Good But The Pace And Depressing Subject Matter Will Turn People Away From It

Rating: 7/10 (4 April 2015)

I don't know about you about but the one thing the awards season does is make me want to watch what films are in the running and see if they're worthy of the acclaim and awards . One thing about this years films is the front runners were dominated by independent features . There's nothing wrong with this of course it's just that as the film started I thought to myself "Hmmm another indie movie" and FOXCATCHER wears its indie credentials not just on its sleeve but on its whole shirt
This is a problem with FOXCATCHER especially in its early stages . We get a cut to a character not doing anything or saying anything , then another cut to a character not doing anything or saying anything and you might be forgiven Gus Van Sant has changed his name to Bennett Miller . By the time Mark Schultz gets contacted by John Dupont you'll be wishing it was Hulk Hogan who contacted him . As the slow paced story continues Mark no doubt wished he got contacted by Hulk Hogan too
!!!! SUGGESTIVE SPOILERS !!!!
This is understated , subtle film making directed in a realist manner . It's also a poignant , painfully and rather disturbing film too . What's it about ? Sexual abuse . It doesn't come out and say so but it has the dubious credit of managing to portray the subject without ever referring to it by name . A sequence halfway through the film doesn't show male rape per se but that what it alludes to
"Hold on are you trying to tell me some middle aged rich man is capable of forcing himself on a big muscly wrestler ?"
Yes I am and sexual abuse is not only done to a young woman at the edge of a knife in a dark alley . As shown here it starts off with manipulating the victim by dangling a carrot in front of them while showing charitable kindness in much the same way as giving candy to a child . "Why didn't the victim complain ? " you ask ? Well here in Britain people were making complaints to the authorities about philanthropist oddball TV presenter Jimmy Savile and the authorities didn't want to know "Anymore of these lies and you'll find yourself in trouble . Jimmy Savile wouldn't do that ,,,or Rolf Harris ... or Stuart Hall" in other words when you've a no one accusing a someone , especially a patriotic multi-millionaire then no one is going to listen to the no one . I also recently read an article on sexual abuse in music schools which is probably far more common than the constant court cases indicate . The victim gets brainwashed they can't succeed without the abusers help same as victims of paedophile priests think they can't enter the kingdom of Heaven without that priest's guidance . Let's also not forget The Stanford Experiment where people are so easy to comply to being victims when they're abused by those holding authority
This is a well made depressing film on a topic that is still taboo in many quarters . The problem is such a weighty hard hitting subject means it's all rather difficult to like in any way a fact that it picked up a lot of Oscar noms but went home empty handed and once had a IMDb average vote of 7.8 which has crashed down 7.1 . It is a very difficult watch and now that I've seen it I doubt if I'll be watching it again . You have been warned