CAUGHT STEALING Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Stars: Austin Butler, Zoe Kravitz, Matt Smith, Vincent D’Onofrio, Liev Schreiber, Regina King, Griffin Dunne, Benito Martinez Ocasio, Yuri Kolokolnikov, Carol Kane, Nikita Kukushkin, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Brill, Action Bronson, George Abud, Tenoch Huerta, McKinzie J Scott, Laura Dern.
Darren Aronofsky is a filmmaker who makes intense, unflinching and often confronting dramas. He is also a filmmaker who rarely repeats himself and every film is different. His body of work includes his debut feature, the low budget sci-fi drama Pi; the confronting and intense drama Requiem For A Dream; the psychological ballet drama Black Swan; the rather dull The Fountain with Hugh Jackman looking for the mythical fountain of youth; his epic take on the Biblical story of Noah and his ark; The Wrestler, a wonderful redemption story in which Mickey Rourke delivered arguably the best performance of his career; the controversial horror film Mother, starring Jennifer Lawrence; and the body image drama The Whale, for which Brendan Fraser earned his Oscar. By contrast Aronofsky’s latest film is the fast paced blackly comic crime drama Caught Stealing, which is set in Giuliani’s New York at the tail end of the 1990s, which itself seems lightweight.
The film is based on the 2004 crime novel written by Charlie Huston, who has penned the screenplay adaptation himself. The film’s title is a baseball analogy, but it also has a nice double meaning given the context of the film.
Here we meet Hank Thompson (played by Austin Butler, from Elvis, etc), a former baseball player whose promising career was ended by a car crash that killed his best friend and teammate. Now he tends bar and is an alcoholic. He lives in a grungy apartment on New York’s lower east side. His dodgy neighbour Russell (played by British actor and former Doctor Who star Matt Smith) asks Hank to do a small favour for him and look after his cat Bud while he flies off to London to visit his sick father.
Hank then finds himself beaten and pursued by a couple of vicious Russian gangsters and a pair of Hassidic hitmen (Vincent D’Onofrio and Live Schreiber). Apparently, Russell has stolen some four million dollars, and these pursuers believe that Hank holds the key to recovering it. Homicide detective Roman (Oscar winner Regina King, from If Beale Street Could Talk, etc) seems sympathetic to Hank’s plight but is reluctant to help him, for reasons that become clear later in the film. The body count rises.
Aronofsky maintains a fast pace throughout this adrenaline fuelled film, which delivers quite a few twists, and we are never quite sure where it is headed. Although quite violent, Aronofsky tempers Hank’s plight with some uncomfortable laughs and he directs the material with an eye on the dark humour of the situation.
Butler has plenty of charisma and he throws himself into the more physical demands of the role. Zoe Kravitz (from the Divergent series, etc) is solid in her role as Yvonne, Hank’s paramedic girlfriend. And Bud the cat (played by Tonic the cat) has plenty of personality as well and is a joy to watch. In an interview Aronofsky stated that one of the influences on the look of Caught Stealing was Martin Scorsese’s 1985 film After Hours, and it is probably no coincidence that the film features that film’s star Griffin Dunne in a small but pivotal role as Dave, the owner of the bar where Hank works.
Aronofksy’s regular cinematographer Matthew Libatique has done a great job with the visuals which capture the seedier side of the New York locations, and he imbues the nocturnal scenes with a palpable sense of menace. The camera loves the photogenic Butler, and there are lots of close ups of his face, and the camera almost fetishises his topless bare chest during several scenes.
The film is also powered by the hip-hop influenced score from Rob Simonsen and British punk band Idles.
I had a lot of fun with Caught Stealing and I enjoyed this film more than any of Aronofsky’s other films.
★★★★
