Just a few years after Austin Butler became a household name in Baz Luhrmann’s meh “Elvis,” he’s finally been given a lead role in a movie worthy of his gifts. Darren Aronofsky’s “Caught Stealing” (Sony/Columbia), with its double-meaning title (baseball and theft), flashbacks, ultra-violence, and tangled twists, appears to be the one.
Imagine an Aronofsky version of a Coen Brothers movie, with a screenplay by Charlie Huston (who utilizes they/them pronouns and adapted the script from their novel), a cast full of surprises (stick around for the end credits to say hi to an uncredited Laura Dern), Hasidic hitmen, and lots of Butler flesh, and there you have “Caught Stealing.”
The promising baseball career of Henry (Butler) came to a tragic end in 1982 when, driving while drinking beer with a buddy, he crashed his Camaro into a pole, busting his knee and killing his unseatbelted friend. By 1994, Henry’s been living on New York’s Lower East Side for a few years, slinging drinks at a dive bar owned by Paul (Griffin Dunne). He seriously dates paramedic Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) and spends time on the phone with his California-based mother talking about baseball.
Henry’s mohawked punk rock neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) enlists him to look after his cat Buddy, a biter, while he goes to London to say goodbye to his dying father. Shortly after Russ leaves, a pair of Russian goons, Pavel (Nikita Kukushkin) and Aleksei (Yuri Kolokolnikov), appear at Russ’ door, and suddenly Henry’s world is turned upside down. They brutally assault him, landing him in the hospital, minus a kidney. They’re not the only ones looking for Russ. The equally menacing Colorado (Bad Bunny), and the far more ruthless Hasidic horror show known as Lipa (Liev Schreiber) and Shmully (Vincent D’Onofrio) are also after Russ, and now by extension, Henry.
After reporting the situation to Detective Roman (a frightening Regina King), Henry thinks his life will improve now that the police are involved. He couldn’t be more wrong. Everyone knows, and is colluding with, everyone else. They are all after the same hidden stash. Meanwhile, Henry has discovered a mysterious key (hidden in the most unlikely of places), presumably to where Russ has stowed the cash.
Then the body count begins to mount. The violence is almost unrelenting. The scene in Paul’s bar alone is particularly graphic. There is also a healthy dose of humor, including a visit to the home of Lipa and Shmully’s bubbe (portrayed hilariously by Carol Kane, who revives the Yiddish she spoke 50 years ago in her Oscar-nominated role in “Hester Street”). Additionally, the presence of Griffin Dunne is a reminder of Martin Scorcese’s brilliant, Lower East Side-set “After Hours” from 1984, in which Dunne starred.
And while there’s not a single LGBTQ character to be found in a movie set on the Lower East Side in the mid-1990s, “Caught Stealing” does close with queer band The Magnetic Fields’ song “The Luckiest Guy On the Lower East Side” playing over the end credits.
Rating: B
