Filmhinweis: Foxcatcher

Januar 21, 2015 Unter Filmnotizen

This is the campiest thing I’ve seen in years, in the Sontag sense.

Going in I didn’t know anything about the “true story” it’s based on, and I didn’t want to. So I laughed a lot, although I also gasped at the murder (and then laughed) but almost more fun has been reading the critics trying to explain what’s happening in the film. (I can’t wait to read Adam Cook’s words of wisdom.) Remote and clinical? Maybe, but that’s just a stylistic tactic to keep us questioning what we’re seeing and feeling, and risk being embarrassed about all of it. Most folks who should know better are keeping their lips glued shut so no one else in the theater will know what they’re really thinking. What was that Bertolucci said in a Jumpcut review about the critics of his 1900? It’s like they’re getting fucked up the ass and refusing to cum…?

Einem Kritiker zufolge gibt es sexuelle Unterströmungen. Meiner Meinung nach gibt es bei den sexuellen Strömungen überhaupt keine Unterströmungen. In der Mitte des Films gibt es jedoch eine gigantische Auslassung, deren Fehlen die ganze Wut und Verbitterung strukturiert, die danach kommt. Wenn du nicht wenigstens versuchst zu erraten, was zwischen dem Coach und seinem Lieblingswrestler vorgefallen ist, so dass sie so wütend aufeinander sind, dann kann ich mir nicht vorstellen, dass die zweite Hälfte des Films für dich viel Sinn macht.

I don’t think it’s director Bennett Miller being coy, either. He’s doing everything he can to avoid pulling the movie over into Precious territory, which it comes close to in spots, and instead pulling it back toward Ulrich Sidl. But Miller’s not much interested in melodrama, a style that would have made the movie much gayer than it already is, but he sure is interested in men that turn their lives into melodrama. cf Capote.

Someone on Letterboxd said “[Foxcatcher] is so thematically blunt it’s almost laughable.” That’s pretty close to how I feel, too, though I’d leave out the adverb.

Is it a masterpiece? I don’t know. It’s more of a fascinating failure for me. But I’m going to give it another watch.