I was able to catch an early access screening of Caught Stealing by Darren Aronofsky a few days before it releases in cinemas in North America and elsewhere. It was one that had caught my attention not merely just because of Aronofsky’s name being attached to it, but also because the trailers and marketing seem to suggest something less depressing and more comedic than you would expect coming from someone like Aronofsky.
I will say this: it’s not a Darren Aronofsky movie if it does not feature a lead protagonist with self-destructive tendencies that affect those closest to him. That is a signature trope you often see in so many of his films – Requiem for a Dream and the perils of drug addiction, The Whale’s depiction of debilitating food addiction, The Wrestler and Black Swan specifically dealing with the obsessive need to compete at the highest level for one’s own life pursuit, namely wrestling and ballet respectively – at the cost of everything else. Well except this time around, we are getting less of a psychological character study than we are used to. Instead, we see more of Aronofsky digging closer to his Guy Ritchie bag with the gritty urban crime thriller angle and the slightly absurdist and dark humor that comes through in some moments. There are moments such as the ending to this where it definitely gets about as optimistic and bright as it gets for an Aronofsky film.
Matt Smith is a lot of fun in this as a bit of a hooligan with a mohawk who brings a lot of energy and trouble to the life of our main protagonist, Hank. But on the other side, I was ultimately able to guess where the story was headed for a bit especially once Roman (Regina King) starts coming into the fold. This film doesn’t subvert the tropes of the style so much as it merely embraces them – the hooliganism of course, the Russian mafia, the bars and so forth. I wouldn’t be surprised as well if labels of misogyny get directed at this for its treatment of women. Zoe Kravitz’s character seems more of an afterthought than I had anticipated, and it’s not exactly like Roman has it good at the end either. Besides that, there’s some decent entertainment to be had in pockets of this.
