Bennet Miller follows up his success with Capote and Moneyball with Foxcather. A 2014 drama based on the true events surrounding Olympic gold medalists, Mark and David Schultz, and John Du Pont, the heir of the Du Pont family fortune and avid wrestling fan.

The film starts when David and Mark are training for the World Wrestling Championships, when Mark is reached out to by an apparent millionaire who happens to have a love for wrestling, named John Du Pont. Du Pont seems to be willing to do anything in order to help Mark in his quest to achieve gold for himself and for America. That includes building a massive private wrestling facility, and forming Team Foxcatcher. Though this seems to be a great turn of events for Mark, he gets to know Mr. Du Pont a bit more as time goes on and finds out that not everything is as fine as he once thought.

The story is incredibly engrossing, filled with twists and turns that may not be what you expected, but the fact that it is based on a true story resonates in your mind and makes it more effective. You're interested in finding out what exactly is going on inside the mind of Du Pont and what is the ultimate goal behind Team Foxcatcher. You start forming all these questions and as a result, you cannot take your eyes off the screen. You're truly intrigued by these characters.

And while they are intriguing, and exceptionally acted, the characters of David, Mark, and John at times feel a bit two dimensional. There are scenes where we get some decent, subtle character development, but they are few and far between. John's character suffers the least from this, but the Schultz brothers aren't as fortunate, as there are scenes where they feel almost caricatures of themselves; with Mark being the troubled, skilled athlete trying his best to achieve happiness, and David becomes the lovable, personable father whose family is above all else.

As I already mentioned, the acting is superb. Steve Carell plays a serious role for a change and it's always interesting to me when a comedic actor decides to take on a more sombre, intense acting job. I think it's safe to say that Carell's portrayal of John Du Pont is the finest acting he's ever done. He completely surprised me with just how good he was. Watching interviews and videos of the real John Du Pont, you can definitely see the similarities between him and Carell's depiction of him, whether it's the way he talks, his mannerisms, or even the eerie looks he gives out. His performance also had a lot of subtleties to it, he gives out a feeling of just how pathetic John Du Pont ultimately was by his nuanced looks or the delivery of his lines when he's trying to impress his apathetic, dispassionate mother by coaching the young wrestlers.

Along side Steve Carell were Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo, who were both equally as good. Playing the roles of Mark and David Schultz, both of the actors obviously put down a lot of time to train and work out, as well as learning the techniques of wrestling, as evident by the scenes where they're either competing, or training.

One of the main plot points of Foxcatcher was the feeling of being overshadowed that the character of Mark Schultz possessed. From the very first scene of the film, we see Mark giving a speech to a bunch of elementary school students, only to find out that the school was expecting David, and it almost seemed like they settled for Mark. Though he's a very successful and skilled wrestler in his own right, Mark is always compared to his brother and he feels he's inferior to him. So the film needed a very strong performance to portray that feeling of inferiority and inadequacy that Mark has, and thankfully Channing Tatum gives us just that.

David Schultz is different from Mark; His only objective in life is for him and his family to be happy. He knows his brother sometimes gets envious of him, but at the end of the day, he will do what it takes to better the life of those he cares about. He's a good man and Mark Ruffalo is one of the best people to cast when you want a good man. He's very likeable and he has some great acting talents.

Rufallo, as well as Carell, changed their appearance quite drastically to the point where they were sometimes unrecognisable, which is a huge credit to the make-up department.

One of my favourite things about Foxcatcher is that Bennet Miller took his time with the film. Some may perceive it to be slow pacing, and they would be correct. But having a slow pace doesn't mean that the film is boring, or that it has pacing problems. I quite enjoyed the beginning of the film where we see nothing except how lonely Mark is, and despite all the trophies and medals displayed in his apartment, his life is still empty. I also enjoyed how Miller handled our perspective towards Du Pont; from showing him first as a patriotic, wrestling fanatic who cares about Mark, to a creepy, pathetic, feeble man. It was effective and very well done.

I was also a huge fan of how atmospheric the film was. The Foxcatcher facility has an eerie characteristic about it that just makes you feel uneasy. The atmosphere is exemplified by the lack of music for the most part, leaving us with a raw and gritty look into the lives of these characters.

Foxcatcher is the type of film that you'll finish and immediately go and look up the characters and the events. Bennet Miller does a great job in setting a fantastic tone that will help keep the film lingering in your mind for days to come. It's a very good film with some exquisite acting that is certainly worth your time.