Director Darren Aronofsky, purveyor of great and gloomy films like Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan, goes for something a little more upbeat—but undeniably still dark—with Caught Stealing.
Austin Butler stars as Hank, a former baseball player turned bartender working in New York City in the late ’90s. He’s good-natured and has a nice girlfriend (Zoe Kravitz), but perhaps hits the bottle a little too much as a means of dealing with his tough past.
When some Russian mobsters beat the crap out of him, he finds himself involved in a crime plot that will bring many nasty consequences.
I couldn’t help but think this was Aronofsky’s ode to After Hours, Martin Scorsese’s classic dark comedy about a dude named Paul (Griffin Dunne) and his inability to go home during a particularly dangerous night. Dunne himself shows up as a character in this one, and that character’s name just happens to be Paul. Nice touch.
Throw in a couple of well-known actors as Hasidic gangsters, a very emotive cat, Regina King at the top of her game, and Matt Smith (Doctor Who) as a mohawked punk rocker, and the result is a nice, fun blast of a movie to wrap up your summer-movie season.
Yes, that’s right, the summer is almost over. Just let that sink in for a moment! Crazy.