CAUGHT STEALING Review: Messy Crime Romp Saved By Great Performances

There's a lot that's confusing about Caught Stealing. Not narratively; exposition drops throughout ensure that everyone is able to follow the many twists and turns, rather in terms of what the film is.

It's a crime dramedy with big characters of specific ethnicities all vying for a major sum of drug money. There's a stereotypical fast-talking English punk complete with mohawk and spiky battlejacket, one hyperviolent and one exasperated Russian goon, a diplomatic Puerto Rican with a canned speech about the limits of diplomacy, and Hasidic Jews who are comfortable shooting guns but not driving cars on Shabbos. The movie's fast-paced with several unexpected twists and turns, and largely treats its violence with glee rather than gravity.

Caught Stealing feels like it escaped from a time machine, one that's still living in the glory days of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie crime movies, and the films inspired by theirs, of the late 90s and 2000s. Which isn't all that confusing itself; we're living in a golden age of nostalgia after all and Ethan Coen is out here trying to recapture the magic of Fargo and The Big Lebowski. What really boggles the mind is that Caught Stealing is directed by Darren Aronofsky, a contemporary of those other filmmakers, who, based on his filmography and past interviews, wouldn't have gone anywhere near something like this in its heyday.

Aronofsky's complete filmography up to this point likely has as many laugh lines and gags as the first ten minutes of Caught Stealing, honestly maybe even fewer. He's known for his dour, some would argue miserablist, films that often attempt grandiose transcendence (to varying degrees of success); not exactly small-scale crime movies with silly characters. So it's a shock to see his name on this kind of film.

But he makes his presence known throughout. Starting with a transition before the opening credits when a dissolve brings us from a hole in the tiling at a subway station to a baseball homebase, before rapidly pulling a drone camera away to give a sense of scale and importance to the game and its field. There's extremely tight framing on faces during confrontations. While much of the violence is fairly standard shot/reverse shot, both cinematically and in terms of two sides shooting guns at one another, there are sequences where we can see the filmmaker who's delivered some of cinema's most visceral moments of the last 30 years; a scene of surgical staples being removed with pliers is especially impactful.

The chase scenes may benefit most from Aronofsky's boldness. His talent for conveying the physical intensity of characters' experience pays off fantastically in a chaotic chase through 1998 New York Chinatown that places us alongside our hero Hank (Austin Butler) as he attempts to escape the aforementioned Hasidim. But it's a window and fire escape climb where Hank has to avoid being spotted by the aforementioned Russians that's most memorable for the elaborate choreography captured and communicated through a series of zooms, pans, and push-ins.

The parallels to Aronofsky's other films don't end at the film's formal choices. There's also a fair bit of on the nose, almost "do you get it?" level, dialogue throughout the film that's on par with some of his most pedantic output.

The script, from Charlie Huston and based on his book of the same name, repeatedly hits upon Hank running from what he's scared of and needing to face his fears and his past. And to be sure that we never forget what those fears and that past are, the film includes multiple flashbacks to the drunk driving accident that injured Hank, ending a promising baseball career before it began, and took the life of his friend. An explanatory flashback isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's the overbearing repetition of it that quickly makes it more annoying than evocative, even if it is attempting to convey how heavily it weighs on a character's mind.

It's not the familiar beats or the need to spell things out that holds Caught Stealing back most, though. It's the film's tone and pacing problems; in fact, they're one and the same. There's a propulsive momentum to the first half of the film as more and more characters are introduced. And things build to a surprisingly dark climax for a movie that's been fairly light and fun.

The problem is that we're then left with another half of the movie to go. A half that seeks to reclaim the irreverent tone and build on momentum that has already peaked. But violence that's been reckoned with on a human level can't go back to being pure entertainment, and it's impossible to regain a sense of urgency that's already been paid off. It's a shame, because there is some good stuff in the back half, especially the scenes of Hank with Hasidic brothers Lipa (Liev Schrieber) and Shmully (Vincent D'Onofrio).

It's that chemistry between characters and actors that makes Caught Stealing worth seeking out overall. Benito Martínez Ocasio (better known as Bad Bunny) plays the Puerto Rican negotiator Colorado with a perfect arrogant sleaze that promises a strong acting career for the musician. Regina King is wonderful as always as the some-nonsense narcotics detective Roman whose detective work seems to consist largely of toying with witnesses.

It's a joy to see Schrieber and D'Onofrio balance silliness and somberness in their alternately ridiculous and wise characters. There's also a delightful late-in-the-film appearance from Carol Kane as the brothers' mother, who lovingly welcomes Hank into her home.

But the film's real selling point is the sweet and fiercely horny chemistry between Butler and Zoë Kravitz as Hank's girlfriend Yvonne. There's a real eroticism to the scenes in which we see them act on their desire for one another, which Aronofsky wisely allows to play out in static shots, letting us simply watch hot people be hot together. And the film doesn't skimp on the emotional either, focusing on the ways in which they look at each other, how they make each other smile or how their bodies react when the other hurts them.

Caught Stealing never gets near the best of its genre or its director's earlier work, but there's something to be said for watching great actors light up a screen. Oh, and there's a really good cat.

The film opens tonight, only in movie theaters, throughout Canada and the U.S. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.