Caught Stealing - Review 

Rating: 4 out of 5

DARREN Aronofsky has long been a chameleon-like director, seldom (if ever) settling on one particular genre, as diverse films such as Black Swan, The Wrestler and The Whale would suggest.

But while many of his projects adopt a sombre, often heavy approach to their subject matter, Caught Stealing (his latest) finds the director cutting loose with something of a looser energy.

Adapted from Charlie Huston’s violent crime novel of the same name from 2004, the film embraces a punk-infused energy that screams of chaos and rebellion.

It follows the story of Hank (Austin Butler), a former baseball star and booze-addicted bartender in New York, whose once promising future in the sport, was cut short by a drink-induced car crash that also claimed the life of a friend.

Now attempting to rebuild things with the support of his paramedic girlfriend Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz), his life is suddenly thrown into further chaos when he agrees to look after a cat belonging to his British friend Russ (Matt Smith, spotting an outlandish Mohawk) and then promptly finds himself being beaten up by a couple of Russians to whom Russ owes a great deal of money.

This, in turn, also puts poor Hank on the radar of two Hassidic bad guys (played by Vincent D’Onofrio and Liev Schreiber), who are even more violent, and a ball-busting New York police officer ( Regina King), who views him as her primary shot at securing a major league conviction.

Hank is therefore left to navigate an increasingly complicated path out of the trouble he finds himself in with friends and allies in short supply.

Aronofsky’s film thrives on its ability to maintain a consistently unpredictable path, with plenty of twists and turns along the way to its satisfying conclusion.

It’s also surprisingly unsentimental, offering up an often unflinching world drive by greed and vested interest. As such, there is little or no guarantee that everyone will survive or get what they deserve.

Hank, for his part, is a likeable central character and well worth rooting for - but Butler doesn’t shy away from some of his more selfish and self-destructive inclinations in his performance. It lends an otherwise nice guy an element of edge that increases the unpredictable nature of the film as a whole. You can never be sure Hank will make the right decision.

The supporting cast, meanwhile, seem to be having fun tapping into the surrounding chaos, with the likes of D’Onofrio and Schreiber on riotously psychotic form. Kravitz, meanwhile, is sexy as hell as Yvonne, while the likes of Bad Bunny, Nikita Kukushkin and Griffin Dunne (as various villains and allies) all make their mark in small but significant roles.

Aronofsky also directs the action with gusto, ensuring it maintains a vicious streak that heightens the overall jeopardy while nodding towards some of the story’s more absurd elements.

But he also makes some worthwhile points about the nature of luck, addiction, of taking responsibility and rallying against the system along the way.

His film may be set in the late ‘90s (complete with several kick-ass needle drops to augment the generally punk nature of the soundtrack) but it also has a contemporary resonance - the corruption implicit throughout hasn’t gone away but rather intensified.

It’s a factor that, in of itself, makes Hank’s bid to survive all the more engaging and the film, overall, that much more of a violent delight.

Certificate: 15

Running time: 107mins