"A Big Bold Beautiful" Bust

Negative reviews are harder for me to write than positive or mixed ones, because I don't like dwelling on disappointments.  However, I think it's important to examine why certain projects don't work onscreen, just as it's important to examine the ones that do.  Our case in point today is Kogonada's "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey," which is a fantasy fable where two people follow the instructions of a magic GPS to go on an impossible existential road trip into each other's psyches.  And I'm the kind of movie watcher who's usually very receptive to heartwarming nonsense like this.  

Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie play David and Sarah, two very attractive people who each separately rent cars from a strange rental service being run by cryptic, mysterious people played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kevin Kline.  They attend a wedding together, feel an initial spark, and are ready to leave it at that.  However, the rental car's magic GPS voiced by Jodie Turner-Smith asks David if he wants to go on a "big, bold, beautiful journey," which leads the pair to a series of magical doors that send them to the past, to impossible liminal places, and of course, inevitably, to each other.

I've liked director Kogonada's previous films, "Columbus" and "After Yang," but those were very small scale, meditative art house films, designed for very limited audiences.  "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" is aiming for a bigger, broader audience, but retains the same sort of slow-paced, melancholy atmosphere and deeply introspective storytelling.  There are attempts to jazz up the proceedings with a few brief action sequences, a musical number, and plenty of picturesque cinematography, but in the end the narrative is a gloomy slog that isn't entertaining.  David and Sarah are supposed to fall in love, confront their pasts, and heal their wounded hearts so they can go on to live happily ever after together as better human beings.  However, neither of them come off as particularly genuine or interesting human beings, and it's tough to care about what happens to them.

Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie are lovely, winning performers who have no chemistry together onscreen.  They also frequently feel adrift when trying to navigate scenes where they're supposed to be revisiting episodes from their pasts.  There are a few discrete sections that I liked, late in the film, where David and Sarah are forced to confront their exes to discuss their failed relationships, and later have an honest heart-to-heart about their personality flaws.  These actually feel substantive and push the characters towards new emotional territory.  However, most of the time the film feels meandering and far too self-serious.  The magical GPS and rental car employees are clearly fantasy creatures, but seem wary of being too whimsical.  The few attempts at abrasive humor aren't funny, and I was surprised that the pushy GPS never became an actual character, who might have lightened up the mood a bit.

This magical realist premise might seem like a challenge, but I can think of several similar films that figured out how to make it work.  "All of Us Strangers" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" also had love stories that unfolded in metaphysically dubious circumstances.  The Ben Stiller version of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" was less successful, but still managed to generate a kind of propulsive emotional momentum that's utterly missing from "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey."  With movies like this, you have to wholly embrace being in a fantasy story, and "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" displays far too much trepidation to have any fun with itself.  I suspect that Kogonada was trying to ensure that this wouldn't be mistaken for a children's fantasy film, and ended up undercutting himself.

And on that note, one interesting aspect of the film is that it appears to be taking a lot of inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki and Makoto Shinkai anime, specifically the way that some of the fantasy and transitional elements are handled.  Note that "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" is longtime Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi's first score for a Hollywood movie, which adds to the effect. There are multiple scenes that I felt would have worked better in animation, and I can't help wondering what  "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" would have looked like as an anime.  Or with non-movie star leads and more go-for-broke fantasy sequences.  Or with a director a little more seasoned and a little less closed-in.

The best thing that I can say about "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" is that it's big and beautiful.  Let's work on being a little more bold next time.

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A Trip To "11.22.63"

Before we get started, I'd like to point out that this Hulu produced miniseries, one of the earliest original titles to premiere on the platform, is no longer on Hulu, but is currently streaming on Tubi.  How's that for a sign of the times?  

2025 was been a banner year for Stephen King projects, so I thought I'd catch up on one that I'd missed - the adaptation of King's time travel novel "11/22/63."  Students of American history will recognize that this was the date when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.  "11.22.63." follows the attempts of a man named Jake Epping (James Franco) to stop the assassination after he discovers a way to go back in time to the 1960s.  

So, we have a popular "What if?" scenario being treated with a rare degree of seriousness, but this is still a genre show that requires some genre conventions.  There are a lot of narrative shortcuts in play, such as much of the research being handed to Jake from the start by another, older time traveler named Al (Chris Cooper), who failed at the same mission.  There's also the idea that the past resists being changed by pushing back against major disruptions in any way that it can.  This means that one of the major villains of the piece is an unseen force creating literal deus ex machina plot twists every time the heroes get too close to accomplishing certain goals.  A major new character was also created for the show, Bill Turcotte (George McKay), a young man who becomes Jake's ally in the past and gives him somebody to explain things to.   

The major criticism of the show compared to the novel that I've seen is that it plays up the melodrama while being much less detailed in its examination of the Kennedy assasination.  Initially Jake has to confirm a lot of information, such as whether Lee Harvey Oswald (Daniel Webber) was set up, whether he acted alone, and whether there was a conspiracy behind the assassination.  However, the focus quickly shifts to interpersonal conflicts.  The show wisely spends a good deal of time showing Jake's difficulties adjusting to life in the 1960s, and his romance with a librarian named Sadie (Sarah Gadon), who is in a troubled marriage.  The pacing is good, however, and there's no issue with filling eight episodes, or coming to a satisfying conclusion.

"11.22.63." is at its best in its earliest episodes, where it's setting up the rules of the universe and following Jake's initial exploration of life in the '60s.  This is also where we have the most involvement from Chris Cooper, who is easily the best actor in the ensemble.  I like that the series immediately creates a sense of paranoia and discomfort about living out of one's time, even if Jake is well suited to his new life and finds certain aspects of the past better than 2016.  While any supernatural elements are kept fairly low-key, and "11.22.63." avoids the tropes of many other Stephen King adaptations, it's still got enough of an unnerving sensibility that it feels of a piece with the rest of King's work.   

James Franco has retreated from the spotlight since certain allegations came to light in 2019, and I'd forgotten how ubiquitous he was for a few years in the 2000s and 2010s.  While I'm fairly cool on his performance here, he does fine in "11.22.63.," and the vague resemblance to James Dean certainly helps thematically.  He manages to balance Jake Epping being an intelligent schoolteacher with also being a dramatic hothead who is prone to impulsive decisions.  However, I was more impressed with Sarah Gadon, who doesn't usually get roles this prominent, and certainly makes the most of it. 

Of all the Stephen King event miniseries, this is definitely one of the better ones.  I recommend giving it a look, especially if you're apprehensive of King's usual horror stories.  However, history buffs may want to  stick to the book.        

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The News is Worse

I was working on a post for the beginning of January titled "The Posts I Didn't Write This Year," hoping to sum up the industry news that had happened over the previous months that I hadn't written anything about for the blog.  I generally like to give big news stories some time and distance before I say anything, because I am not a journalist, but a third-rate commentator, and throwing in my barely-informed two cents is a lot less helpful than pointing people toward the actual discourse being conducted by smarter people.  Also, frankly, it takes me longer than most to get a handle on what is actually going on.

However, I do have an interest in keeping track of how the media landscape and technology are changing and transforming with the times, especially where the news is concerned.  And in the past few months, things have gotten very bad very quickly.  I kept delaying the post as more kept happening, and having to rejigger the analysis.  I'm at the point where if I don't post something now, I'm just going to keep rewriting the post forever, beyond any shred of topicality.    

So, I wrote a post, roughly a year ago, titled "The News is Bad," where I talked about the rightward shift of CNN and the Washington Post curbing political opinions.  At the time of writing, former CNN contributor Don Lemon and other members of the media were just arrested for reporting on a protest in a church in Minneapolis.  How did we get here?  Well, here's a quick rundown of the biggest media-related items from the past five months:

After the death of Charlie Kirk in September, "Jimmy Kimmel Live" was suspended for a week over the host's innocuous comments about the MAGA response, and Nexstar and Sinclair stations further preempted the program for a few additional days.  This was part of an ongoing campaign by extremists to turn Kirk into a martyr figure, and use his death as an excuse to silence his critics and target his perceived enemies.  The backlash against Kimmel's suspension was swift and the financial fallout to the broadcasters was apparently significant enough to stave off any similar censorship attempts.

Things really ramped up in October, when David Ellison appointed right-wing news commentator Bari Weiss, who has no journalism experience, as the editor-in chief of CBS News.  There was a showdown in December over her attempt to pull a "60 Minutes" segment called "Inside CECOT," which quickly leaked, and was finally aired a month later.  Ratings have dropped for all CBS News shows, as Trump has sought to use the organization as a propaganda outlet, and Weiss was recently caught encouraging staffers to quit.  As for Ellison, he's currently trying to buy Warner Brothers, despite a deal already in place for an acquisition by Netflix.  The Trump administration has signalled that they're willing to help him.     

The major American newspapers continue to be in pretty dire straits.  The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post is undergoing massive layoffs, and the DOJ seized documents from a Post reporter's home a few weeks ago.  The Trump administration has continually been hostile to the press, threatening editors and reporters over any perceived negative coverage.  The chilling effect on reporting has been apparent across the board, especially with the recent coverage of the extrajudicial ICE killings in Minnesota, where the White House pushed a false narrative that blamed the victims for their deaths.  

Over on the platform formerly known as Twitter, owned by Elon Musk, the Grok AI was found to be generating lewd pictures of real minors in December, and no meaningful action was taken to curb this.  What's worse, despite some hand-wringing and threats, almost no major private or governmental organizations did anything in response.  There have been some signs of a user exodus, but this seems to have been spurred mostly by content creators trying to protect their work from being fed into the AI grist mill.    

Tik-Tok passed into the hands of Trump-friendly new owners this month, and immediately started censoring topics and banned a prominent Palestinian reporter.  This deal was so that Tik-Tok wouldn't be banned in the US outright.  A Kafkaesque new terms of service agreement has users looking for a replacement, but none have emerged yet.  

Finally, due to the Trump administration clawing back funding, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is officially shutting down.  So far, this is affecting weekend news broadcasts and access for rural stations.  And if you haven't heard yet, production of "Sesame Street" is moving from HBO to Netflix starting this year.      

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"Dangerous Animals," "Together," and "Him"

This is a post where I want to spotlight three of last year's summer horror movies.  They are getting awkwardly bundled together, because I didn't have enough titles for a ranking post the way I did back in 2024 - I really don't have anything to say about the "I Know What You Did Last Summer" legasequel or the last "Conjuring" movie.  On the other hand, trying to pair these leftover titles up thematically with other movies kept falling apart, so I'm just going to write bullet reviews for all three now, before they get any staler.  Some minor spoilers ahead.  

Let's start with "Dangerous Animals," which is a horror movie starring Hassie Harrison and Josh Heuston as Zephyr and Moses, a nice young couple who end up on a boat with a maniac.  The maniac is a man named Tucker, played by Jai Courtney, who likes feeding people to sharks and filming the results.  "Dangerous Animals" is a co-production of Shudder and the Australian Kismet Films, and directed by an Aussie, Sean Byrne.  This means that it's set on the coast of Australia and Jai Courtney gets to use his native Australian accent.  And Jai Courtney with an Australian accent is so much better at acting than when he's trying to sound American.  He's properly menacing in this movie!  There's even nuance!

So, despite what the poster would have you believe, this isn't so much a shark movie as a serial killer movie that also involves some shark attacks.  And it's good enough that I don't think anybody will mind too much about the confusion.  As a survival thriller it's a lot of fun, with plenty of twists and turns and fairly smart heroes to root for.  The tension is terrific.  People also get eaten by sharks.  However, the main events in psycho killer movies are always inevitably the psycho killers, and Jai Courtney acquits himself very well in the role.  This was a pleasant surprise, and I'll look forward to Courtney's future endeavors.  Well, as long as he's not trying to sound anything but Australian.   

On to "Together," the body horror movie starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco, and directed by another Australian, Michael Shanks.  Brie and Franco play Millie and Tim, a couple in a long term relationship who have decided to move to a rural community together, but are now having doubts about their further commitment.  While hiking in the woods nearby, they encounter a mysterious cave that causes their body parts to start sticking to each other whenever they get physically close.  This is also the movie that got pulled from Chinese distribution after digital alternations were made to one of the minor characters to change a gay couple into a straight one.

"Together" has a couple of interesting visual concepts, which are executed very well.  However, the material around the big effects-heavy sequences is half-baked, with a central metaphor that doesn't really work.  The relationship anxiety taking on a physical manifestation is a good idea, but it doesn't quite sync with the way Millie and Tim's relationship is progressing, and the challenges they face.  Nothing about their issues seem to be about losing individuality or autonomy, which this brand of body horror would suggest.  Also, the worldbuilding is very haphazard, with a cult in play, seemingly at random.  I feel some patience and encouragement is appropriate because this is a small film being helmed by a first timer, but "Together" really fell apart by the end.

Finally, a few words on "Him," which put out a fantastic trailer a few months ago.  This is the horror movie set in the world of professional football, directed by Justin Tipping.  An up-and-comer named Cam Cade, played by Tyriq Withers, attends a weeklong training event hosted by the current reigning champion, Isaiah White, played by Marlon Wayans.  However, Isaiah's methods are extreme, and his behavior is concerning.  Also, since Cam suffered a traumatic injury, he's been seeing visions of demonic and disturbing figures.  Isaiah's incredible success as a player couldn't possibly be because of supernatural forces, now could it?

I seem to like "Him" more than the average viewer.  I suspect that it's because I'm not put off by artsy, esoteric horror like "Berberian Sound Studio" and "Infinity Pool" that don't have a whole lot of coherent story, but do have a lot of surreal, abstracted, disturbing imagery and sound design.  "Him" is trying very hard - perhaps too hard - to be as showy and stylized as possible, with very aggressive visuals that convey a lot of intensity.  At times it's aping music videos and  NFL commercials, while pulling out a ton of visual tricks - pulsing lights, X-ray vision, Kubrickian symmetrical compositions, religious and folk horror imagery, and more.  The trouble is that very little of this is scary or compelling.  The performances are good and the concepts are interesting, but the skill level in the execution isn't there yet.  

"Him" gets frustratingly close to being something special - close enough that I hope everyone involved with this movie gets more chances in the future to try again.

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My Top 25 of the Last 25: Villains

I've thoroughly enjoyed all the "Best of" lists celebrating the superlatives of the first quarter of the twenty-first century. And I'm going to be fashionably late to the party and make some of my own lists this year, looking at movies and television from 2001 to 2025.  However, I'm not going to make "Best Movie" or "Best Show" lists.  No, I'm going to do the fun stuff, starting with my favorite villains.

Each list will get 25 entries, but only the top ten will get write-ups.  Of course, I plan to cheat, but no antiheroes will be forthcoming.  Minor spoilers ahead.

1. Homelander ("The Boys," 2019) - One of the criteria for inclusion on this list was that these villains had to be a reflection of their time, in some way.  The 70s birthed serial killers, the 80s brought corporate creeps, and the superhero age gave us a new kind of supervillain - the superhero gone bad.  Though similar to Omniman, Sentry, and other evil Superman-type supervillains, Homelander stands out from the crowd for his utter lack of empathy and morals, despite being held up as a symbol of patriotism and justice.  His most defining trait is his smile, provided by Anthony Starr - empty, joyless and disturbing.

2. Joker ("The Dark Knight," 2008) - Heath Ledger's performance in "The Dark Knight" was so good, his Joker instantly became iconic.  The initial reaction to publicity stills and sneak peeks was fairly negative, but once we got to see the full effect of the anarchic, repulsive Ledger Joker in the haphazard clown makeup who just wants "to watch the world burn," he was undeniable.  It influenced every subsequent Joker interpretation - and there have been several.  Recent films also gave us Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck from "Joker," but this version strikes me as more of an anti-hero than a villain. 

3. Villanelle ("Killing Eve," 2018) - One trend I'm glad to see in recent years is the rise of the female villain - more specifically the self-possessed and self-aware villainess who is acting of her own accord.  Female serial killers were fairly rare in fiction for many years, and fun female psychopaths the heroes can banter with are a pretty recent development.  Villanelle is easily the most prominent example, a twisted manic pixie dreamgirl with a knack for dispensing violence.  "Killing Eve" steadily went downhill after a strong first season, so it's easy to forget the impact she had when she was first introduced to the world.

4. Anton Chigurh ("No Country For Old Men," 2007) - It feels like cheating to include a Coens brothers movie, but Anton Chigurh remains one of the most instantly recognizable villains of the 2000s.  Like the Joker, he's symbolic of uncontrollable forces of anarchy, almost like a natural disaster in human form.  It's hard to remember sometimes that this was many people's first introduction to Javier Bardem, whose screen persona is usually so charming and urbane.  Chigurh, by contrast, is brutal and implacable, somehow both animalistic and mechanically impersonal as a killer.  And he's scary as hell too.    

5. Amy Dunne ("Gone Girl," 2014) - Amazing Amy, the overachieving "cool girl" turned psycho, is an avatar of modern feminine rage.  Fueled by entitlement and resentment, she weaponizes the media and society's fascination with true crime against her cheating husband, going to insane extremes to get what she wants.  You could have framed this as an uplifting empowerment story if Amy's revenge weren't so out of proportion with her perceived victimhood, and if her narcissism and vindictiveness weren't so apparent.  The horror is so potent, because Amy's brand of evil is both personal and familiar.  

6. Killmonger ("Black Panther," 2018) - Killmonger is here as an example of the righteous villain - someone who has a very good reason for doing terrible things, but is trying to right the wrongs through harmful and unacceptable actions.  Killmonger is a dark mirror to King T'Challa, a charismatic warrior who is deeply concerned with the injustices done against his people.  It doesn't hurt that he's played by Michael B. Jordan, who instantly steals every scene he's in.  Other MCU villains I considered were Loki, who evolved into an anti-hero, and Thanos, a solid threat, but rarely compelling.  And then there's… 

7. Killgrave (Jessica Jones," 2015) - It feels like you can't classify Killgrave as a comic book villain.  He's so much more intense and deeply disturbing than the usual superpowered baddies, a man who uses mind control to turn people into his personal playthings.  Jessica's past with him is treated as analogous to an abusive intimate relationship, and she's still deeply traumatized from the experience when we meet her.  David Tennant, best known for playing everyone's favorite The Doctor, made my skin crawl every time he showed up onscreen.  It's no wonder many people treated "Jessica Jones" like it was over when he left.

8. Gus Fring ("Breaking Bad," 2008) - The "Breaking Bad" universe had a lot of great villains, but the one everyone remembers is Gus Fring.  Portrayed with unflappable menace by Giancarlo Esposito, Gus has many admirable qualities - he's unfailingly polite, a smart businessman, inspires loyalty from his underlings, and he worked his way up from nothing.  However, if you cross him he can make your life a nightmare.  There were many points in "Breaking Bad" where I was rooting for Gus as much as I was rooting for Walt and Jesse.  Eventually, he had to go, but at least he went out with a fantastic exit.  

9. Dolores Umbridge ("Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," 2007) - I wanted a "Karen" on the list, someone to represent all the privileged, entitled busybodies that seem to exist to make everyone around them miserable.  The "Harry Potter" franchise provided me with Dolores Umbridge, who is easily the most hated "Potter" villain after the evil Dark Lord Voldemort - who is pretty generic as genocidal overlords go.  Umbridge, however, is very specific and very memorable in her villainy.  And as a bureaucrat and administrator, she taps into real world frustrations like no one else on this list. 

10. Cersei Lannister ("Game of Thrones," 2011) - Finally, Joffrey was on this list for a long time, but when you look at the "Game of Thrones" villains, the one who got the most done was really Cersei, Joffrey's mother.  She instigated many of the main conflicts of the series, and took out more than her share of other power players.  However, what lands Cersei a place on the list is how complicated and interesting she is as a character - a natural schemer born to privilege, but constantly stymied by societal expectations, and doomed to endless heartache because she genuinely cares about her family. 

The next fifteen, in no particular order:

Kingpin ("Daredevil," 2015) 

Hannibal ("Hannibal," 2013)

Alonzo Harris ("Training Day," 2001)

The Trinity Killer ("Dexter," 2009)

Alice Morgan ("Luther," 2010)

Stringer Bell ("The Wire," 2002)

Hans Landa ("Inglorious Basterds," 2009)

King Joffrey ("Game of Thrones," 2011)

Phoenix Buchanan ("Paddington 2," 2017)

Pennywise ("IT: Chapter One," 2017)

Red ("Us," 2019)

Terence Fletcher ("Whiplash," 2014)
Edmund Kemper ("Mindhunter," 2017)

Princess Azula ("Avatar the Last Airbender," 2005)

Mother Gothel ("Tangled," 2010)

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"Only Murders," Year Five

After two years of showbiz capers, this year's "Only Murders in the Building" murder sticks closer to home.  Lester (Teddy Coluca), the beloved doorman of the Arconia is found dead in the courtyard fountain, and someone's severed finger is found in Oliver's shrimp cocktail.  This means the "Only Murders" gang gets to dig into the history and secrets of the Arconia.  Potential suspects include Lester's widow Lorraine (Diane Wiest), new doorman Randall (Jermaine Fowler), local mobster Nicky Caccimelio (Bobby Cannavale) and his wife Sofia (Tea Leoni), a trio of billionaires, Bash (Christoph Waltz), Camila (Renee Zellweger), and Jay (Logan Lerman), Mayor Tillman (Keegan Micahel Key), and a pop star named The (Beanie Feldstein).  With Meryl Streep and Da'Vine Joy Randolph still making occasional guest appearances, you don't need to have won an Oscar to be in this season, but it certainly helps.

There's a lot going on this year, which means that none of our intrepid trio really gets much of a personal subplot, and I think that's for the best.  Oliver is a newlywed, but Loretta's career keeps her busy without much time to have any relationship issues.  Charles has a new love interest in Sofia, but she's not a very serious one.  Mabel knew The back when she was known as Althea, and spends most of the season trying to get over their past falling out.  It's all very low stakes, familiar territory, and our leads don't spend quite so much time feeling gloomy or in crisis, which is nice.  There is a bigger, looming threat that affects all of them in the second half of the season, but it's a threat to the Arconia rather than any of them personally.   And arguably, it's the Arconia that gets the most fleshing out this time.  Last season revealed the lives of the tenants living on the west side of the building, and this year reveals other secret parts of the Arconia that we haven't seen yet.  The second episode, which covers Lester's entire time as doorman over three decades, is easily the highlight, especially as it gives us glimpses of many familiar characters before we knew them, sometimes in surprising circumstances.  

It feels like the show is getting more gimmicky.  There's an episode told from the POV of a robot.  There's an episode that suspiciously resembles a "girls' night out" episode.  However, "Only Murders" remains consistently entertaining, and it always feels like everyone involved is having a blast.  Other highlights of this season include a spoof of the rich billionaire getaway weekend plot, and everything involving Sofia Caccimelio's pack of overgrown, cheerfully lunkheaded sons.  I'm a little surprised it took "Only Murders" this long to dip a toe into "The Sopranos" territory, but they did it right.  The Caccimelios  are involved just enough that they're a fun break from the norm every time they appear.  I expect that if the whole season had been built around them, it wouldn't have worked half as well.  

The performances remain the best part of the show, and this year's guest stars are a great bunch.  You've got Christoph Waltz and Logan Lerman as two different versions of rich egomaniacs, with Renee Zellweger as the evil Martha Stewart in their midst.  You've got Tea Leoni radiating untrustworthiness as the mob wife, but understand immediately why Charles is attracted to  her.  Teddy Coluca as Lester is wonderfully warm and charming, and I wish we could have gotten more of him. However, he's not the only performer I wish got more screen time.  There definitely wasn't enough Diane Wiest, Jermaine Fowler, or Bobby Cannavale.

I'm already looking forward to next year's mystery, which is supposed to take place in London and will hopefully give some UK acting talent the opportunity to join in on the murder mystery hijinks.  As is tradition, next year's murder happens at the end of the current season, and it's delightfully silly, self-aware, and tongue-in-cheek in all the right ways.  Just like the rest of the show.

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"Caught Stealing" Caught Me Off Guard

I was expecting very little from "Caught Stealing," the latest Darren Aronofsky film.  The discourse around this one has been very, very quiet, and I completely missed the initial release.  It was at the tail end of my "To Watch" list for a while, because while I recognize and appreciate Aronofsky's talent as a filmmaker, his work is generally so bleak and nihilistic that I rarely enjoy his films.  Well, I enjoyed "Caught Stealing."  This might even be my favorite Aronofsky film.

Written by Charlie Huston, and based on his book of the same name, "Caught Stealing" follows a bartender named Hank (Austin Butler) who inadvertently becomes embroiled in a conflict involving at least two New York criminal organizations, when he agrees to watch a cat belonging to a disreputable neighbor, Russ (Matt Smith).  Set in Lower East Side Manhattan in 1998, "Caught Stealing" features a New York that is grungy, dirty, largely ungentrified, and full of people of every ethnicity living on top of each other.  It is also a very violent film, with Hank constantly on the run from terrible people, and his own life marked by the memory of past traumas.  Because it's Darren Aronofsky, the violence is graphic and upsetting.  Yet somehow, the movie avoids being bleak, and might even qualify as intermittently fun by the time the credits roll.

This is accomplished largely due to two things.  First is the performance of Austin Butler, playing a baseball-loving, hard-drinking, but generally decent guy who keeps trying to do the right thing, keeps getting knocked down for it, and gives us someone to root for.  He's got plenty of charisma, and yet he also fits the nastiness of the surroundings.  He credibly gets into very physical fights, and does a great job of adjusting to each new phase of the story as it keeps morphing into different things.  And the film's unpredictability is its other major strength, where Hank keeps being thrown into one unlikely situation after another, with a parade of colorful characters.  One minute he's in the middle of a ridiculous car chase with Russ and a corrupt police officer, and the next he's having dinner with a nice Jewish lady played by Carol Kane, the mother of  the Drucker brothers (Liev Schreiber, Vincent D'Onofrio), a pair of Hasidic mobsters.  

Darren Aronofsky manages to juggle a lot of disparate elements and some serious tonal whiplash.  This is a story where Russian thugs send Hank to the hospital in the first act, and several nasty deaths occur, and yet there's room for Hank being cute with his girlfriend Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) and several appearances by the grouchy cat.  It has all the uncomfortable subjective tactility and emotional intensity of Aronofsky's earlier, more paranoid films, but it sidesteps the existential horror.  Hank experiences tragedy, but unlike most of Aronofsky's other protagonists, he's not a tragic character.  His jaunts into subjective introspection reveal that he's got his reasons for angst, but he's perfectly redeemable and I was pleasantly surprised to see him successfully work through a lot of his personal baggage.      

It feels strange, spotting all of these stylistic flourishes that I associate with Aronofsky's grimmest work being used to tell a story that feels so un-Aronofsky.  There are a few places where the dissonance was too much for me, but in the end I found that I liked "Caught Stealing" very much.  It's chaotic while still being perfectly coherent, and pulls off some great surprises, especially when it comes to the cast.  I didn't recognize Schreiber or D'Onofrio at all in their Hasidic regalia.  Matt Smith delivered my favorite performance, sporting a massive mohawk and studded leather jacket, and seemed to be having a ball playing a total reprobate.  Regina King, Bad Bunny, Action Bronson, and Griffin Dunne also appear in roles I will not spoil.  

After "mother!" and "The Whale," I was resigned to cringing my way through all future Darren Aronofsky projects, but "Caught Stealing" gives me hope that this doesn't have to be so.  I'd like very much for this this is a new direction for him, and not just a brief digression from his nihilistic norm.  

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