Tag Archives: austin-butler

Caught Stealing

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Darren Aronofsky, director of The Whale, Mother!, Requiem for a Dream, Noah, Black Swan and The Wrestler, released his newest film this weekend, Caught Stealing, starring up-and-coming star, Austin Butler.

I have been hit-and-miss with Aronofsky’s film over the years. I love The Wrestler and Black Swan, but did not like Mother! or Noah much at all. So I approached Caught Stealing with an uneasy feeling, especially since the trailers for this did not excite me.

I am happy to say that I enjoyed Caught Stealing quite a bit, and it would be near the top of my list of Aronofsky films.

I will say that it has a distinctly different feel than other Aronofsky films, feeling more like a crime film directed by Guy Ritchie.

According to IMDB, “Burned-out ex-baseball player Hank Thompson unexpectedly finds himself embroiled in a dangerous struggle for survival amidst the criminal underbelly of 1990s New York City, forced to navigate a treacherous underworld he never imagined.“

Austin Butler is exceptional as Hank Thompson. Hank suffered from plenty of trauma from his life, shown expertly in dreams and flashbacks. These scenes provide a lot of details and specific traits for our main character and show what a relatable character he is to the audience. Butler provided such a strong performance to help amplify these traits for Hank, giving no doubt about who the audience should root for.

I did love the character of Yvonne, played by Zoë Kravitz. She had some great chemistry with Austin Butler and she provided some of the most amazing moments of the film. I also found Regina King’s work as Detective Roman to be on point. Being honest, the rest of the cast had great actors, but their characters were not developed deeply. The cast included Matt Smith, Vincent D’Onofrio, Liev Schreiber, Chris Russo, Griffin Dunne, Bad Bunny, Tenoch Huerta and Carol Kane.

Perhaps the best performance in the film was given by the cat that Hank had to carry with him through most of the film. The cat was definitely one of the best characters in the film.

The tone of the film did bounce around too much. It would go from anxiousness to almost humor, and it did make it feel somewhat inconsistent. I would not call this a comedy, even a black one. This is more like a film that we might have gotten in the 1990s.

The film was set in 1998, with the San Francisco Giants’ pursuit of the Wild Card being a backdrop for the storyline. Hank was a super fan and he was constantly rooting for his team. The choice of using this as a backdrop is interesting as the Giants did make it to the World Series, only for the series to be disrupted by an earthquake.

I have to say that some of the things that Hank was able to overcome in this movie stretched credibility a touch, but since I was enjoying the movie as much as I was, these issues did not detract from the overall enjoyment of the movie. I will say that the first thing that happened to him probably would have taken me out of the action right away.

This film kept my interest and I enjoyed the work of the actors and the overall story. The tone was shaky at times, but any flaws that the film showed were not major problems. Austin Butler is a major star in the future of films and this is one more great example.

4 stars

The Outsiders (1983)

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At my school, I had a chance to teach The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton this year. I had not taught the book since 1999. After we finished the unit, we watched the movie. So over the last two days I watched the Francis Ford Coppola film three times. I knew that I had not seen this movie in a long time so I figured that I had never reviewed the film. This is the chance.

Honestly, I did not love this. My memory was that the first time I watched this, I thought this was better than I did this time.

According to IMDB, “It is 1961, and Tulsa, Oklahoma is divided in two along social lines. The youths of each side form gangs in line with these two camps: the working class Greasers and the wealthier South Side gang, the Socs. The two sides use any opportunity to niggle each other and whenever they meet, there is friction. Then one night, a gang of Socs attack two Greasers with a knife. This sets off a chain of events“

There were several things that bugged me about this movie. Top of the list was probably the performance from Matt Dillion as Dally Winston, which felt about as over the top as it could possibly be. His overacting really bothered me in most of the scenes he was in.

The second thing I noticed was the horrendous sound mixing. There are several times that I couldn’t understand or hear certain lines of dialogue from characters because of the music or because it was just too messy.

I also feel like they did not do a service to a bunch of the characters from the book. Sure, I understand they wanted to focus on the main characters, but Sodapop was neglected and he should be a more vital part of the story. I do not feel that they did a good job of connecting Johnny to any other character outside of Ponyboy and Dally.

I do think that C. Thomas Howell was excellent as Ponyboy, and I loved Ralph Macchio as Johnny. I thought Macchio was really consistently good for the scenes that he was in. I will say though, one of the moments of the church fire, Johnny moved through just like Daniel LaRusso moved through the storm in Karate Kid II. That was funny to me. Anyway, Macchio was really good as the doomed Johnny.

Patrick Swayze had some good scenes, but could have used more time. Tom Cruise was in the film, but he was basically a background guy. Emilio Estevez was in the film as Two-Bit and, again, was just a shadow of the character of the book. I understand there is just not enough time for every character to be illuminated, but I do think we should have a bit more from these major characters.

It felt too melodramatic for my tastes. It was still a decent movie, but I found it to be nowhere as effective as the first time I watched it years ago.

The Bikeriders

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The Bikeriders is a new film from director Jeff Nichols and was inspired by a photograph book by Danny Lyons of the same name that depicted the life of a motorcycle gang in Illinois. Despite the fact that this is inspired by this photo-book, the film itself is a fictional story.

According to IMDB, “After a chance encounter at a local bar, strong-willed Kathy (Jodie Comer) is inextricably drawn to Benny (Austin Butler), the newest member of Midwestern motorcycle club, the Vandals led by the enigmatic Johnny (Tom Hardy). Much like the country around it, the club begins to evolve, transforming from a gathering place for local outsiders into a dangerous underworld of violence, forcing Benny to choose between Kathy and his loyalty to the club.”

The ensemble cast in The Bikeriders is tremendous and they all provide great performances no matter how long they were on screen. Austin Butler is wonderful and the relationship between him and Jodie Comer are the backbone of the movie. Tom Hardy gives a top notch performance as the head of the bike group. Others in the ensemble include Michael Shannon, Boyd Halbrook, Norman Reedus, Mike Faist, Damon Herriman, Emory Cohen, Beau Knapp, and Toby Wallace.

The story is solid as we see how much this motorcycle club means to the individual. Tom Hardy and Austin Baker work very well together. I enjoyed the struggle within the story for Baker.

I also liked the format for the narrative as we see Jodie Comer being interviewed by the character played by Mike Faist, who was a former member of the motorcycle club and returned as the photographer Danny Lyons who would be the person who did the photo-book this was based upon.

I was not looking forward to this movie, but it was better than I expected it to be. Great actors working well together to tell a solid story.

3.85 stars