Caught Stealing Review
He’s a director with a fascination for obsession and darkness, one who regularly courts controversy and with such powerful trademarks, it’s easy to overlook Darren Aronofsky’s ability to surprise. But his crime caper, Caught Stealing, does more than just serve as a reminder. It shows that he’s astonishingly good when it comes to giving audiences exactly what they don’t expect.
What comes across as a personal love letter to New York is set in 1998. The Twin Towers dominate the skyline, technology has yet to become an integral part of everyday life – cars have cigarette lighters as standard – and the paranoia of 2001 is yet to come. Despite the shabbiness, graffiti and underlying criminality of the setting, the characters still have a certain innocence. Once a hot baseball prospect at school, Hank (Austin Butler) is constantly haunted by an accident that destroyed his sporting future, and he’s now a booze sodden bartender. His punk neighbour, Russ (Matt Smith, complete with spectacular Mohican and mockney accent), persuades him to look after his cat, Bud (“he’s a biter”) while he makes a trip home. In the blink of an eye, Hank is tangling with a crooked cop, a couple of Russian mobsters, a hitman and a pair of deadly Orthodox Jewish brothers. But it’s the cat that’s at the centre of what turns out to be a frantic treasure hunt.
Aronofsky hasn’t sacrificed all of his characteristic themes in favour of high energy and humour. The darkness is still there in the regular nightmare about the accident that changed Hank’s life and constantly disrupts his attempts to sleep. He’s never lost his obsession with baseball either, following it religiously on the TV and radio and ending his phone calls to his mother, his former coach, with “Go, Giants!” But Caught Stealing is most definitely a caper, something we’ve never seen before from the director, complete with a lighthearted tone, laughs to spare, excitement and a generous amount of blood. It’s easily the most commercial film he’s ever made, and he pulls it off with energy, style and, despite the setting, a certain glamour.
Much of that is down to the cast, especially Butler with his good looks and innocent, expressive eyes. He’s the perfect choice to play Hank, desperately trying to live on his wits to avoid trouble, but finding it harder than he ever anticipated. Regina King is terrific as the flinty-eyed cop, who puts her own interests first and the law very much second. The other members of the supporting cast come and go, but with one exception. We get a glimpse of the least typical criminals of them all early in the action, but it takes so long for them to get their moment in the spotlight, we start to worry it will never happen. It does, and the Liev Schreiber/Vincent D’Onofrio double act as machine gun-toting Orthodox Jewish mobsters is more than simply deadly. It provides some of the most entertaining scenes of the entire film.
What has all the hallmarks of a comic book adventure is actually based on the novel of the same name from Charlie Huston, who also wrote the script. The dialogue in what also feels like a good old-fashioned shaggy dog – or should that be cat? – story is smart and fast, matched by the breakneck speed of the action, some crisp editing and sharp running gags. The constant, despite all the secondary characters, is always Hank, on the move, fighting to save his own skin, keeping Bud the cat safe and trying to protect the people who mean the most to him. By comparison, quitting the booze is a doddle. Aronofsky brings it all to the screen with such panache that it’s hard to believe he’s never ventured into this territory before. At a time when studios still play it safe with known quantities, surprises like Caught Stealing are few and far between. We need more of them.
★★★★
In cinemas from August 29th / Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoe Kravitz, Griffin Dunne, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Carol Kane, Tonic the cat / Dir: Darren Aronofsky / Sony Pictures / 15
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