CAUGHT STEALING. For a quarter century (give or take) Darren Aronofsky has had me chasing the dragon of what he can do. The challenge inherent in this, of course, is that the thing I want him to do, what I see as his high-water mark, rarely coincides with what he wants to do. Requiem for a Dream (2000), his follow-up to the quietly admired Pi (1998), shattered a lot of limitations present even in the wide-open landscape of the ’90s indie film revolution. Jarring, colorful, endlessly inventive in both its technical execution and in its granular depiction of the great wage demanded by chronic loneliness and addiction, Requiem lives on a lot of lists of “movies I can only see once.” As a person of a certain age and temperament then, I found a cracked, probably inappropriate solace in such work; I’ve made progress. But I maintain that those first two Aronofskys are revolutionary: They announced the arrival of a thorny, honest, sometimes too-heady voice to American cinema.
Since then, it’s been a mixed bag. The work is always interesting and not infrequently fascinating, but, from the perspective of the audience, it can also tend toward the inscrutable and overreaching. Still, everything that bears the mark is a work of substance, of genuine creative and intellectual exploration and significant investment in the tradecraft of filmmaking. The whole catalog is best revisited and relitigated another time, and I wouldn’t want to damn the lesser entries with faint praise (well, not exactly), but Caught Stealing is the first Aronofsky in a long time to recapture the kineticism and grime and pathos that I found so fascinating and delicious in the early days.
Written by Charlie Huston (adapting his own novel), shot by longtime accomplice Matthew Libatique (another big year for Matty!) and set in the still-grimy-despite-Giuliani Lower East Side of 1998, Caught Stealing centers on Hank Thompson (Austin Butler), a one-time Bay Area baseball phenom turned bartender and semi-professional boozer. One unfortunate afternoon, Hank’s neighbor Russ (Matt Smith), a walking anachronism/wannabe Sex Pistol, briskly asks Hank to watch his cat, as he needs to fly back to London to be with his ailing father. Soon enough, some bone-breaking Russians, a couple of murderous Hasid brothers, and a police detective are all knocking on Hank’s door (and various parts of his body) to get at something Russ has obviously concealed from them all.
What follows is one of those deceptively difficult, thereby increasingly rare, caper movies that, handled ineptly or even indelicately, becomes a straight-to-video joke about its own cliches. But in the hands of this capable crew and crazy, sexy, going-for-broke cast, abetted by IDLES’ note-perfect original soundtrack, it grows beyond the boundaries of simple genre. Precariously balancing near-slapstick comedy with real-world violence and consequences, Caught Stealing harnesses a type of energy that is all too rare. And it manages to kinda-sorta wink at us (and itself) while simultaneously demonstrating what it means when mayhem touches down in your life. R. 107M. BROADWAY.
THE TOXIC AVENGER. The 1984 original version lives in my memory as seen through a kaleidoscope, bits and pieces and notions half-remembered from afternoon airings on the Turner networks. While I can’t say I’m among the faithful, I’m nerd-splatter adjacent enough to appreciate it and the market-share Troma Entertainment carved out for itself. And all these decades later, I’m close enough to the fray to have been aware of Macon Blair’s long-gestating and reputedly shelved reboot for a couple years. Now it is upon us.
In a city riven by the toxic output of the “health” company infecting its very heart, custodian Winston Gooze (Peter Dinklage) struggles to raise an emotionally troubled stepson (Jacob Tremblay) after the death of the boy’s mother. Because he doesn’t have enough on his plate, Winston’s health becomes a pressing issue and, when he makes a rash decision to do something about it, he falls in the crosshairs of his corporate overlord and its maniacal, bumbling internal security. Add a mop, some bullet-wounds and a couple of different strains of odious goo, and, voila: Toxie is born again.
Because horror remains a vibrant and viable branch of the movie business, Blair’s weird-on-weird tribute to Lloyd Kaufman, gross-out comedy and underdogs at large can now see the light of day. And while it is most certainly not for all tastes (some would say only for the tasteless), it is a glorious and ridiculous thing to behold. Embracing the low-rent, handmade tenets of Troma’s origins (and really all American independent cinema), The Toxic Avenger is brave enough to dare us to laugh at its “flaws” and to defy us not to embrace them by the time the end-credits roll. R. 102M. BROADWAY.
John J. Bennett (he/him) is a movie nerd who loves a good car chase.
NOW PLAYING
*Due to the holiday, updated listings for Broadway Cinema were not available at press time.
THE BAD GUYS 2. A team of Bad Girls enters the fray in this animated heist adventure. PG. 104M. BROADWAY.
THE CONJURING: LAST RITES. One last exorcism for the road. R. 135M. BROADWAY.
THE FANTASTIC FOUR. Not sure how many reboots this makes, but if elastic Pedro Pascal can’t save the Marvel comic actioner, nothing can. PG13. 115M. BROADWAY.
FREAKIER FRIDAY. Disney, Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are back to age/body swapping, post-The Substance. PG. 111M. BROADWAY, MINOR.
GUNS & MOSES. A Hasidic rabbi investigates an attack on his congregation. Somehow not a parody, the tagline is, “May God and your Glock protect you.” R. 100M. BROADWAY.
HAMILTON. The Broadway musical-historical, just in time for democracy’s curtain call. POG13. 180M. BROADWAY
HIGHEST 2 LOWEST. Spike Lee’s ransom thriller starring Denzel Washington as a music mogul. R. 133M. BROADWAY, MINOR.
HONEY DON’T. Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans in a darkly comic mystery about a private investigator directed by Ethan Coen. R. 88M. BROADWAY.
JAWS 50TH ANNIVERSARY. Nostalgia for when feckless leadership in the face of disaster was summer movie fun. PG. 124M. BROADWAY (3D).
LILO AND STITCH. Live-action remake of the space alien adventure in Hawaii. PG. 108M. BROADWAY.
THE NAKED GUN. Liam Neeson goes full goofball as the heir to Leslie Nielsen’s police parody dynasty. PG13. 85M. BROADWAY.
NOBODY 2. Sequel starring Bob Odenkirk as a subdued former killer beset by bad guys amid his retirement. R. 89M. BROADWAY.
THE ROSES. A high-powered couple (Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman) break up and break things in this dark comedy remake. R. 105M. BROADWAY.
RUN. An alien invasion interrupts a post-breakup girls› retreat at a cabin. With Annie Ngosi Ilonzeh and Marques Houston. PG13. BROADWAY.
WEAPONS. Horror-mystery set in a small town in the wake of 17 children disappearing simultaneously in the night. R. 128M. BROADWAY, MINOR.
For showtimes call: Broadway Cinema (707) 443-3456, Minor Theatre (707) 822-3456.
This article appears in The Grand Jury Reports.