Foxcatcher Still - H 2014
Courtesy of New York Film FestivalThis story first appeared in the Oct. 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
FOXCATCHER
Centered on an astonishing turn by Steve Carell, Bennett Miller‘s beautifully modulated, fact-based wrestling drama has a great deal on its mind about America’s privileged class and how sublimated urges can assert themselves in the most unsavory ways. — TODD MCCARTHY
THE IRON MINISTRY
American director J.P. Sniadecki‘s latest anthropological study of the world’s most populous nation takes the form of a pungently immersive, frequently surprising semi-experimental documentary about traveling on Chinese trains. — NEIL YOUNG
See more 35 of 2014’s Most Anticipated Movies
MR. TURNER
Mike Leigh‘s luminous and moving portrait of the capricious, curmudgeonly, brilliant British artist J.M.W. Turner is anchored by a masterful performance from Timothy Spall in a role he was born to play. — LESLIE FELPERIN
RED ARMY
Gabe Polsky‘s solo directing debut is a witty, fast-moving and playful documentary about the former Soviet Union’s national ice hockey squad, an all-conquering machine schooled under military conditions as a propaganda weapon. — STEPHEN DALTON
TIMBUKTU
Abderrahmane Sissako‘s poetic and heartbreaking drama set in the ancient Malian city of the title is an eye-opener on the methodical spread of Jihadist influence in sub-Saharan Africa in spite of popular resistance. — DEBORAH YOUNG
See more 25 of the Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2014
TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT
The latest affecting drama from Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne chronicles the weekend-long crusade of a working-class woman, played with piercing emotional transparency by Marion Cotillard, to reverse the decision to terminate her employment. — DAVID ROONEY
THE WONDERS
Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher‘s wise, wistful second feature adopts the perspective of an inexperienced country girl to observe a family of beekeepers fighting to preserve their traditional rural lifestyle. — DEBORAH YOUNG
