“Caught Stealing” review: The most gripping crime drama of the year

Director Darren Aronofsky (Black swan, Whale, Requiem for a Dream) returns to cinemas with Stray Bullet (Caught Stealing)a proposal radically different from what we are used to. The director directs Austin Butler (Elvis) in an eighties crime drama full of action, drugs, gangsters and baseball bats. The film, in which he brings a new perspective to his filmography, is set to entertain the audience, becoming one of the greatest entertainments of the end of this year.

Story Stray Bullet (Caught Stealing) follow Hank Thompson (Butler), a former high school baseball phenom who can’t play anymore, but everything else is going relatively well. He has a wonderful girlfriend (Zoe Kravitz), he’s a waiter at a New York club, and his favorite team is surprisingly in the running for the championship. But when your neighbor is a punk Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to take care of his cat for a few days. Hank He will find himself in the center of a very dangerous gang conflict. Everyone wants something from him; The problem is that he doesn’t know why. When he tries to escape, he will have to use all his skills to stay alive long enough to find out…

The most accessible Aronofsky

Movie Aronofsky It was never for everyone. While not the strangest director, he tends to offer certain themes, scenes and rhythms that can attract moviegoers much more than the general and general audience. However, they Stray Bullet (Caught Stealing) has signed his most accessible and traditional film to date. And I don’t say this as something negative, not at all.

This is exactly what history demanded. Stray Bullet (Caught Stealing)which is actually born from a novel Charlie Houston. Gone are the esoteric paranoias, quasi-realistic hallucinations and deliberately confusing scenes. Here we come to a linear, simple and very effective film that coaxes the moviegoer into allowing themselves to relax and have a good time. He also achieves something very successfully.

Stray Bullet (Caught Stealing) directed with enormous narrative impulse, with a drive more typical of crime thriller directors such as Brothers Cohen or Guy Ritchie. Street adventure Hank It gives no respite, twists more and more and with its characteristic black comedy brings laughter, surprise and shock to the seats. This isn’t a movie at all Aronofsky practiced in his career, although there are some random elements, such as jaded characters full of greyness. Rather, it’s an exercise in showing that, yes, while he enjoys a more auteurist vision, he is also capable of making these types of films. And do them well.

Exciting show

What does it really offer us? Darren Aronofsky This is a journey into madness, into the criminal hell that lurks on the streets of New York. A brutal and merciless representation of how an entire life, built through years of effort, can be destroyed in a matter of seconds in the most extreme way. With the arrival of problems Hankthe film turns into a real roller coaster, from which it is very difficult to take your eyes off. Past and present merge in an exploration of trauma as a driving force in life.

Each scene plunges the protagonist deeper and deeper into a world to which he does not belong and to which he must adapt. Just when the story seems about to stall, a twist quickly appears – some more predictable than others – that reconfigures the story to make it interesting again. It should be clear that this is not a perfect film either. Actually, Stray Bullet (Caught Stealing) It’s very repetitive. But what cannot be denied is that it is very exciting, there is never a dull moment. And this is achieved mainly by balancing all that action and tension very well with good doses of dark comedy. It always works the same for us, but when it gets it right, it makes me laugh.

Austin Butler is still in star mode

This whole explosive cocktail that Stray Bullet (Caught Stealing) This would not have been possible without the great star. Austin Butler maintains his status with another superb performance. His Hank He is scared but brave, somewhat stupid but able to adapt so that life does not pass him by. He has his own traumas and his own contradictions, and the actor conveys them, immediately making us like himself, but at the same time not hiding his shortcomings from us.

Along with him, he also stands out extremely Zoe Kravitzthe cutest character in the film. The actress seems attractive as the only true point of light for Hank. It is she who leads the group of luxurious secondary characters, which includes Regina King like a policeman Vincent D’Onofrio And Liev Schreiber like cheerful Jewish gangsters, Nikita Kukushkin which is the big surprise of the film, Matt Smith in a role that, frankly, could have done more; and even Loaf rabbit who continues to expand his reach in his budding acting career outside of music.

As a result, Stray Bullet (Caught Stealing) It’s a film halfway between Kinky, a gangster movie, and a gangster drama, which is especially surprising because it’s a work Darren Aronofsky. The director signs up for a much more traditional project than what we’re used to, but he does so with good narrative momentum, interesting characters and plenty of dark humor and action as the necessary ingredients to keep things moving and interesting.

Stray Bullet (Caught Stealing) It’s already in cinemas.