REVIEW:
Caught Stealing is a Darren Aronofsky movie, and that says a lot. He’s a visionary director who has made some the strangest (Pi,) and most dark and disturbing (Requiem for a Dream,) movies around. Aronofsky made ballet interesting with Black Swan. He’s a director who can do almost anything. And with Caught Stealing, he’s scaling back, in terms of ambition, to make his most mainstream movie yet.
This is the crime genre. It’s the mistaken identity, getting mixed up in the underworld kind of situation. Basically it’s a genre we’ve seen tackled again and again, and one that launched the careers of many 90s directors including Tarantino and Guy Ritchie. And the movie feels very much in line with the crime movies that were out at that time. This film is set in the nineties and looks and feels like it was made in the nineties.
The cast is great, with Austin Butler in the lead proving himself more and more likeable with each new role he takes on. His love interest is Zoe Kravitz, and he’s surrounded by a whole group of colorful, crazy characters. From the Russian mob henchmen and their Puerto Rican boss to the Hasidic Jews (which definitely makes one think of Snatch,) to the punk rock neighbor and friend, this one is loaded up. But the movie doesn’t quite work as well as Ritchie’s better films, Lock, Stock and Snatch, because it doesn’t quite have the same comedic element that was baked into the DNA of those movies.
What it does have is an incredibly dark tone, where nobody is safe. And that’s very much up Aronofskys alley. In the first half of this one, everything seems pretty paint-by-the-numbers routine. The character is mistaken for someone he’s not, gets in over his head, and gets beaten up a few times and chased around. Nothing consequential. But then something happens. It’s at about the halfway point of the film. A major character dies, who most monies would never have dared to kill off. Especially not so early on in the film. And from there, it’s go time. Surprising twists unfold right in front of us, which are not saved for the ending, but just fall into place where they fit in this story.
There’s nothing great here, but it sure does get a whole lot better in its second half. At the end of day, the movie does feel familiar and of a time when there were lots of movies just like this, most a whole lot more creative. But even still for the casting and fun performances alone, it is an enjoyable flick.