Crisp Criticism - "Foxcatcher", "Wild", "Big Eyes"

by

Julien Faddoul

Foxcatcher *

The Olympic Wrestling Champion brother team of David and Mark Schultz joins Team Foxcatcher lead by multimillionaire sponsor John E. du Pont as they train for the 1988 games in Seoul.

Suffocating, at times intriguing though removed film based on fact that contains many mini-movies inside of it fighting for attention, all of them at surface level. Because of the apogee, the director percolates a sense of dread that paralyzes the story, humour, politics and performances.

d – Bennett Miller

w – E. Max Frye, Dan Futterman

ph – Greig Fraser

pd – Jess Gonchor

m – Rob Simonsen

ed – Jay Cassidy, Stuart Levy, Conor O'Neill

cos – Kasia Walicka-Maimone

p – Anthony Bregman, Megan Ellison, Jon Kilik, Bennett Miller

Cast: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave, Anthony Michael Hall

Wild **

A woman with a tragic past decides to start her new life by hiking for one thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail.

Mobile, fairly vivid depiction of a rock-bottom woman trying to reassemble her life. It admirably sidesteps a reliance of too much heavy symbolism.

d – Jean-Marc Vallee

w – Nick Hornby   (Based on the Book by Cheryl Strayed)

ph – Yves Bélanger

pd – John Paino

ed – Martin Pensa, John Mac McMurphy

cos – Melissa Bruning

p – Bruna Papandrea, Bill Pohlad, Reese Witherspoon

Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Thomas Sadoski, Michiel Huisman, Gaby Hoffman

Big Eyes *

Margaret Keane, her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s.

Handsomely arranged but pretty laughable and histrionic depiction of an uninteresting person’s struggle with identity.

d – Tim Burton

w – Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski  

ph – Bruno Delbonnel

pd – Rick Heinrichs

m – Danny Elfman

ed – JC Bond

cos – Colleen Atwood

p – Lynette Howell, Tim Burton, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski  

Cast: Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Krystin Ritter, Jason Schwartzman, Danny Huston, Terrence Stamp, Jon Polito