Foxcatcher is a psychological drama directed by Academy Award nominee Bennett Miller (Moneyball) and starring Golden Globe winner Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Academy Award nominee Mark Ruffalo, Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave and Sienna Miller. The film was written by E. Max Frye and Academy Award nominee Dan Futterman. Foxcatcher tells the story of Olympic Gold Medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Tatum), who sees a way out from the shadow of his more celebrated wrestling brother Dave (Ruffalo) and a life of poverty when he is summoned by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont (Carell) to move onto his estate and train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Desperate to gain the respect of his disapproving mother, du Pont begins “coaching” a world-class athletic team and, in the process, lures Mark into dangerous habits, breaks his confidence and drives him into a self-destructive spiral. Based on actual events, Foxcatcher is a gripping and profoundly American story of fragile men who pinned their hopes for love and redemption on a desperate obsession for greatness that was to end in tragedy.
He carried out with eight sporting touchdowns, connected that will third most inside of season utilizing a 49er. Gore rubbed out the season who have 61 receptions, and advised the c’s. definitive two a lot of leagues were running lumbar as their leading receiver: newest Orleans (Reggie rose bush) in addition,yet Philadelphia (Brian Westbrook).
I’m still getting to grips with your tone Ryan and I have been a reader of this site for years. 😀
and Tyler Seguin
…and Cronenberg
Except steve50
Nothing wrong with American cinema; it’s all anti-American bitterness because we’re the best. I blame the Canadians.
I’m only saying there is not only American Cinema in the world. Sorry if I ofended you. I made my statement without thinking real hard. You’re very influential and it would be great to bring more about other ways to make cinema rather than the American one. It will benefit everyone. I guarantee it.
Igor, I took your words to heart. I read what you said carefully, and thought a lot about what you wrote.
You and I both have a blunt way of expressing ourselves and I’m willing to blame any slight misunderstanding we had on our lack of familiarity with each other’s style.
Watch for more coverage of a wider range of movies here than you’ve seen lately. I think you’ll soon be pleased.
Cheers.
This trailer is so good I’ve seen it ten times already.
Ryan, you reminded me tonight why I don’t need to defend Awards Daily. You and Sasha do a fine job of that yourselves. 🙂
@Ryan
Probably the same. I was only mentioning what Sasha told about the creative crisis in Hollywood. Among the last ten Academy Awards winners, there was only a couple which we could say were great.
But you know what, don’t need to use this kind of ton. By the way, this is very common for you. Chill out man. This is way foreigners will keep criticizing this site. You can’t take a small criticism against this or even the American Film Industry.
You can’t take a small criticism against this or even the American Film Industry.
I can take it. I can handle criticism. I don’t consider criticism of American film industry to be a personal attack.
But if I don’t agree with criticism of any kind on any subject, I don’t see why I need to keep my mouth shut and disagree in silence. I have as much right to dispute the criticism as you have to make it.
My “tone”? I reply with same tone that prompts my replies. Here’s what started this conversation. This is your tone:
You say you doubt the quality of the content on this site. You announce to us that you plan to be annoying.
Then you tell me to watch my tone?
You’re free to say what you want here, Igor. You can criticize me or Sasha or the site all you want.
But don’t expect me to sit back and not respond. Your criticism was strongly worded, borderline insulting. So my reply was strongly worded too.
I don’t ask you to dial back your tone, but please don’t think you can convince me to be timid when I respond, alright?
Igor,
I think I owe you an apology. I got upset last night. I just felt like I had needed to defend Awards Daily, since it had appeared that your comment had been about me, and what I had wrote. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be a jerk. Much like you sometimes may feel like you’re “out of place”, I still feel like that sometimes too. I don’t know some of the movies that are talked about here, or I’ve only heard of them, but not seen them.
I can understand your frustration. But, if you have patience, you will see that Sasha and Ryan do give attention to foreign films, and a lot of the other readers/commenters here have seen plenty of foreign films.
My advice is to stick around and see what happens. 🙂
No problem. The thing is I’m not American and I think there is not enough attention to what happens in other parts of the world. I mean, we all follow American cinema, it’s the most important market in the world but it’s not the only one. I mean look at this post.
They are already calling The Best Actor prize in Cannes Steve Carrel’s to lose. There other 14/15 films on the competition, most of it male centric (not nice), nobody watched any of the films and all the atention goes to the American one. As Sasha had told before, American Cinema is in a creative crisis, from every 10 films, 7 are crap. Maybe I’m not in the right place but I would like to find a place where I can discuss cinema, no matter the nationality or its probability on prizes.
American Cinema is in a creative crisis, from every 10 films, 7 are crap.
How many of the 2961 movies produced in India last year were not crap?
Bad movies have been around forever. That’s not a crisis. It’s how art, artists, and art markets have worked for centuries.
Does every painting ever painted in France hang in a museum? Of course not. The vast majority of art ever created on this planet is crap. That was never a crisis. It’s just life. Some of us try to enjoy the best of life has to offer without feeling the need to gripe about the less impressive things in the world.
209 movies were produced in France last year. Please count the French masterpieces of 2013 for me and divide that number by 209 to find the percentage of French movies that were not crap.
Name 21 fantastic world-renowned French movies of 2013 and you’d be naming 1 out of 10.
Bad movies are not a sign of crisis. Want a sign of crisis? Investment in French films was down 7.2% in 2013.
“comment had been backhanded towards me”.
Okay, I just double-checked, and “backhanded” was the wrong word to use in that sentense. I meant, that to say that if your comment had been aimed at me, but directed at Awards Daily…
(I just wanted to make sure that my grammar is correct, since so many might have read that and gotten confused as to what I was trying to say.)
The only other comment I can make about covering American Cinema vs. covering World Cinema, is that Awards Daily is based on the Oscars, and other awards, but most of the awards don’t concentrate on world cinema. They concentrate on American cinema, a.k.a. “Hollywood” cinema.
I myself haven’t given enough time to watching foreign films, but it’s not because I have a lack of respect. I just prefer watching a film where I don’t have to read subtitles. But, I have in the past seen and loved some foreign films, such as Life is Beautiful, Crouching Tiger-Hidden Dragon, House of Flying Daggers, Pan’s Labyrinth, Babel.
I think there should be a website dedicated to just foreign films. 🙂
“Igor Sousa April 21, 2014 at 8:30 am
@Al Robinson
American Cinema? Yes
Worldwide Cinema? Not so sure”
Okay, I just wanted to make sure that if your comment had been backhanded towards me, then I would make sure what your intent was. If it goes beyond my comment, then I will step aside, and let you feel however you want towards Awards Daily. I just didn’t want to be the reason you would get upset at Awards Daily.
Truce?
@Al Robinson
American Cinema? Yes
Worldwide Cinema? Not so sure
Ha I love these “masterclass” contemporary performances. There are so many that you can mention. Where is Faye Dunaway or Peter Finch in NETWORK? Paul Newman in THE VERDICT or NOBODY’S FOOL? Jon Voight in RUNAWAY TRAIN? Morgan Freeman in STREET SMART or DRIVING MISS DAISY? Holly Hunter in BROADCAST NEWS. I’ll take Tom Hanks performance in BIG or A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN and put it up there with his great work in CAST AWAY, FORREST GUMP, and PHILADELPHIA? How about Kathy Bates in MISERY? Leonardo DiCaprio in WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE? Jesse Eisenberg in THE SOCIAL NETWORK?
And I am not even including some of the great COMEDIC performances given over the last 30 years that I would consider masterclasses in that genre. Steve Martin in THE JERK, Eddie Murphy in BEVERLY HILLS COP, Bill Murray in GROUNDHOG DAY, John Candy is heartbreaking in PLANES TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES. Robin Williams in MRS.DOUBTFIRE, Dustin Hoffman in TOOTSIE. Albert Brooks in LOST IN AMERICA.
@Mike, I agree with every one of those choices. I’d also add:
Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine and Half Nelson
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight and Brokeback Mountain
Michelle Williams, Wendy and Lucy
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder (I know this might be off the wall but I think his turn had so many great layers to it)
People, chill, you all misunderstand what “The Masterclass” is, I might have to teach a class on it, and I implore you, treat me with a little more respect.
Bryce,
Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman, Master Class?! haha in what world? The true master class in acting didn’t even win that year, and it was Denzel Washington’s performance in Malcolm X. Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, I would agree, but Scent of a Woman was borderline annoying, just barely passed tolerable. Also disagree with Jessica Tandy, Henry Fonda, etc…
Master Class: (only a few on top of my head)
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Daniel Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Emily Watson, Breaking the Waves
Daniel Day Lewis, My Left Foot
Meryl Streep, Sophie’s Choice
Robert DeNiro, Raging Bull
Al Pacino, A Dog Day Afternoon
“Igor Sousa April 20, 2014 at 7:45 am
@Paddy Mulholland
I’ve been really pissed off in this site before. I don’t think we can call it “cinephile” at all. When I see someone saying that he/she is lazy to follow foreign cinema it just gives me more reasons to doubt about the quality of the content we can find here. I will be annoying and keep trying to make statements about international cinema among American cinema”
HOW DARE YOU!!!
You want to take a swing at me, go ahead, but DON’T YOU DARE say that Awards Daily doesn’t speak about true and great cinema!! Sasha, Ryan, and Craig have done a fantastic job, and they don’t deserve your doubt.
New Oscar predictions
Picture
Birdman
Foxcatcher
Get on up
Gone girl
The hobbit: there and back again
Inherent vice
Interstellar
Love is strange
Unbroken
Director
Paul Thomas Anderson for inherent vice
David fincher for gone girl
Alexandre Gonzalez innirtu for birdman
Bennett miller for foxcatcher
Tate Taylor for get on up
Actor
Chadwick boseman in get on up
Steve carrell in foxcatcher
Michael Keaton in birdman
Jack O’Connell in unbroken
Joaquin Phoenix in inherent vice
Actress
Amy Adams in big eyes
Carrie conn in unbroken
Nicole kidman in grace of Monaco
Rosemund pike in gone girl
Hilary swank in the boseman
Supporting actor
Orlando bloom in the hobbit: there and back again
Josh brolin in inherent vice
Neil Patrick Harris in gone girl
Edward Norton in birdman
Mark ruffalo in foxcatcher
Supporting actress
Viola Davis in get on up
Anna Kendrick in into the woods
Octavia Spencer in get on up
Meryl streep in into the woods
Reese Witherspoon in wild
Adapted screenplay
Foxcatcher
Gone girl
The hobbit: there and back again
Inherent vice
Unbroken
Original screenplay
Birdman
Get on up
Interstellar
Love is strange
Magic in the moonlight
Cinematography
The drop
Get on up
Gone girl
Inherent vice
Unbroken
Costume design
Foxcatcher
The grand Budapest hotel
Jersey boys
Macbeth
Unbroken
Film editing
Gone girl
The hobbit: there and back again
Inherent vice
Love is strange
A most wanted man
Animated feature
Big hero 6
The boxtrolls
How to train your dragon 2
The Lego movie
Mr. Peabody and Sherman
Makeup
Exodus: gods and kings
Guardians of the galaxy
The hobbit: there and back again
Original score
Alexandre desplat for unbroken
Johnny greenwood for inherent vice
Trent reznor and atticus Ross for gone girl
Howard shore for the hobbit: there and back again
Hans zimmer for interstellar
Original song
Annie
Into the woods
The Lego movie
Muppets most wanted
Production design
Big eyes
Get on up
The grand Budapest hotel
The hoseman
Interstellar
Sound editing
Captain america: the winter soldier
Exodus: gods and kings
Get on up
Gone girl
Interstellar
Sound mixing
Fury
Inherent vice
Interstellar
Into the woods
Son of god
Visual effects
Dawn of the planet of the apes
Guardians of the galaxy
The hobbit: there and back again
Interstellar
Maleficient
@Paddy Mulholland
I’ve been really pissed off in this site before. I don’t think we can call it “cinephile” at all. When I see someone saying that he/she is lazy to follow foreign cinema it just gives me more reasons to doubt about the quality of the content we can find here. I will be annoying and keep trying to make statements about international cinema among American cinema
Here’s a new image as well:
http://thelowdownunder.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Foxcatcher.jpg
It’s early, but I am rooting like hell for Carell. He plunged head first into a role completely against type, and he is genuinely unnerving in just fifty seconds of footage. Talk about a transformation.
In a cruel twist of irony, while we discuss the possibility/probability of Carell landing an Oscar nod/win for this role, Gary Oldman was the first person Miller approached for it (and he bears a closer resemblance to du Pont). Love Oldman to death, but that man has the worst of luck when it comes to choosing projects. This could have been his Oscar.
Oh, sweet!! Thanks Robert A. 🙂
I think Sight & Sound ranked Tokyo Story in their top 5 movies of all-time.
Al, if you want to branch out into foreign films, you should reach further back in time because you’ll have a real treat ahead of you. Watch some of the classic foreign films like (in no particular order) The Conformist, The 400 Blows, Bicycle Thieves, Tokyo Story, Acquirre: The Wrath of God, Persona, Grand Illusion, 8 1/2, Ran, Contempt, Breathless, Pierrot le Fou, The Rules of the Game, The Battle of Algiers, Pickpocket, La Strada, Pather Panchali, Open City, The Spirit of the Beehive, Stalker, Three Colours, Cache, In the Mood for Love… I could go on and on, but those are about 20 titles from off the top of my head (and I’m already thinking of adding more to the list, so I’d better post now before I get carried away).
Paddy Mulholland,
I don’t mean to be American centric in my movie watching, but I have just been plain lazy when it comes to seeing foreign cinema. I do want to see The Hunt, The Broken Circle Breakdown, The Lives of Others, City of God, and pretty much anything by Pedro Almodovar. Plus, I had bought Sin Nombre, but somehow forgot to watch it.
ugg!
Other recent examples of masterclass acting would be Colin Firth in The King’s Speech, Natalie Portman in Black Swan, Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, and Emma Thompson in Saving Mr. Banks.
On the other hand, I don’t give a shit about sounding rude.
Bryce, you and I must have an extremely different opinion on the meaning of the word ‘masterclass’. Al, cinema is not ten years old. Both of you, people do make films in languages other than English, y’all know that right? *despairs*
I don’t care if Steve Carell wins the Best Actor award at Cannes and then the Oscar, this is not his to lose and he has fuck all in the bag. It’s that time of year, yet again, when people start making declarations like that about this contender and that contender, only to inevitably see the majority of them… guess what? Not win! Shit, there are 18 films in competition at Cannes this year. Just because one of them stars a popular American actor who gives what appears to be (and only appears to be) a decent performance in a film with a trailer doesn’t mean squat. There’ll be a good five or ten others vying for that award next month, and even then the jury might surprise us. Remember, this will be a jury of nine people, not all of whom will be insular Americans.
If I understand what “Masterclass acting” means, then I think some of the ones I would mention are:
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote
Paul Giamatti in Sideways
Daniel Day-Lewis in both There Will Be Blood and Lincoln
Meryl Streep in August: Osage County
Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine
Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Al Pacino’s Scent of A Woman is an example of masterclass? I thought it was generally thought of as one of the absolutely worst Oscar wins in history.
Bryce, I always enjoy your comments, but you put Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman and not Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice?
@Bryce Forastieri
I don’t wanna sound rude, but your metric for prize’s success doesn’t make sense. Al Pacino acting was not Masterclass (not in Scent of a Woman at least) and there were tons of other great acting classes
And since when Sienna Miller became an academy award winner, in some parallel universe maybe.
With that i mean trying to handle bigger roles than he actually can.
it really takes guts to see Tatum on screen, he’s male Kirsten Stewart.
‘Who is “overdue” and has a movie with “potential” coming out this “year”?’
Nice one, Bryce. Kudos.
(And Clint, good call.)
I’m sure some other names will come up later on the back of my mind. BUT for now I’d like to propose the underrated, talented actress Ms. Annette Bening. While she may or may not be a strong contender considering several factors, Bening reportedly has two films slated to be released this year (somewhere over the rainbow way up high, if not in US): a French film “The Search”, also co-starring Ms. Berenice Bejo and directed by Michael Hazanavicius [sp], and an American comedy drama movie titled “Imagine”.
i think there’s a typo… “Academy Award nominee Mark Ruffalo, Academy Award winner Sienna Miller and Sienna Miller…” sienna miller never won an oscar…
“Academy Award nominee Mark Ruffalo, Academy Award winner Sienna Miller and Sienna Miller.”
Those two Sienna Millers shoulda tipped me off when I grabbed that synopsis for cut-and-paste. I suspect the Oscar-winning Sienna Miller is Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave,
Clint, truly!
Amid the confusion about Carell’s chances, let me clarify. There’s a pattern here. “The Masterclass” performance ALWAYS win the top honor when it happens in a mainstream picture.
2006 – Helen Mirren – THE QUEEN
1992 – Al Pacino – SCENT OF A WOMAN
1989 – Jessica Tandy – DRIVING MISS DAISY
1989 – Daniel Day-Lewis – MY LEFT FOOT
1981 – Henry Fonda – ON GOLDEN POND
1970 – George C. Scott – PATTON
1962 – Anne Bancroft – THE MIRACLE WORKER
1956 – Ingrid Bergman – ANASTASIA
Mind-blowing to realize how truly rare and special 1989 really was, and of course, nothing prior 1951 because that’s when Brando changed acting forever.
@bryce Joaquin Phoenix
sure Carell could win if it isn’t anyone else’s “year”, especially someone “overdue”.
Who is “overdue” and has a movie with “potential” coming out this “year”?
(@Igor Sousa
I’m not feeling Carell vibes either . . . . [The same as I’m not feeling Rob Pattison’s “note-perfect Texan” accent and his performance in another recently embedded trailer; fortunately it looks as if Guy Pierce’s character could possibly be the one moving the movie despite the co-lead billing])
—
Never been impressed with Carell’s performances.
Interesting makeup work, though.
Oh Steve Carrell!! He’s terrific! I finally watched Anchorman 2 tonight. He is hilarious in it. 🙂
Brick Tamland: I can always guess how many jelly beans are in a jelly bean jar, even if I’m wrong.
I wish there was an Oscar for best comedic performance. Comedy is a lot harder than people think it is.
Steve Carrell just might win for Foxcatcher though, which might be awesome! I am excited to find out when it will be released this fall.
It’s in the bag for Steve Carell! The same way Day-Lewis, Hathaway and Blanchett had it in their bags the moment we knew they were cast or saw the first trailer of their latest award-winning efforts. It’s a dramatic transformation, lightyears away from anything he did before, the Academy will eat it up!
I just watched If These Walls Could Talk 2 and I have to agree. Though I haven’t seen most of her films, I’m speechless after watching this. Can’t wait to see Foxcatcher.
To echo some sentiments and even borrow some wording in here….
Does anyone see Carrell getting nominated for and perhaps even winning the Oscar for this role? Even against a possible posthumous nomination for Philip Seymour Hoffman? Because I sure can.
Crossing fingers for the finest living actress today, Vanessa Redgrave to have a substantial role in this film.
Hoping this is your Best Picture Winner for 2014. Probably one of the major, major contenders.
Nice to see Steve Carell doing something completely different. Ok, I’m interested.
i don’t feel this kind of enthusiasm about it.
@Sasha ” Pretty much seems like it’s his to lose at this point”
Seriously, based on what? On a 50 seconds trailer? Remind there is
someone called Mike Leigh among the Cannes who is much more important as
an actor’s director than Bennett Miller
Bennett Miller is clearly carving out a nice little filmography for himself with such fascinating “true story” movies. If this is just as good as Capote and Moneyball, I wouldn’t be surprised if Miller actually won the directing and Best Picture Oscars this time around.
Excellent.
Bennett Miller has already brought out the career highs of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Brad Pitt. Since hearing Carell landed this role, I’ve predicted he wins an Oscar. (Assuming he’s “Supporting.”) He’s getting nominated, anyway. There’s already such widespread respect for him, because he’s clearly such a natural talent.
But that aside, it should be clear from Capote and Moneyball alone that Bennett Miller is as good as any director working today. If this isn’t his big movie, he’ll have others in the coming decade.
Koles, I was thinking that same thing. Pretty much seems like it’s his to lose at this point.
Can anyone see Steve Carell winning Best Actor in Cannes? Because I sure can.
Dazzling! We’re likely in the presence of a kind of performance that I like to call “the masterclass” for the first time in cinema since Helen Mirren killed the craft in Stephen Frears’ THE QUEEN, which promotes this to the level of one of the 2-3 cinematic events of the year.
Man, the du Pont family just can’t get a break, can they? If there’s any American equivalent of the archetypical rich, evil dynasty, it’s them.
Seriously, though, the movie looks tense and creepy, and both Carell and Tatum look to have good performances lined up.