PLOT: A former baseball prodigy (Austin Butler) residing in 1998 New York Metropolis finds himself in massive bother when the Russian mob involves consider that his lacking neighbor (Matt Smith) might need left him one thing that belongs to them—and that they’d kill to get again.
REVIEW: Caught Stealing is getting numerous buzz for being director Darren Aronofsky’s most accessible movie. Whereas sure, it does characteristic him—for the primary time—working in a straight style, this being a thriller, it additionally has all of the hallmarks you’d count on from considered one of his films. Lest anybody neglect that is an Aronofsky movie, an early sequence within the film, the place Austin Butler’s character, Hank, suffers a very brutal beating, reminds you. Normally in an motion thriller, the hero takes a licking and retains on ticking with out too many apparent wounds, however that ain’t Aronofsky’s model, with poor Hank coming away from the struggle with everlasting injury. So yeah, Caught Stealing is numerous enjoyable, but it surely’s additionally a tricky film that takes no prisoners.
In that method, it’s very very similar to a movie made within the period it’s set in, 1998. This was a time when indie thrillers could possibly be brutal with out paying an excessive amount of heed to the viewers’s sensitivities. And, certainly, Caught Stealing will get brutal, with just a few legitimately stunning moments peppered into the movie that I actually didn’t see coming. It apparently sticks fairly near the crime novel of the identical identify that it’s based mostly on, with the author, Charlie Huston, additionally penning the screenplay.
It lends itself to a robust showcase for star Austin Butler, who’s displaying numerous promise and appears on the verge of changing into the subsequent massive main man. His Hank Thompson is a stable hero, a former baseball prodigy who suffered a career-ending harm in highschool and now works at a dive bar in NYC. Issues aren’t all dangerous, although, as he’s bought a stunning, adoring girlfriend (Zoë Kravitz’s Yvonne), whereas he’s usually well liked by everybody within the neighborhood.
In fact, issues quickly flip the other way up when his wannabe punk rocker neighbor, Matt Smith’s Russ, leaves him in command of his cat (the feline has a legit starring position) however neglects to inform him concerning the varied hoods he works for. Quickly, Hank is caught between a gang of Russian mobsters led by a smooth-talking Puerto Rican (Unhealthy Bunny), a cop (Regina King), and—maybe most dangerous of all—two Hasidic Jewish hit males (Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio).
Hank is a terrific position for Butler, benefiting from his lanky physicality (you consider him as a ballplayer), charisma, and vulnerability. It’s a tribute to each the film and the efficiency that you just’re actually by no means positive if he’s going to make it to the closing credit. Whereas ably supported—Kravitz as a convincing dream lady and King as a plausible cop—it’s his film via and thru, proving he has numerous vary past the larger-than-life characters he’s performed to this point.
Aronofsky clearly had enjoyable making the film and desires the viewers to really feel the identical method, so he’s dropped the austere strategy of his previous few movies (no arthouse 1.33:1 side ratio), giving this a slick, diamond-cut really feel. He is aware of precisely how you can make a film like this, so when he performs within the thriller sandbox, you will be assured he’ll be making a rattling good one.
With a top-notch solid, some hard-hitting violence, and even just a few stable laughs, Caught Stealing is a pleasing late-summer shock I hope doesn’t get misplaced on the multiplex. It is a retro thriller that seems like a misplaced film from Sundance 1998— in the very best method. They don’t actually make ’em like this anymore however I positive want they did.
