Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Written by Charlie Huston
Darren Aronofsky has had enough of his own pseudo-intellectual allegories and character studies, switching out strokes of his chin with wild metal bat swings in Caught Stealing, the story of a New York City bartender who gets dragged into the underworld when his punk rocker neighbor goes out of town.
Austin Butler’s Hank, an alcoholic barkeep who could’ve been in the show, man, if it hadn’t been for a traumatic accident eleven years ago that cut his baseball dreams short. Now he just has a drinking problem, an undying love for the San Francisco Giants and a cute but complicated relationship with a paramedic named Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz).
They’re stumbling home from the bar when Hank’s neighbor Russ (Matt Smith, spiked mohawk, spiked leather jacket, spiked energy levels) tells him he’s got to go back to London to see his ailing old man. Into Hank’s hand he pours his cat (a biter) and unbeknownst to Hank, a heap of trouble, because soon some mean-looking Russians, and later, Hasidic Jews, come looking for Russ, their ire falling on Hank.
Into the meat grinder this hapless drunk goes as Caught Stealing becomes one of those hurdling beat/shoot/fuck ‘em ups where a hapless everyman gets caught up with something way out of his depth.
This is above all an interesting new look for Aronofsky going with something decidedly lowbrow as Hank’s misadventure features laughs, thrills, a little bit of pathos, violence both upsetting and comedic, and plenty of collateral damage. Caught Stealing is entertaining. Its characters, all the way down the ranks, are well-defined and worth sticking around for, and the story, with its twists, breaks, and reassembly is never dull.
But combining all this to complete satisfaction and creating something greater than the sum of its parts is a lot harder than it looks. There’s a reason why there’s only one Shane Black. It requires an innate sense of timing from the director and versatility from the actors, plus some strange cinematic alchemy in blending it all together. While it’s never enough to sink Caught Stealing, which runs along on the speed of its solid execution, its heavier subjects do feel light to the touch, and it’s far from a laugh riot despite it wanting it to be.
This might be down to Aronofsky being someone who definitely takes himself very seriously, and Austin Butler, who’s a fine actor with great intensity, not being a comedic marvel. All the violence, anger, and vitriol of movies like this need a protagonist who’s a walking helium balloon, and without it, Caught Stealing feels angrier than it intends to be, a lot of yelling and bloody torture and violence being inflicted.
Still, Caught Stealing is a bonafide rump and a real shot in the arm to Aronofsky’s filmography which has prided itself on its tortured and introspective characters. He dials that way down in this goose chase across New York, and ratchets up a hard-hitting line drive of a movie instead. If not crackerjack, then at least a type of flick Aronofsky would do well to have another crack at.
Mikkel Frederiksen 