Review of Foxcatcher

I saw this film at the Art house theater in my hometown. It was indie movie meetup night. The theater was full. Then we had some discussion about the film after the movie. It was lighthearted and very conversational, not too academic which was fine with me. I needed to mix with some people who were also into film. It was a fun night, although I got the sense that most of the people wanted to run home after the screening. A few stuck around.

The movie was very good. It was a straight linear story with a lot of masculinity. The narrative was about wrestlers making it to the olympics and winning gold. I thought the performances were excellent. Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, and Steve Carrel all did great work. The story was strong too. It was gripping drama. I didn't feel like I was being dragged along or wondering if this movie will ever end. I did get tired of the psychotic blur scenes. They were ok. I thought it could have been used less or more dialogue could have been used. I did think it was good that the blur scenes reflected that mental state of Channing Tatum. That was good, but it was overused.

There was nothing too unconventional about this film. There were no flashbacks. There was just intense drama. The conflict in the film was multi-layered. First it was between the brothers, then it was between Du Pont and his mother, then it was Du Pont and the brothers. The conflicts are resolved by the end of the film. Du Pont's mother dies, one of the brothers moves away, and Du Pont shoots the other and ends up dying in jail. It became clear to me that Du Pont was evil when he got the younger brother to do cocaine in the helicopter going to some libertarian like speech event. From there the younger brother goes into a downward spiral that he never recovers from.

The film wraps up precisely with the shooting of the older brother by Du Pont.

The film is a period piece set in the mid to late 1980's America. Much of what Du Pont wants to do, his rhetoric was very jingoistic. He talks about making America great again. He sounds like Rush Limbaugh. There is a little bit of Cold War hysteria in the film, but not too much. This movie shows that you can still make a very good film without special effects or fancy cinematography. It shows that if there is a strong story, then the production will be very good too.