Regina King | Bouquets & Brickbats

04/08/25

Cineworld, Edinburgh

If Caught Stealing seems an unusual choice of genre for director Darren Aronofsky, it quickly becomes clear that, although all the usual action-thriller components are in place, this is a good deal more cerebral than the average punch ’em up. Set in New York City in the late 1990s, it’s a story with more than its fair share of stressful situations, all of them heaped upon the shoulders of its central character, Hank (Austin Butler), and palpably passed on to anyone who happens to be watching. Baseball aficionados will know that the film’s title is a reference to the sport Hank is obsessed with and which he played in his youth.

Our antihero is now a booze-loving barkeep at a small, rowdy joint on the Lower East Side. His girlfriend, paramedic Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz), is clearly looking for more commitment from him but something in his past – a tragic incident that we keep catching unsettling glimpses of – is preventing him from offering it. And why does he make such a fuss about phoning his Mom in California every single day?

When his British punk neighbour, Russ (Matt Smith), has to head home to visit his sick dad, he asks Hank to look after his cat, Bud. Hank happily obliges but shortly thereafter a duo of aggressive Russian hoodlums arrive looking for Russ. When Hank is unable to tell them anything about his missing neighbour, they administer a brutal beating, which leaves Hank in hospital, minus a kidney. But his troubles have only just begun.

Once home, he contacts Detective Elise Roman (Regina King), who tells him that he’s inadvertently been dropped into the middle of a very complicated situation, with different factions trying to get their mitts on a heap of stolen cash. She tells him that, if Hassidic hitmen Lipa and Schmolly Drucker (Liev Schrieber and Vincent D’Onofrio), should happen to turn up, Hank must get in touch with her immediately, if he wants to stay alive…

From this point the story accelerates like an out-of-control vehicle, hitting everything in its path with brute force and, much like Hank, we feel each impact along the way. The action is accompanied by Rob Simonsen’s raucous score (recorded by post-punk band, Idles). The New York locations are expertly utilised, the physical damage unflinchingly conveyed and Butler is utterly compelling in the lead role, making us care enough about his character to really share his anguish as every fresh person he meets seems intent upon his destruction. Charlie Huston’s edgy script is adept at getting me to make assumptions, only to dash them gleefully in my face.

When Russ finally bobs back into view, Smith manages to somehow make him both appealing and despicable. Bud the cat (played by Tonic) is really cute, a strong enough presence to ensure that he gets to star in the film’s kooky end credits. Unlike many films of this ilk, Caught Stealing manages to steer its way to a satisfying – and for once, fairly believable – conclusion.

Just make sure you stay in your seats until the very end.

4.4 stars

Philip Caveney

28/01/18

After the meteoric success of 2016’s Moonlight (only his second attempt at direction), Barry Jenkins could probably have chosen any subject he fancied for his third feature. As it turned out, he’d already begun developing If Beale Street Could Talk at the same time as his Osar winner, adapting it himself from a groundbreaking novel by James Baldwin, so of course it was a logical step to move straight on to that. Set in the early 1970s, it’s a stylish slow burner that centres on the doomed relationship of two young people.

Tish Rivers (Kiki Layne) has known Alonzo ‘Fonny’ Hunt (Stephan James) since the two of them were kids. She’s the youngest daughter of a loving and supportive family and is still based at home, while he’s become more of a loner, living in a rundown basement where he’s trying to establish himself as a sculptor. (His work, it must be said, is spectacularly underwhelming). When romance finally blooms between Tish and Fonny, it seems almost inevitable that they will end up as man and wife – but when he is wrongfully accused of rape and sent to prison, she discovers that she is pregnant with Fonny’s child; and all their hopes for the future come tumbling down around them.

Jenkins takes his own sweet time over the narrative, skipping back and forth in chronology to hone in on key points in the couple’s relationship. We also spend time with Tish and Fonny’s respective parents and in particular, we focus on Tish’s mother, Sharon (Regina King) and her increasingly desperate attempts to prove Fonny’s innocence by travelling to Puerto Rico to confront the poor woman who has mistakenly identified Fonnyas her assailent. King’s performance has garnered the film a ‘best supporting actress’ Oscar nomination, along with Nicholas Britell’s score and Jenkins’ for best adapted screenplay. But this is essentially Tish and Fonny’s story and the two leads play their roles with absolute conviction.

There’s a rich, languorous intensity about If Beale Street Could Talk that really takes us inside the central characters, revealing everything we need to know about them and the way they relate to each other. If the glacial pace occasionally palls – the scenes where Fonny reconnects with his old friend Daniel (Bryan Tyree Henry) could have benefited from a little pruning – this is nonetheless a considerable achievement and something that in these times of short attention spans, we are rarely witness to. This puts me in mind of the films of the late, great Douglas Sirk, who worked in a similar way.

I love the film’s brutal honesty, refusing point blank to offer us anything resembling a convenient conclusion, pointing out that real life rarely comes with such luxuries attached – and for a young black man in America, justice is a commodity that’s very hard to find.

This may not be the absolute knockout that Moonlight was, but it’s nonetheless an engrossing and beautifully directed film that deserves the widest attention.

4.7 stars

Philip Caveney