Foxcatcher

First Hit:  Well-acted with a long slow buildup to a disconnected ending by a disconnected person.

John E. du Pont (Steve Carell) lives deeply in the shadow of his mother Jean (Vanessa Redgrave), his family, and the family name.

Having never had to work at doing anything for survival he longs to be connected to something, something that gives him a sense of being a man. He thinks himself a patriot and significant contributor to society. The reality is different – it is the name that is famous.

The question I kept asking myself throughout the film was, was he simply a grossly odd individual, or did he have full mental capacity? When you watch some scenes he comes across as either one or the other -  but you don’t really know. I think that is part of the point of the film, not knowing.

What does stand out is that he is completely shielded by money – his family money – nothing he actually earned. He gloms onto the wrestling Schultz brothers who both won Olympic Gold medals in the 1984 games. He does this because he sees an opportunity to finance this sport and these guys to additional greatness as well as his own notoriety. He wants to be seen.

Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) and younger brother Mark (Tatum Channing) are close brothers and great wrestlers. Mark is plodding, not socially adept, but learns wrestling well from his brother and therefore only moderately succeeds. Dave is a brilliant wrestling strategist and coach. Although Mark cannot convince Dave to join duPont’s Foxcatcher team, he decides to live and practice at the Foxcatcher wrestling facility, at du Pont’s home, in Pennsylvania.

du Pont thinks he has become a coach, motivator and mentor of young Mark but in reality he knows nothing about the sport and just supplies the money. The convincingly twisted relationship he builds with Mark is meant to break the bond between the brothers. Mark’s wrestling goes south because of du Pont’s influence (drugs and arrogance) and when the writing was on the wall for the Foxcatcher team, du Pont convinces Dave to come coach the team.

One of the most telling scenes, is when Jean comes to the wrestling facility and John decides to pretend to be the coach. It is a moment where he really begins to see his failings as a human being. The shots of du Pont’s land and the wrestling are effective.

Carell is an oddly disturbing du Pont. I know nothing of the real person so I can only wonder, could the du Pont Carell created by Carell do the deeds as shown? Yes, Carell made the brooding, icy stares and halting rambling speeches convincing. Ruffalo was really good as the smart, very engaged coach and brother to Mark. Channing was good to great. I found it hard for me to believe he survived on his limited social skills, but as a wrestler I thought he was great. Redgrave was perfect as the mother who told her son, “wrestling is a low sport…”. E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman wrote the script that had some interesting lines and others that were funny but maybe not meant to be funny. Bennett Miller directed this film. Some of the shots of the wrestling and land around Foxcatcher were fantastic, however the story plodded.

Overall:  Despite its failings as a film and it being too long in telling the story, I was intrigued to learn more about this event where a rich man kills a wrestling coach.

Moneyball

First Hit: Pitt’s performance is good but overall the film drags at times.

I like, or more accurately use to like, baseball when I was younger. I wanted to be the left fielder for the LA Dodgers. I remember when the Dodgers and SF Giants moved to the west coast. LA played in the coliseum where they strung a huge tall net in left field to centerfield because the distance from home plate to the stands was only 250 feet.

Anyway, like many boys I dreamed of playing for my favorite team. Playing as a youngster through my early teens, I was very good, not great. I always hit in the mid 300's, occasionally with power; I could run ("I had wheels"); I could catch, throw (with speed and strength but occasionally not accurately) and was always one of the first chosen when pickup games were played. I really liked the game.

Baseball is one of the few games where more time is spent with its players standing either on the field or in the dugout waiting with heighten awareness for something to happen. When it does happen, they have to react accurately, quickly, and with forethought. The moments between action and non-action require baseball players to be mentally awake and alert.

It isn’t always easy. Just watch any team of 8 – 10 year olds play; hands on hips, occasionally a mitt on a head, or just standing and looking around.

This film is the same way in that there were moments of heightened activity and other times of just time going by. I thought the story was very interesting, the characters good and some of the acting very good.

Brad Pitt was very good in capturing the frustration and struggles of Billy Beane the General Manager of the Oakland A’s, who could not control how much money was available to put a good team together. Philip Seymour Hoffman did an excellent job of being “old school” baseball Manager Art Howe by telling Beane (Pitt’s character) that the GM knew nothing about how to play players. Jonah Hill was OK as Peter Brand the statistical genius behind rating players, which has now transformed baseball. Kerris Dorsey was the one who really stood out as Casey Beane, Billy’s daughter. Dorsey was incredibly realistic in her acting and the scene of her singing part of a song in a music store was beyond sublime. Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin wrote a good screen play based on the Michael Lewis book “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”. Bennett Miller directed this often interesting and sometime slow film.

Overall: Worth watching if you are a baseball fan.