Will Steve Carell fight for a Best Actor slot? Will Sony Pictures Classics give Channing Tatum the push he needs to make his way into an acting category? Will anyone hone in on Mark Ruffalo's brilliance?
These are the awards questions circling “Foxcatcher,” the latest drama from Bennett Miller (“Moneyball,” “Capote”) and one the major players in this year's race. A grim, triangular character portrait of professional wrestling brothers Mark and David Schultz (Tatum and Ruffalo) and the millionaire Olympic wannabe, Jon Du Pont (Carell), who hired them to lead “Team Foxcatcher,” Miller's film is sustains tension from its early moments to the historically accurate, ill-fated ending. Though may be too cold for some – in his Cannes review, Guy Lodge said that “mood gradually swallows the characters” interior lives in an inexorable march toward tragedy” – there's no downplaying the acting triumvirate. Nominations are warranted.
A new and final trailer for the film has arrived and it gives a fairly balanced look at both Tatum and Carell, whose transformation into Du Pot is a major part of his Best Actor consideration. Then there's Ruffalo, whose subdued work is guaranteed to go under-appreciated. Not enough Hulk there.
“Foxcatcher” arrives in limited release on Nov. 14