophy shelf of the past decade's other masterworks.
In terms of its plot, many of the trailers for Foxcatcher have given away very little as to what the film is actually about. The incident that Miller and screenwriters E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman bring to the screen is the strange but true story of how millionaire du Pont (Steve Carell) ensnared two Gold Medal-winning wrestlers (Channing Tatum & Mark Ruffalo) in his perverted pastiche of patriotism and paranoia. On account of its historical reality, the plot, though intriguing, could be looked up on the internet and revealed to anyone with little fanfare. Miller's chillingly compelling direction ensures that Foxcatcher is first and foremost a psychological film.
A fellow critic from Screenrant has criticized Foxcatcher for "struggling to convey insightful conclusions about its subjects." While the film is less than lucid, there is no doubt that any room left for interpretation was a purposeful move from Miller. The film studies its three male leads with a level of focus similar to Paul Thomas Anderson's literary character study The Master. Miller's movie says little explicitly, and leaves ample room for audiences to sift through some disturbing subtext. Throughout the course of Foxcatcher, the viewer sees Mark (Tatum), David (Ruffalo), and even du Pont wrestle on the mat, but the true indications of the character's strengths and weaknesses come through cinematographer Greig Fraser's tormented close-ups. The only thing that these mesmerizing Olympians have trouble grappling with is their inner anguish.
There has been a lot of buzz over Steve Carell taking on a dramatic role in Foxcatcher, but skeptics will question whether or not the buzz is justified. Here is the justification: Carell turns in his finest film performance to date as du Pont; the unsettlingly entitled, perplexingly stolid member of America's wealthiest family who has more than his fair share of, shall we say, eccentricities. While the buzz is certainly well-deserved, it turns out that du Pont has much more in common with Carell's signature Dunder-Mifflin manager Michael Scott than one might think. Like Michael, all Du Pont seems to want is love and admiration; validation from human beings who genuinely care for him. However, as infuriating as Michael Scott could be, it is more than safe to say that du Pont proves to be a bigger nightmare of a boss. Carell's understated work in the film elicits gripping fascination from the audience; it is the kind of comedian-turned-dramatist performance that would make the late Robin Williams beam with pride.
Beyond Carell's performance, there is much more to commend in Miller's third feature. Tatum and Ruffalo also turn in career high- point performances. Tatum acts against type as an aloof and stand- offish champion, while Ruffalo portrays the picture's most headstrong character: a family man becoming progressively aware of the strings du Pont has attached to everyone he ropes into his estate. Audiences going to Foxcatcher expecting the next Chariots of Fire or Miracle will be sorely disappointed – viewers should not even approach the movie expecting to learn anything about wrestling itself. One critic from Tolucan Times complains that "it doesn't explain a thing about Olympic wrestling." This criticism is invalid. Although there is nothing wrong with being a sports movie, wrestling is virtually irrelevant to the Foxcatcher's real concerns. The filmmakers have turned torpid tabloid fodder into rumination about the all too thin veil of delusion separating the wealthy from the poor, the strong from the weak, and the American from the American Dream.
Grade: A
By Ben Pieper (November 30th, 2014)