By the point we lay eyes on the tenth or eleventh full-sized booze bottle tucked into the assorted nooks and crannies of Hank Thompson’s (Austin Butler) Decrease East Facet condo, there’s no query this man has issues. A usually directionless character, a severely scarred-up knee, and recurring nightmares of a vicious automobile crash that maintain him GASP waking up in the course of the night time way back telegraphed simply that, and that’s all baked into the primary quarter-hour of Darren Aronofsky’s scuzzy and off-kilter “Caught Stealing.”
That form of exposition would possibly fly higher on the web page — hell, it did, as Aronofsky’s movie relies on a Charlie Huston novel of the identical identify, with the author additionally offering the characteristic’s screenplay — but it surely irritates when translated to a cinematic adaptation. For all the feel of the movie, which was shot in and round a New York Metropolis vibrantly retrofitted to the story’s 1998-set specs (costumes, music, areas, the entire equipment), the hammy manner necessary beats and plot factors are served up feels out of step. It doesn’t pop, at the very least till the movie’s last act, which lastly brings collectively Aronofsky’s disparate components and reveals an inkling of what the filmmaker was trying to seize.
However the highway there? It’s lengthy, and stuffed with blood, guts, bones, puke, shit, and piss, plus an emergency organ elimination. None of it goes down simple, however for as grim and gritty as “Caught Stealing” is, it solely actually will get going when leaning into the darkish humor and profound absurdity at its heart. “I wished this crime caper to be funnier”? It’s true — you’ll need this crime caper to be funnier or at the very least extra in tune with itself, and the moments through which it dares to trace at one thing a lot better, just below the floor.
However again to shiftless Hank. When the movie opens, issues aren’t too unhealthy for the dude. He’s obtained a bartending job he likes at a neighborhood joint, a pleasant semi-girlfriend (Zoë Kravitz as Yvonne) seeking to make issues extra severe, and a few baseball video games to look at. In truth, his beloved San Francisco Giants — and we know he loves the Giants, due to his Giants hat, the Giants pennants and posters that enhance his condo, and his perpetual sign-off to his mother after their temporary phone calls (“Go, Giants!”) — are attempting to qualify for the baseball post-season with a Wild Card clinch. (They received’t they usually didn’t.)
One bizarre factor? His punk neighbor Russ (Matt Smith, having an infectious quantity of enjoyable) is leaving city all of the sudden, and he’d recognize it if Hank may feed his cat, Bud (Tonic the cat, in a star-making flip). No sweat! Nicely, apart from the roided-out dudes who present up, attempt to knock down Russ’ door, and are clearly on the lookout for one thing very nefarious certainly. When Hank tussles with them, he loses each a kidney and the movie’s sense of stakes. It’s a query that can rankle all through the remainder of the movie: given what we find out about these mobsters, why received’t Hank give them what they need?
Alas, the reply is solely, “effectively, he simply received’t,” and so units off Hank’s journey into the legal underworld of downtown New York Metropolis and past, as these mobsters give strategy to extra (and scarier!) baddies, all of them longing for no matter Russ was hiding (or not?) in his condo. Whereas the overall form of Hank’s issues can maintain for a bit — he’s obtained one thing these individuals need, and he’s not wanting to share — the movie’s sturdy supporting forged fares higher at pushing issues alongside. Griffin Dunne, Carol Kane, Liev Schreiber, Unhealthy Bunny, Regina King, Vincent D’Onofrio, and extra (plus a assassin’s row of recognizable NYC voices) all add the form of sparkle that Butler’s extra restrained (and infrequently fairly compelling) efficiency can’t fairly enable for.
That supporting forged additionally hints at one thing compelling: The very nature of efficiency itself. Is Hank simply enjoying at being a fuck-up baseball junkie, or is he hiding deeper reserves? What does it imply that we will solely see different characters by way of the lens of their jobs (“the cop,” “the gangster,” “the Yiddish mobsters”) or their put-on costumes (Dunne hides below a dry-looking wig, Smith’s large mohawk is virtually its personal character)? Who right here is simply enjoying to an expectation, and who would possibly shock us? Some do, however the twists that engender these surprises, effectively, they simply really feel like exposition, too.
Principally, the strain between the movie’s more and more darkish story and its love of rudimentary gags — wouldn’t it’s so humorous if this man who largely subsists on booze bodily couldn’t drink anymore? — doesn’t abate till the movie’s last act. That’s when issues click on into place, when the massive swings come collectively, and “Caught Stealing” almost finds its strategy to (insert your favourite optimistic baseball metaphor right here). A wild card? Not wild sufficient, actually.
Grade: C+
Sony Photos will launch “Caught Stealing” in theaters on Friday, August 29.
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