Caught Stealing

In the prime of a fruitful career that's consistently plumbed the depths of human drama, Darren Aronofsky lets loose to compelling ends in the action-packed, darkly funny Caught Stealing without sacrificing his gritty, grisly ways.

Set in 1998 NYC and written by Charlie Huston, adapting his 2005 novel of the same name, the film centers on bartender and former star baseball prospect Hank Thompson (Austin Butler, in his best performance yet) and the wild week that upends his life even more than the car crash that dashed his MLB dreams.

Enjoying a peaceful, booze-fueled existence with new girlfriend Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz), Hank unwittingly puts a target on himself once neighbor Russ (Matt Smith, hilarious in anarchic punk mode) all but forces Hank to look after his cat while he's visiting family in London.

Suddenly, Russian mobsters — effective ones, unlike the bozos in a certain recent Best Picture winner that will not be named — are beating Hank up for information he doesn't have and Det. Roman (Regina King) is warning him that Hebrew assassins/brothers Lipa (Liev Schreiber) and Shmully Drucker (Vincent D’Onofrio) are likely to follow.

Despite an official trailer in which Hank gets punched in the face approximately every three seconds, one is nevertheless unprepared for the amount of violence in Caught Stealing as well as the body count that piles up around him. True to form, Aronofsky presents disturbing imagery in an honest, straightforward manner that makes viewers feel the loss of each individual.

These deaths also matter because, with the exception of the Russians, Huston writes practically every character in this small but mighty ensemble as true human beings, and the gifted cast rises to the occasion, doing right by his tightly crafted material.

Grade: B-plus. Rated R. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Carolina Cinemark, and regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: Sony Pictures)