I have to confess I've never really liked an Aronofsky movie. I think that may have changed with his adaptation of the Huston novel Caught Stealing, a crime thriller with just enough humour to keep it from wallowing in its quite dark storyline but not tipping over into self-satire. This is the sort of film one could see Tarantino directing, which likely would have taken the film down a far more over-the-top path. Instead, Aronofsky plays it cool, sticking to the story, and letting the emotional beats hit themselves while delivering a gripping tale centred around a very likeable, and rather lucky, protagonist.
The film's story (from the novel) does require a certain amount coincidental confluences of events that keep it from feeling overly realistic which is why Aronofsky's restrained direction makes it work. He has assembled a strong cast around Butler who truly pulls off the lead character's arc in a way that keeps us invested in him. This story could have easily jumped the shark and there may be a few moments that made me scratch my head, including a fridging moment which boarders on exploitative yet also is used to set up so much of the plot's resolution. In fact a lot of characters have to die for our central character to make it out alive, but I found the film pays respect and makes us all feel the losses without getting too weighed down in the misery nor shrugging it off with inopportune humour.
I felt is all came together rather well and set up what could be a film series if Butler and Aronofsky are so inclined. I normally do not find Aronofsky's choices to be ones I am interested in, but this film, a bit more commercially minded and accessible, is made in the way I enjoy a good commercial movie to be made, with a bit more brains and a strong cast doing good work. So while his "artier" films aren't to the taste of how I like my "arty" films, perhaps our aesthetics related to mainstream movies are a bit more aligned.
Caught Stealing
Starring: Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D'Onofrio, Benito A Martínez Ocasio (Bad Bunny), Griffin Dunne, Carol Kane, Laura Dern
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Writer: Charlie Huston
No comments:
Post a Comment