“If you don’t fight, don’t show your teeth”
Among the least predictable filmmakers of his generation, Darren Aronofsky has worked in many genres, and his best work seems to have a tight grip on tone: Black Swan was an homage to early De Palma-esque psycho-sexual grand guignol, while The Wrestler channels the sincerity of a documentary making its title character all the more tragic. Requiem for a Dream‘s tone mimicks the highs and lows of its drug-addicted characters. In my opinion, these are his three best films and they’ve all gone their tone locked down.
With his prior effort The Whale, Aronofsky didn’t seem to have much of an aim beyond getting Brendan Fraser an Oscar, recently admitting to GQ it was one of the main goals of the film’s producer and Aronofsky’s old college buddy Ari Handel. So, well done, now we can all forget that movie ever happened.
Aronosfsky’s latest, Caught Stealing, is a fast-paced film that truly captures the carefree days of late 90s New York City, and there really is so much good stuff to celebrate in this movie. I would not dissuade anyone from checking this movie out, it’s expertly crafted and Austin Butler is a real deal movie star who can carry a film and hold his own with a terrific supporting cast. The tone management is something we’ll get back to, but everyone feels like they’re in the same movie, which is praiseworthy.
Butler stars as Hank Thompson, one of those classic high school athletes who loses it all on the cusp of greatness due to some senseless injury. Now working as a bartender at Paul’s Bar on the Lower East Side, he numbs the pain of disappointment with alcohol and love from Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) his sweetheart of an EMT girlfriend. After agreeing to cat-sit for his punk rock neighbor Russ (Matt Smith)—who is called away to deal with his ill father—Hank soon gets entangled in Russ’ business.
Unfortunately for Hank, Russ’ business involves criminals who all want to know where he is, from a pair of bald Russian bruisers to the Screech-looking gun-toting hothead Colorado (Bad Bunny) and Hasidic Jewish brothers Lipa and Shmully Drucker (Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio). These are all bad dudes, and even the well-meaning Detective Baron (Regina King) seems hamstrung by Hank’s lack of details on what exactly he’s gotten himself involved in. Through it all, however, Hank keeps a close eye on Bud the cat, developing an affection for him and making sure he’s safe.
Naturally, Brooklyn-born Aronofsky is the perfect person to make a film set when he himself was making his debut film Pi. The period details are primo from all those Lower East Side locations to the scenes in Flushing Meadows and the old Shea Stadium, it made me a tad nostalgic for my high school years. I’m sure there are anachronisms in there somewhere, but the feel of the movie was incredibly attuned to when and where it is set.
There’s just something about the movie that doesn’t sit right with me. And this is the point where I have to do that thing I hate doing, but I’ve got to talk spoilers if I’m going to adequately explain my specific issues with this movie. I will be doing my best to maintain critical respect and keep this as vague as possible, but I need to discuss some specific details, so if you want to go in cold, come back once you’ve seen the movie.
VAGUELY SPOILERY STUFF BELOW
The tone management goes off the rails entirely once the first major character in the film turns up dead. The way the reveal and aftermath play, one would think the whole tone of the film would now shift in a more serious direction. We’ve had our laughs about violence, but now the stakes are sky high. Another twisty reveal right after that made me think, okay, now this is going to be a shot of adrenaline to get to the finish line. But nope, the three most overtly comic characters haven’t even really inserted themselves into the plot yet.
I laughed a lot after that first serious death, but as the film went on and as some comedic characters met both intentionally and unintentionally comedic ends, I just didn’t feel the film earned—or even needed—the drastic tonal shifts. And just, my goodness, that mid-credits cameo must be talked about at some point in the future when more people have seen this thing.
VAGUELY SPOILERY STUFF STOPS
Okay, so the script is what’s ultimately letting down the great work from the cast and crew. I truly hate saying this as it’s the first feature film screenplay from the book’s author Charlie Huston, but it’s got that sort of streamlined first screenplay thing where all the set-ups and payoffs are inelegantly presented. The film does value its characters and gives them each enough backstory with which the actors can then paint a full picture, but it’s the film’s clumsy tonal shifts that don’t sit right with me a week later.
As I said earlier, Butler is the real deal, the kid’s a movie star. He’s a compelling protagonist you can’t help but root for, despite all the terrible things he does, and has done in the past. He and Kravitz have real deal movie star chemistry and their sexual energy explodes off the screen. The entire supporting cast is also aces, and cultural appropriation be damned, the half-Jewish Schreiber and full-on goy D’Onofrio give probably my favorite performances in the film. These are two guys who will go ham when given the opportunity and they grab these roles with both hands as they tool around New York in a minivan with beaded seat covers. You could build a thoroughly enjoyable film around these characters because they feel completely authentic.
Frequent Aronofsky collaborators like cinematographer Matthew Libatique, editor Andrew Weisblum, and production designer Mark Friedberg bring their A-games as well. The former two keep things frantic but focused, while the latter has become the go-to guy for authentic period New York production design thanks to his work on films like If Beale Street Could Talk and Joker.
There is so much to like about Caught Stealing, and I wouldn’t begrudge anyone whose opinion of the film differs from mine. I’m known to be a stick in the mud on first viewings of many films that I later come back to and soften on. That’s a big part of the reason I waited a week to write this review, I wanted to see if my opinion shifted at all, and it’s just probably too soon to tell. Perhaps one day the wild tonal shifts of this film won’t bother me as much and I’ll be able to appreciate them as part of the overall appeal of Caught Stealing. I’m just not quite there yet.
Header image via IMDb