Review: Caught Stealing

Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

Darren Aronofsky's "Caught Stealing" may be a minor entry into the director's oeuvre, but it's an enjoyably slick and fast paced thriller boasting a memorable cast of supporting characters. The picture reminded me a little of Walter Hill's 1979 cult classic "The Warriors" in that both films feature a character or characters - in the former a gang, in the latter a bartender caught up in a wild game of circumstance - trying to stay alive while a motley crew of criminals pursues them/him. Hill's film was set over the course of a single night, while Aronofsky's takes place over a few days.

Fans of "The Warriors" might recall the baseball-attired gang members. In this case, they'll have to settle for bartender Hank's love of the San Francisco Giants and gradually revealed backstory involving his near-miss at becoming a professional baseball player. 

The film is set in 1998 - and the soundtrack at Hank's bar is populated with Meredith Brooks, Semisonic, and Smash Mouth - in New York City. Hank has a promising relationship with a young woman named Yvonne (Zoe Kravitz) and a close relationship with his mother over long-distance telephone calls that typically end with "I love you, go Giants." At the film's end, there's a surprising cameo for this character.

Hank's somewhat sketchy neighbor, Russ (Matt Smith), who dresses like a member of the punk scene from the era in which "The Warriors" was set, asks him to watch over his cat while he attends his father's funeral in England. 

A twist of fate finds a series of dangerous characters coming to look for Russ - and when they don't find him, they inflict violence on poor Hank. These include a Puerto Rican gangster (Bad Bunny), some Russian thugs, and a pair of psychotic Hasidic Jews (Liev Schreiber and an unrecognizable Vincent D'Onofrio).

Hank enlists the help of a cop (Regina King) to assist in the situation and I won't say more to prevent from giving away any spoilers. From there, Hank is essentially on the run as he tries to outwit the various criminals who are pursuing him. There are a number of solid action sequences - including a car chase and a foot chase through a building that ends in a fist fight.

That being said, this is a minor Aronofsky film. The director's best films are dark and brooding psychological dramas that border on horror - such as "Black Swan," "Requiem for a Dream," and "Mother!" Some of his other films are interesting and well-made swings that don't always connect - "The Fountain" and "Noah" - but are still worth a look. His latest, while good, is the director's most straightforward and simplistic. It's nothing more and nothing less than an enjoyable and fast paced crime thriller. Those seeking a piece of solid escapism would probably consider the picture a few hours well spent.

Review: Honey Don't

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

It has been seven years since Joel and Ethan Coen worked on a film together ("The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"), opting instead to do solo projects. In 2021, Joel contributed "The Tragedy of Macbeth" (very good) and, last year, Ethan released "Drive Away Dolls," a movie that was decent but still ranked among the lower echelons of Coen films.

I'm sorry to report that Ethan's latest, "Honey Don't!", is a step down from that picture, which is not to say that it's bad - even lesser Coen films still have noteworthy elements - but it certainly is at the bottom of the totem pole. The film is a swift - another way of saying that it just suddenly ends with little warning - and breezy film noir that is part of an apparently planned lesbian road trip trilogy ("Drive Away Dolls" was the first and this the second entry).

Much like his previous film, "Honey Don't!" stars Margaret Qualley, in this case as a private detective who doesn't suffer fools gladly. The rest of the film's cast includes Charlie Day, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, and Billy Eichner, but Qualley is the only one who really manages to rise above the material. The others fare with less success.

The film opens with a crashed car that Honey O'Donohue (Qualley) believes might be murder. The female victim of the crash was once a client and had made an ominous phone call shortly before her demise. Day plays a cop investigating the scene who continually sexually harasses Honey, despite her repeated insistence that she likes girls.

Evans plays a shady pastor named Rev. Drew at a new agey church who seems to spend more time sleeping with his parishioners than anything else. One of Honey's clients is a man who believes his lover is seeing someone else - and it turns out that the lover is killed during a drug deal gone bad that ties back to Rev. Drew, who is also involved in some nefarious business with the French. I'm not sure that the details of the schemes going on in the film are meant to be fully comprehended.

Meanwhile, Honey is involved with Plaza's cop, MG Falcone, and the film makes sure to include one or two steamy sex scenes, much like "Drive Away Dolls." Bodies begin to pile up as Honey investigates the car crash - some in humorous ways, others in more gruesome ones. 

The film clearly aims at capturing the oddball comedic noir style for which the Coens are known - and Qualley delivers some one liners with zest - but the film is too short and convoluted to completely work. There are some effective noir touches and solid cinematography, but "Honey Don't!" is ultimately slight and there's a third act twist that comes out of nowhere before the film ends abruptly. 

The Coen Brothers are among the best American filmmakers of the past few decades. Together, they are a duo of filmmaking genius. Since they've gone solo, Joel has proven that he's the one responsible for the Coens' dark gravitas, while Ethan seems more the one to provide the comedic relief. So far, his two outings have been passable, but nowhere near as good as the overall Coen output. "Honey Don't!" has its moments, but it's a very minor entry into the Coen canon. 

Review: Highest 2 Lowest

Image courtesy of Apple Films.

Spike Lee's winning streak continues with "Highest 2 Lowest," an engrossing remake of Akira Kurosawa's "High and Low" that marks the director's fifth collaboration with Denzel Washington. Strangely enough, a recent film to which I might draw some slight comparisons is "Weapons" in that the film switches tones successfully and ends up becoming a lot more than from where it originally set out.

At the film's beginning, Washington plays David King, a record executive whose visage has graced the front of every major magazine and who, in the early 2000s, was known to have the "best ears in the business" due to his ability to find talent. When we first meet him, he's still a big player in the industry, but his best days are, perhaps, behind him and he's in the middle of selling his company, Stackin' Records, to a corporate entity that he fears will dismantle all that he's built.

Adding to his troubles is the sudden kidnapping of his basketball star son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph), by a menacing individual who threatens to kill the young man during phone calls for ransom money. The police are brought in and, at first, they spend a lot of time harassing Paul Christopher (Jeffrey Wright), David's right-hand man and chauffeur, because of his past criminal associations and time served.

But, much like Kurosawa's film, there's a twist - and I wouldn't read any further if you don't want to hear more: The kidnappers accidentally took the wrong person. Trey is returned, while Paul Christopher's son, Kyle (Elijah Wright), is the one being held. David must then grapple with whether he should pay the $17.5 million to the kidnappers to save Kyle, knowing full well that he needs the money to buy out his company to prevent its sale as well as to not breach a contract that could lead to legal troubles for him.

The first half of the film contains a fair amount of long shots, distancing us somewhat from the characters. The filmmaking is sleek as the camera glides around David's expensive New York penthouse, and there is more than a little melodrama - David and his wife, Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) being upset about their son seemingly being kidnapped, the drama between Paul Christopher and the cops, and the fraught moments between David, his family, and his chauffeur about whether to spring for Kyle's release.

But the film switches into a different gear about halfway through the picture as David and the cops set up a money drop with the kidnappers. Perhaps Martin Scorsese is the only other director who can show as much love visually to New York City as Spike Lee, and there's an incredible series of moments as David goes on foot through the city's Puerto Rican Day festival - where Rosie Perez, Anthony Ramos, and various Puerto Rican musicians portray themselves as a massive crowd full of people dance in the streets - carrying the bag of money and boards a train for the drop.

The film becomes more of a thriller after another great twist later in the film having to do with David's reputation as having the "best ears in the business." This leads him to the recording studio of an aspiring rapper, Yung Felon (A$AP Rocky), who might have something to do with the kidnapping. There's a great tete a tete between Yung Felon and David in a recording studio that might come across as a rap battle, though it's not as simplistic as it sounds.

Lee has been on a roll in recent years. His "BlacKKKlansman" was my favorite film of 2018, while "Da 5 Bloods" was in my top five two years later. His David Byrne concert film, "American Utopia," was energetic and his latest is also solid. The film marks his third remake - following an "Oldboy" reimagining and "Da Sweet Blood of Jesus," which was a riff on the 1970s blaxploitation picture "Ganja & Hess" - and it's easily his best of the bunch.

Washington and Lee's collaborations rank up there with some of the best modern filmmaking duos - Scorsese and Robert De Niro and Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater. "Highest 2 Lowest" marks the best role for Washington in a Lee film since the 1992 masterpiece "Malcolm X." This is a solid film that features terrific cinematography, is a wonderful attempt at capturing New York City's vibe, is a well-made thriller, and is an interesting take on the value of art - in this picture, particularly Black art.

There's a compelling sequence late in the film in which A$AP Rocky's rapper and Washington's producer get into a debate about good money vs. bad money as well as fads vs. art that lasts. A$AP's character notes how he has become popular due to his notoriety and that we are currently living in an attention economy, meaning he who gets the most attention gets the most money. This certainly also applies to our politics. Lee does a masterful job of slipping a profound debate on the value of art into a film that's essentially a thriller and a remake. I'm glad to see him on such a roll as of late and look forward to whatever he does next.

Review: Freakier Friday

Image courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures.

There are some sequels or reboots that aren't necessary and others that are more inspired. The new version of "The Naked Gun" is an example of the latter, while "Freakier Friday" is one of the former. This is not to say that the film doesn't have its moments, but the picture believes that providing more is a raison d'etre.

And by more I mean that, in this sequel, four characters trade places, rather than two. Other than that, the film pretty much follows the exact same formula - at times, to a tee - as the 2003 remake, which of course was a remake of a 1976 film with Jodie Foster.

It has been argued - probably correctly - that the 2003 version with Jaime Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan is the best of these films, mostly due to the adept comic timing of its two stars. Lohan has been somewhat off the scene of mainstream filmmaking for a while, but I can report that she does just fine here and that her comedic abilities remain intact - in fact, the film's best comedic sequence relies solely on her ability to pull off a ridiculous gag.

In this film, Anna (Lohan) and Tess (Curtis) have kept the peace in the 20-plus years since we last saw them, but Anna now has a surly teen of her own, surfer Harper (Julia Butters), with whom to contend. Anna's biggest quibble with her psychiatrist mother is that she occasionally steps on her feet as a grandmother who occasionally outshines her mothering skills.

Anna meets and falls in love with Eric (Manny Jacinto), a Brit whose snobby daughter, Lily (Sophia Hammons), is Harper's sworn enemy. Bringing the two families together seems an impossible task, so of course it takes a trip to a kooky fortune teller (Vanessa Bayer) to suddenly ensure that a body-switching with lessons attached occurs.

But this time, Anna switches with her daughter, while Lily and Tess end up in each other's bodies. Many of the same jokes reoccur - Curtis and Lohan play adults dressing and acting like teens, while their younger counterparts come off as stiff and serious - and the formula in which characters must see the good in others and act selflessly is rehashed.

It's not a bad movie, but it's material we've seen before - and in better form. That's not to say there aren't some delights to be had here. Curtis and Lohan are clearly having fun yukking it up portraying young women. The aforementioned scene in which Lohan shines involves a hilariously failed attempt at seduction that had me laughing almost as much as at some of last week's "Naked Gun" gags. But all in all, this is just an OK attempt to reboot a popular movie of yesteryear - or, as one of the youths in the film would call it: mid.

Review: Weapons

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

The past few years have seen an increase in critically acclaimed horror movies that have become known as elevated entries in the genre. This year alone has seen a handful of well-received horror movies that have drawn large audiences - including "Sinners," "Final Destination: Bloodlines," and "28 Years Later."

But Zach Cregger's "Weapons" is by far the best of the lot - in fact, it's probably the best horror movie I've seen since "It Follows" and "Get Out" and ranks highly among the 21st century's entries in the genre. Cregger's first film, "Barbarian," was a sleeper that was full of surprises, but his sophomore film takes a gigantic leap forward in terms of ambition. Considering everything he throws at us, it shouldn't work.

But there are many reasons why the film manages to work so well: its unique narrative structure within the genre, its stronger-than-usual character development, its compelling camerawork and, possibly most of all, its ability to deftly balance various tones - understated spookiness bleeds into outright terror in the early sections, transitioning to the story's more dramatic elements in the middle passages, and finally ending on a note of hilarity and violence that could best be described as bonkers.

The film's early scenes feature a dash of David Lynch, while its structure and tendency to loop back on itself as well as its outbursts of shocking violence bring to mind Tarantino. But it's Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" that has, apparently, been somewhat of a starting point, Cregger has noted in interviews, and not just because of the mustache worn by Alden Ehrenreich's cop character. 

The film is divided into chapters in which each member of its ensemble of characters gets a starring role and then, much like Anderson's film, comes to a head in a sequence that involves most of them, although it doesn't rain frogs and no one sings along to Aimee Mann. The film takes a slow burn approach until it suddenly explodes into madness.

This is a film that, much like last week's "The Naked Gun" reboot, should be watched with the largest possible audience. And part of the joy derived from the film is its ability to surprise. So, I won't delve too deeply into what happens in it.

Suffice it to say, it opens on a haunting note when a group of 17 children leave their homes at 2:17 a.m. and run down the street in the same direction into the darkness, with their arms spread out as if they were flying as George Harrison's "Beware of Darkness" plays on the soundtrack. Like all great mysteries, this film plays its cards close to its chest for two-thirds of its running time.

The film's first chapter follows Justine (Julia Garner), the children's teacher who comes under suspicion by the town's residents. They assume she knows something about the whereabouts of the children - all but one disappeared - and some of her past actions that are signs of caring too much about the students make people trust her even less. Justine's personal life is a mess. She drinks too much and is having an on-again-off-again affair with Ehrenreich's cop.

The second section concerns Archer (Josh Brolin), one of the town's angry parents whose son was among those who ran out into the night. Having little faith in the town's police - and for good reason - he decides to investigate on his own. Then comes Ehrenreich's Paul, who is married to the sheriff's daughter and gets himself into a pickle when he acts violently toward town druggie James (Austin Abrams), whose story is observed in the fourth chapter.

Then, it's on to the school's principal (Benedict Wong), who seemingly wants to keep the peace more than anything else, placing Justine on leave, although she did nothing wrong, and discouraging her from approaching Alex (Cary Christopher), the only child who didn't disappear. Alex's story, which is the most troubling, comprises the final section. Amy Madigan pops up in this section in a memorable role as the peculiar aunt who is visiting the boy's parents.

I've seen some reviews that have highly praised "Weapons" for its craft, performances, and ability to frighten and provide laughter in equal measure, but have argued that it doesn't have much to say otherwise, thereby not quite qualifying as an elevated horror movie. To which I say: huh?

While it might not wield its concepts with as blunt of force as some other recent horror movies, "Weapons" is a film that is rich with subtext. The scenes involving the class' disappearance uses imagery and responses from its fictional community that some could argue reference such communal tragedies as the COVID-19 epidemic or, more directly, school shootings. There's even a sequence in which a character sees a massive automatic weapon in the sky, which occurs in a dream and is left to the imagination as to why it's there.

But more than anything else, "Weapons" observes our modern era of wanting to push on through tragedies and abruptly forget them (COVID-19, Jan. 6, you name it) as well as a societal decay that results in a lack of interest in others' well-being. Brolin's character isn't exaggerating when he accuses the police of having little interest in keeping the case alive. In another scene, Garner flees for her life in a convenience store and the clerk is more concerned with her exiting the building than he is lending a helping hand. Some characters treat others with a blatant sense of disregard - Wong's shunting Garner's teacher aside to appease the angry mob and Ehrenreich's cop being abusive toward Abrams' junkie, for example.

If this all sounds like heavy stuff - well, it is - and the film's eerie tone during its first half and some genuinely affective shock scares early on might leave viewers feeling tense. Suffice it to say, Cregger's ability to transition from this vibe to where it ends up in the finale - a cathartic sequence of events that is among the best endings of recent memory - is an example of chutzpah backed up by major talent. This is one of the year's best films and the best horror movie of this decade so far.

Review: The Naked Gun

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

It feels like it's been a while since I laughed heartily in the company of strangers in a darkened movie theater. Sure, there have been some great movies of recent years that also happened to be very funny in spurts - including work from Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach and last year's often hilarious "A Real Pain."

But there's a difference between a dramedy made for adults and a studio comedy that has no purpose other than to make you laugh. Granted, in past decades when studios still funded big budget comedies and dumped them constantly in theaters, a fair share of them weren't very good. 

But every once in a while, a movie would come along that left you in stitches - such as "My Cousin Vinny" or "There's Something About Mary." I tried to think of the last time a movie left me rolling with laughter in the theater. Was it "Bridesmaids"? Maybe "Borat"? In other words, it's been a while.

This is a long prelude to me telling you that the new "The Naked Gun" film is pretty damn funny. Jokes fly at the audience in furious fashion and while not all of them work, a bit of inspired hilarity often follows shortly thereafter.

The film's premise is that Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) is a cop that makes trouble for the force. While his father (Leslie Nielsen) was often an incompetent boob, Neeson plays the son in the same steely vein that he portrays characters in the action films in which he's taken part in recent years - "Taken," especially. The fact that Neeson's character never breaks out of character and winks at the audience makes the film even funnier.

The plot revolves around an evil mastermind (Danny Huston) with Elon Musk-like tendencies who has a gadget that can make any smart phone users suddenly lose their minds and become violent. His evil plan has to do with ensuring that the upper crust of society - namely, old white men - become even more powerful, while the rest of the world loses its mind.

The film opens with Drebin investigating an accident that's probably a murder and he soon becomes involved with the sister of the deceased - a true crime writer named Beth (Pamela Anderson). Drebin also has a partner named Ed Hocken (Paul Walter Hauser), who's the son of the character played by George Kennedy in the original.

While the plot is somewhat generic, the film is often screamingly funny. The best jokes in the film left the audience with whom I experienced it howling - these include a discussion of the word "manslaughter," a conversation with a bartender that ends up being a pointed commentary on police violence, the Janet Jackson Super Bowl joke you've probably heard in the commercial, continuous play on words, and a sex scene viewed through a pair of binoculars.

There are some jokes that don't land as well - perhaps, Anderson's scat musical performance sounded better on paper, and an extended fantasy sequence involving a snowman could have probably been scrapped - but like I said before: For every joke that doesn't hit the mark, it's often followed by two more that do.

While the original "Naked Gun" film remains the best of the bunch, this reboot is easily the most fun I've had at a movie this summer and without a doubt the hardest I've laughed in a movie theater in a long time. My recommendation is to see it with the biggest audience you can find, although the peril there is that you might miss out on a few jokes that are being drowned out by laughter.