Caught Stealing
Review by Mark Woodring
It’s no secret that Darren Aronofsky’s films can be a bit… eclectic… in nature.
Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Black Swan, Noah, Mother!, The Whale… his films are heady examinations of the world and the way in which humans occupy them.
And they can be batshit crazy, as well.
So a film about a baseball player and gangsters would seem to be fairly straightforward material, wouldn’t it?
**NOTE: You can read Mark’s review below, then listen or watch as he and Ryan discuss the film further. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
107 Minutes, Rated R
Written by Charlie Huston
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Synopsis:
Burned-out ex-baseball player Hank Thompson unexpectedly finds himself embroiled in a dangerous struggle for survival amidst the criminal underbelly of 1990s New York City, forced to navigate a treacherous underworld he never imagined.
Caught Stealing is set in New York City in 1998. This time frame appears to have been chosen for no other reason than because it could be.
Otherwise, Caught Stealing feels, to me at least, to actually be a conventional crime thriller. We’ve got mistaken(-ish) identity, double and triple crosses, murder, personal trauma, drug deals gone wrong, rival crime organizations… you name it.
Austin Butler plays a convincing Hank, an athlete with a past who finds himself embroiled in an inter-gang search for… something… when his British Punk neighbor leaves him to cat-sit.
Shenanigans ensue.
Look, this is not the most original of scripts, but the cast, lead by Butler, is great and generally put in better-than-average performances.
At a briskly-paced 107 minutes, the film never overstays its welcome, careening Hank from one disastrous encounter to the next, as we’re never quite sure who to trust with Hank’s well-being.
The script, as noted above, isn’t overly original, but it contains enough development of Hank to allow the shortcomings of the other characters slide. This is Hank’s story, after all, and we should probably simply be concerned with how he reacts to those characters’ actions. His past, and his inability to deal with it, has determined his present, and only by finally confronting his actions can he determine his future.
Caught Stealing is actually a fun ride, so long as you take everything for what it is, or for what Aronofsky is presenting it as. A kind of throwback to the simpler action movies of the 1990s (THERE’S the connection to 1998!), it’s just a popcorn-y kind of theater experience that isn’t going to win any awards, but which should do decent numbers at the box office.
Caught Stealing slides exclusively into theaters on Friday, August 29, and stars Austin Butler, Zoe Kravitz, Vincent D’Onofrio, Regina King, Griffin Dunne, Dominique Silver, Benito Martinez Ocasio (aka “Bad Bunny”), and Matt Smith.
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