Foxcatcher.

Saying too much about Bennett Millers latest movie would, I'm sure, spoil it for many of you, as the movies climax was quite a shock for someone like me who knew nothing about the story before seeing the film! Based on a true story Foxcatcher (2013) was written for the screen by E Max Frye and Dan Futterman who also wrote the screenplay for Capote (2014), which Miller directed. The movie involves two different subcultures, wealth, money and self conceived power and the sport of wrestling, a rather under appreciated sport in modern day America.

 

Mark Ruffalo plays Dave Schultz.

When Bennett was originally approached with the story he knew immediately that this was a movie he had to make but it took some time to come to fruition. No one from the wrestling community wanted anything to do with the movie until John Giura joined the team as a trainer/technical adviser, which brought many other members of the wrestling community into the production. Giura was eventually given a producing credit.  Set on Du Pont's 880-acre estate in New Town Pennsylvania, and with the original mansion Liseter Hall having been demolished, the filmmakers used Morven Park in Leesburg, Virginia for the exterior filming and Wilpen Hall an 1899 mansion in the suburb of Sewickley Heights Pennsylvania for the interior filming.

 

Channing Tatum as Mark Schultz.

The story concerns the relationship between two gold winning Olympic wrestling brothers Mark and Dave Schultz, played by Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo, and the American munitions multi millionaire, philanthropist and wrestling enthusiast John Eleuthere du Pont, a very different role for comedian Steve Carell who is almost unrecognisable with his ‘Roman’ nose. Du Pont sets himself up as the main benefactor of the US Wrestling team to take part in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games taking on Mark and then Dave to train Team Foxcatcher. It's a self indulgent project for one of the riches men in America at that time and demonstrates what he imagines his vast wealth can allow him to get away with.

 

Steve Carell as the multi millionaire du Pont. 

Offering a great story, although slow paced and intense, it allows the three main leads to demonstrate career best performances with both Ruffalo and the unnerving Carell both receiving acting nominations at the 87th Academy Awards while Bennett was nominated for Best Director, an award he won at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Also in the movie are Vanessa Redgrave as du Pont's domineering horse loving mother and Sienna Miller as Dave Schultz wife Nancy.  Don’t worry if you’re not a fan of wrestling, as I’m not, it will not spoil your enjoyment of this finely made, if somewhat gloomy, movie. Just treat at it as a metaphor for life - how the rich exploit people who are not fortunate enough have the same privileges they have. 

Capote.

This story of the events that took place during the writing of Truman Capote’s pioneering work of the ‘true crime’ genre In Cold Blood was probable Philip Seymour Hoffman’s greatest film. For his role as the author he won five best actor awards including an Oscar, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.

In Cold Blood is a true account of a multiple murder that took place in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. The victims were farmer Herbert Clutter, his wife and two of their four children. The film Capote (2005) follows Truman and his close friend and research assistant the American novelist Nelle Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) from when the news first broke of the murders, up until the culprit’s execution some five years later. It attempts to define the strange relationship that developed between Capote and the emotionally detached Perry Smith, a sad and lonely man who, it was proved, actually killed the Clutter’s.

 

Hoffman with Catherine Keener.

Although a very challenging role we again find that Hoffman has actual become his character, the mannerisms, the voice and the way he moves. He manages to bring out Capote’s personality and makes us, the viewer, completely spell bound and we are totally convinced of the strengths and weaknesses of the man. He gives us a believable insight into how the author, a man fascinated by people, wins over the suspicious Holcomb locals, the police chief and his wife and the two men who committed the horrendous crime.

 

Truman Copote.

Perry Smith and his accomplice .

Directed by Bennett Miller (Moneyball 2011) and written by Dan Futterman who based his story on Gerald Clarke’s biography of the same name.  The static camerawork of Adam Kimmel and the muted palate with no blues or reds was brilliantly worked to heighten the audience’s acute awareness. Shot on location in Winnipeg with a small budget and little time, but what we get is a masterpiece in characterisation from an actor who will be sorely missed, but who thankfully left us a body of work that I fully intend to return too from time to time just to remind me how it should be done.

Moneyball.

When I started watching Moneyball (2011) I knew nothing about the game of baseball, when I’d finished watching Bennett Miller’s film I didn’t knew much more. But that’s not important as watching this movie demands little knowledge of the game because the story is really about what goes on behind the scenes, its business ethics and the wheeling and dealing to enable a club to be successful and thereby rack in pots of money.

The film is based on a 2003 book of the same name by non-fiction and financial journalist Michael Lewis adapted by Steven Zaillian, who won an Academy Award for his screenplay for Schindlers List (1993), and Aaron Sorkin, who won an Academy Award for the Best Adapted Screenplay for The Social Network (2010). This biographical sports drama was nominated for six Academy Awards one of which was Best Actor for Brad Pitt who plays Billy Beane a former Major League Baseball player who became the general manager of the Oakland Athletics after a promising playing career failed. The A’s, as the club is known, could not compete with the bigger and richer clubs in their league. Beane along with the Yale academic and economist Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) decided on a new approach that would allow them to build a winning team and to amass points without spending money they did not have. 

Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.

Although a little long at 133 minutes I thoroughly enjoyed this film, it has an engaging story line that’s backed up by some compelling acting from all involved, including Philip Seymour Hoffman, who has a fairly small part as the team manager. This is an American sports film that is both intelligent and relevant to sporting finance in most other countries, including one of Scotland’s premiere football clubs. 

A rather rotund Philip Seymour Hoffman.