We Can't Wait #3: Foxcatcher
Friday, January 31, 2014 at 8:00AM [Editor's Note: We Can't Wait is a Team Experience series, in which we highlight our top 14 most anticipated films of 2014. Here's Glenn Dunks on "Foxcatcher"]
Mark and Dave Schutlz played by Ruffalo and Tatum respectively
Foxcatcher
Based on the true story of Olympic gold medalist Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), Foxcatcher tells the story of how John du Pont (Steve Carell), member of the millionaire du Pont family, murdered Schultz's brother, wrestling champion Dave (Mark Ruffalo).
Talent
Director Bennett Miller, unlike the David O. Russells of the world, is switching his casts with each movie. Here he is working with a screenplay by Oscar-nominated Dan Futterman and Emmy-nominated E. Max Eyre. Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum take the three major roles, but the peripheries are filled out with such names as Vanessa Redgrave, Sienna Miller, Anthony Michael Hall and prolific character actor Brett Rice.
Why We Can't Wait
Appearing, at least on first inspection, like a cross between the real life sport drama of Moneyball and the small town true crime drama of Capote - Foxcatcher looks like another winner from Bennett Miller who is three for three and that's before you even count his arguable best work (the bscure and bonkers documentary The Cruise). The eclectic cast should be interesting and it'll be exciting to see what Carell does with darker more challenging character material. The trailer that was released last year (and then pulled) looked disturbing and creepy and Carell appears to be on fire with the weight gain and voice weak like watered-down tea.
But We Do Have To Wait
Sony Pictures Classics will distribute later in 2014, which perhaps suggests that it's a smaller movie than many will expect with a cast such as this (and hoping for Oscar attention). It seems likely that it will premiere at one of the big festivals (Venice would suit).
Previously
Under the Skin, Inherent Vice, Into the Woods , Snowpiercer , Nymphomaniac , Boyhood , Big Eyes ,The Last 5 Years , Gone Girl, Can a Song Save Your Life, Veronica Mars and those that just missed the cut
Reader Comments (12)
The cast alone would get me there but when you add in Bennett Miller, whose films I like plus the added inducement of Channing and Mark in singlets and it sounds like something to catch the day it comes out.
The trailer was fantastic and I love the cast and director. I'm in.
Capote and Moneyball were straight A's so... yes, I can't wait!
Probably my most anticipated film of the year! Steve Carell has so much potential as a dramatic actor.
Bravo for that shout out to his outstanding documentary.
I'm in.
The documentary was amazing. This story is just so...weird. Dumb, reductive word to use, but I can't think of a better way to say it. I'm so jazzed about Foxcatcher and I think it's fortuitous it didn't come out this year where it would have been bumping up against all these other great movies, potentially getting lost in the shuffle.
I find myself returning to both Capote and Moneyball a lot and I'm super excited to see what's in store for Steve Carrell in this role. I too am in.
Yup! I also love that Miller refused to be bullied into finishing this quickly for the 2013 awards season (that was the reason it got delayed, right?) - even if it means I have to wait basically a year to see it.
I actually thought this was going to be #1.
Alright. Yes, Bennett Miller makes some solid stuff, but it doesn't quite feel like there's an authorial voice. He's a chameleon artist who's focused on bending his casts to unique, possibly willfully atypical, places for them. And, yes, there's a certain thrill of seeing Brad Pitt scale his charisma to a more normal level in Moneyball, seeing PSH do the broody intellectual of Capote and Steve Carell do whatever he's going to be doing here. But compared to, say, Linklater, Von Trier, Glazer, Burton, Fincher, Joon-ho Bong and the (currently) completely unmentioned (and likely not to be) James Gunn? I don't look at his (admittedly small) collection of work and see the unmistakable personal voice of those I mentioned, I just see a prestige grister who's settled into doing that role. Admittedly, he does do it pretty well, but you get my point, right?
volvagia -- who is James Gunn? oh no wait, that's the guy directing guardians of the galaxy? considering he has only ever made 2 features (Slither, Super) it seems awfully strange to group him with auteurs with immediately recognizable voices. I'd argue that Miller is pretty consistent. His "prestige" movies (i wish we didn't have to use that term pejoratively... it comes from the fact that people think the movies are quality and made by quality people) don't feel like anyone else's to me so that must count for something.
Foxcatcher is my most anticipated film of this year with noah being second. i love love love love bennett miller and being an NYU grad i always said i thought he was one of my favorite alumni even though he didn't graduate lol. But Dean Campbell said it doesn't matter. I got to shake his hand after a moneyball screening and told him his film was brilliant. This movie is going to be another level altogether. Plus i loved the early draft of this film. Its unlike any sports film ever. Its not really a crime film as the script i read seemed more focused on the relationships and the characters. I think carell will win for this, but watch out for Tatum cause he has an incredibly intense role as well. Best of his career no doubt. Ruffalo is actually the one with the most underwritten role, but his character gave the script a heart. If this anything like the script i read then it will be a brilliant film about loneliness and the necessity of male bondage. CAN'T WAIT!!!
Not a fan of Miller's other films, mostly because I knew way too much about the subjects and the books, In Cold Blood and Moneyball, and found one completely hateful toward Capote and the other dumbing down and simplifying the story into a more digestible sports movie where the artistic license felt unnecessary. I know little about this story and may just go in blind to not ruin it for myself.
James Gunn, I like, but come on he operates more in the Edgar Wright/Joe Cornish genre-melding territory and I am being very polite in putting him in that group because I liked Wright's films and Attack the Block more than any James Gunn film. But I am excited for Guardians of The Galaxy.