AFI Fest 2014: Day seven

AFI Fest, the longest-running international film festival in Los Angeles, took off at Hollywood Boulevard once more. Over the past week, directors from around the world, including new auteurs and renowned award-winners, made appearances at the TCL Chinese Theater, the Egyptian Theater and the Dolby Theatre to support their newest projects, with numerous awaiting fans in tow.

A&E; senior staffer Sebastian Torrelio attended AFI Fest this week, scoping out the newest selections on the festival circuit and films that may be coming to American audiences in the near future. On the final day of AFI Fest coverage, two highly anticipated end-of-year movies carry acting performances that will undoubtedly be touted and recognized come this year’s awards season.

“Foxcatcher”
Directed by Bennett Miller
Sony Pictures Classics

Bennett Miller, director of previous award-winners “Capote” and “Moneyball,” has a nuanced way of filmmaking that shines heavily in “Foxcatcher.” In his Olympic wrestling tale, Miller takes the starch, rich atmosphere of multimillionaire John du Pont’s Pennsylvania mansion and transforms it into a dark, somber place where evil seems to be lurking in every room. The subtleties that Miller brings out in his camerawork, his conversation-heavy screenplay and most importantly his magnificent cast lead the viewer on a spiraling trip of bleak intentions.

Steve Carell plays du Pont, almost unrecognizable under a heavy amount of make-up. Du Pont, the spoiled, schizophrenic son of the prominent du Pont family, wants to attain glory in the world of wrestling, a goal shared by Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), an Olympic gold medalist who is getting less notoriety than he expected. Du Pont contacts Schultz, asking him to train with him on his estate and to bring along his brother David (Mark Ruffalo). Mark is willing to win more Olympic medals and world championships at any cost, but David is reluctant, looking to his family’s needs above his own. Mark finds that, on du Pont’s farm, he can have all that he wants, to an obsessive point. But du Pont has some worrisome qualities about him, whether it be his stricken need for his mother’s attention or his terrifying glare that speaks more to his mystery than his charisma.

Carell, Ruffalo and even Tatum are extraordinary in their respective roles, able to show the nuances of the changes in their relationships with one another with a simple glance or grimace. But it’s Miller, at the helm of it all, that makes this sports-themed film of betrayal and mental health a cold, disturbing portrait of men at their worst when trying to be the best.

“Still Alice”
Directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
Sony Pictures Classics

For some, “Still Alice” will be a very, very difficult movie to watch. That’s entirely due to Julianne Moore’s central performance as Alice Howland, a happily married middle-aged professor who is suddenly afflicted with a brutally quickening form of Alzheimer’s disease. Moore does so much with her role, in fact, that the rest of the film seems to collapse in the face of her towering presence. It plays along as usual though from beginning to end – Alice, a linguistics professor, lives in a cozy apartment with her husband John (Alec Baldwin). Her three children (Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish) all care for her deeply and visit as often as they can, but are living their own lives now. All Alice has to rely on are her memories – memories that she clings to whenever she’s in need; memories that are slowly slipping away.

Directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland milk this already sad premise until there is little left to cry about. Westmoreland’s past experiences might explain how he is surprisingly good at letting actors shine, guiding Moore through what could very well be her first Oscar-winning performance, and even giving Stewart some well-earned moments. Otherwise, “Still Alice” is an interesting movie with an empty plot, lacking the substance to make it as compelling a melodrama as it intends to be.

– Sebastian Torrelio