Foxcatcher
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: November 14, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 49 Critics
Positive:
42
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJan 14, 2015
Miller unravels this story with the grim inevitability of a death row vigil, but not without flashes of sly humor. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyDec 3, 2014
The triumph of Foxcatcher is not in the subject but in its art. The clear-eyed compassion and moral intelligence of Miller’s film brings sense to the senseless, and finds the human pulse behind the tabloid shock. It’s not a movie to make you feel good, but, at moments, it reminds you what goodness is. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 22, 2014
Foxcatcher is a story of wealth and the lack of it, of family connection and disconnection. But more than anything, it is a story of a mind unraveling. The result is devastating drama for those of us looking on. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 22, 2014
Foxcatcher exerts a mesmerizing pull, not only because it affords the chance to witness three fine actors working at the height of their powers, but also because it so steadfastly resists the urge to clutter up empty space with the filigree of gratuitous imagery and chatter. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 14, 2014
The story is so powerfully observed that it does indeed become larger than itself – an American tragedy. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranNov 13, 2014
A despairing, intentionally disturbing film that draws us into a maelstrom of desperate emotions, it holds up a dark mirror to the American dream and does not like what it sees. Read full review
100
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 13, 2014
The hypnotic and haunting Foxcatcher can prove its worth as one of the year's very best films. Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo give the performances of their lives. Read full review
100
VarietyJustin ChangMay 23, 2014
If the screenplay, by Dan Futterman (“Capote”) and E. Max Frye, is relatively spare in terms of dialogue, it’s satisfyingly rich and thorny in its conception of the tightly wound triangle at its center, while Miller’s direction evinces the same sustained intensity and consummate control of his material that defined his first two features. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 23, 2014
Mesmerizing in its incremental layering of a bizarre, tragic and thoroughly warped character study, Foxcatcher sees director Bennett Miller well surpassing even the fine work he did in his previous two films, Capote and Moneyball. Read full review
100
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 23, 2014
With Foxcatcher, [Miller] has outdone himself, turning his uniquely meticulous eye to a tiny story in a totally rarefied, specific environment and through whatever alchemy he has perfected, created something so universal and resonant that it feels epic, sprawling, almost ancient in its mythic overtones. Foxcatcher is an enormous film. Read full review
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 23, 2014
Miller finds grand, America-describing themes in the interactions between these three men: the extraordinary influence of inherited wealth, the hunkered-down ambition of working-class athletes, the equation of material success with honour and moral rectitude. Read full review
100
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 23, 2014
Carell, in a rare but not unique departure into drama, proves himself as accomplished at tragedy as he is at comedy. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 23, 2014
It is a gripping film: horrible, scary and desperately sad. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnMay 23, 2014
Though anchored by a affecting and sullen turn by Channing Tatum, the movie derives its primary discomfiting power from Steve Carell in a revelatory performance as a monster of American wealth. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 13, 2014
Mr. Miller does his finest work with his three superb leads. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 12, 2014
Foxcatcher is another strange and compelling anthropological drama from Miller, a director with evident expertise at enabling Oscar-worthy star performances. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsDec 22, 2014
If you don’t know the true story, we won’t spoil it for you except to say that it’s not the expected outcome. But if you’re willing to be thrown for a loop, you’re in good hands with this medal-worthy cast and crew. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezDec 18, 2014
Foxcatcher is too cold of a movie to love, but that chilliness is intentional and transfixing, a parable about the darkest corners of the minds of men that dares to whisper instead of shout. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 25, 2014
The movie’s tone is hushed, restrained; emotional damage is crammed way back where no one can see it yet defines everything through a murky prism. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 20, 2014
Foxcatcher is a disturbing and memorable film. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 14, 2014
Foxcatcher might just be the feel-bad movie of the year. But it's so well-acted that audiences won't want to miss its dark, chilling yet restrained story. A little less muting of this outlandish true-to-life tale, however, might have made it even more mesmerizing. Read full review
88
ObserverRex ReedNov 12, 2014
It’s an amalgam of dramatic all-American themes including ambition, paranoia, greed and the ice cubes in the blood that fuel the ruthless pursuit of success in the competitive world of sports. Color it hair-raising. Read full review
88
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreNov 12, 2014
Carell, though, is the real shock to the system here. He is quirky, queer in the old fashioned sense, and pathetically funny. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundSep 23, 2014
Of Bennett Miller's many directorial feats, his canniest is his depiction of the precariousness of bonds, and how those bonds can shift, drastically yet almost imperceptibly. Read full review
88
Film.comJordan HoffmanMay 20, 2014
Nothing short of fascinating. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianJeff BakerDec 19, 2014
Foxcatcher has a sober, chilly vibe that's completely at odds with the sport of wrestling and the men and women who love it. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenyMay 23, 2014
These performances are beyond reproach, which makes it even stranger that the film never quite turns into the crushing experience it feels like it should be. Read full review
80
Total FilmEmma DibdinJan 9, 2015
A hypnotically disturbing triumph for Miller and his cast. Bruisingly intimate and psychologically nuanced, its spiral into savagery lingers like a bad dream. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinJan 5, 2015
Another dramatic triumph for Bennett Miller, though it is his toughest and least glamorous outing yet. A sad and horrible story, expertly and compellingly told. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 4, 2014
Miller maintains control over the proceedings at all times, which is impressive enough. But where he really soars is in the performances he gets from his three lead actors. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 13, 2014
Foxcatcher is a radical departure from Mr. Miller’s previous feature, the smart and entertaining “Moneyball.” It isn’t meant as conventional entertainment, but it’s fascinating to watch from start to finish. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNov 13, 2014
Rare is the drama that plumbs the quirky, unsettling depths of human nature like Foxcatcher. Simultaneously understated and grippingly edgy, this is an arresting examination of naivete, mismatched worlds and old-fashioned American oddness. Read full review
80
The DissolveNoel MurrayNov 12, 2014
Director Bennett Miller and screenwriters E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman have thought through every scene and every line in Foxcatcher. Nothing is irrelevant. The film proceeds like a well-constructed argument. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 20, 2014
It's meticulous, fastidiously controlled and a tiny bit enervated. I've seen it twice; it's successful enough in what it's attempting to merit at least one viewing. But even after two, you may struggle with what's not there, and should be, or could be. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 17, 2014
Like "Raging Bull", Foxcatcher is a dark drama masquerading as a sports movie. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithNov 12, 2014
Mesmerizing, eerie and unpredictably weird. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensNov 15, 2014
As powerful as Foxcatcher can be scene to scene, there’s something maddeningly indistinct about it at times, as if the details that would make it all make sense remain somehow inaccessible to us. Read full review
70
TimeRichard CorlissNov 14, 2014
Tatum’s is the central performance: most daring because it’s least giving. He has often played young men of thick athleticism and slow wit. It’s proof of Tatum’s intelligence that he can make the audience feel smarter than the characters he plays – until they reveal a sly brilliance halfway through the movie. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonNov 11, 2014
Foxcatcher is merely a very, very good character study with acting so fine that it's frustrating it's not in the service of a real, emotional wallop. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneNov 10, 2014
So skilled are both Carell and Tatum that the movie itself falls prey to the characters’ repression. Though never less than careful and clever, it’s also a stunted and fiercely unhappy piece of work, straining hard to deliver home truths about a commonweal that has beaten itself out of shape. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyNov 7, 2014
The most haunting thing in Bennett Miller's latest film, Foxcatcher, is Steve Carell. That's right, the same rubber-faced comedian who gave us the dim-witted meteorologist of "Anchorman" and the oblivious corner-office boob of "The Office." Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzNov 13, 2014
In the end Foxcatcher proves impossible to embrace because of fundamental miscalculations in performance, direction and makeup, along with a certain clumsiness in the way that it tries to use its profoundly sad story to make some kind of grand statement about American values, or the lack thereof. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJan 16, 2015
Foxcatcher isn't a film many viewers will clamor to rewatch. It's too chilly a film for that. At the same time, it's one that will suck them in -- and it will hold them while they're there. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonJan 5, 2015
It’s hard to say exactly what’s at fault here: the performances are flawless – Carell fully justifies his unlikely casting, while Ruffalo is as dependable as ever – and the script is astute, intimate and at times shocking. But there’s just no real life in the film. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Nov 12, 2014
The movie reaches for big insights about America’s obsession with winning and the dangers of unchecked entitlement, while simultaneously treating its real-life subjects like the stars of a Greek tragedy. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisDec 17, 2014
Whatever the case, Foxcatcher provides little insight. Art can shape the truth in ways that resonate beyond the obvious. Regrettably, the truth-shaping here grapples for significance, without any apparent aim. Catch as catch can. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 20, 2014
The experience of watching Foxcatcher is of constantly waiting for something to happen — and of giving up, long before something actually does. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 14, 2014
The movie’s take at times is fascinating. But it’s basically one long, sick joke played at half speed. It’s a ponderous, sick joke. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichMay 23, 2014
Once Miller lays all his cards on the table, however, you realize you haven’t been watching people struggling with the very real temptations of unchecked privilege, so much as fumbling blindly in a glib, gloomy satire of American exceptionalism. Read full review
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