random movie recommendations..."Foxcatcher", "The Other Man", "The Water Diviner"...

... as a result of perusing the stacks at the public library. Where DVDs were chosen haphazardly off the shelf in  hopes of finding some that were worth the time investment to view. Several that were pretty good and deserve being better known.

One, that I saw the trailer for and meant to see when it came out, but missed. A bizarre tale about Olympic level wrestlers and a man who was obviously a bit off center. "Foxcatcher", with Tatum O'Neal and Steve Carrell. Carrell played the part of John DuPont, scion of chemical industry wealth, a man who seemed to have lost touch with reality due to being raised in an environment detached from reality. DuPont wanted to be associated with Olympic fame to the extent of offering his estate in Virginia, developing a training facility for potential Olympic level athletes.Whatever the word is that means well past 'obsession', that describes DuPont. 

Another library DVD we recently watched was "The Other Man", with Laura Linney, Liam Neeson and Antonio Banderas. I don't remember any advertising at all about it, so it might be one that was not released to theaters. I will not spoil the story by outlining the plot, but it was sweet, surprising and well worth watching. Hearing stories of 'the other woman' is not uncommon, so you might deduce for yourself how the story goes from the title...unexpected twists and turns, well-written, and if I am remembering correctly, the screenplay is based on a book.

"The Water Diviner" is another one that I do not recall seeing any promotional material about. I'm not even sure it was released in the US. I don't go to movies much, and it might have been in theaters and I just never saw the trailer, especially since I don't watch TV to see lots of advertising. Staring Russell Crowe, about an event that was more pertinent to Australian history. Having to do with war, useless killing that was a result of men, aggression, political uprisings, how the people who declare war are usually not the ones who go to war and end up bloody, dismembered or dead. It was a thoughtful story. I saw another copy when walking through a store in the UK. I noticed a rack of DVD's and was quite surprised to see this one, as I had never heard of it before checking it out of the library recently.