Car races, planes and airports, men and women waiting, an eagle in flight, a bison in the fog. Sustained music and silence. Analogical editing, without words, orchestrates it all. The encounter between electronic sonorities and images frozen in a vacuum creates an anxiety-inducing and hypnotic rhythm. Facing this suspended world, we take in fully the necessity of the distance that characterises Gagnon’s films; and also our case. We would like to be part of this reality which we observe and judge from afar. We would like to change it. But “homo faber” is now merely an expression of past. The machine is now directing humanity, dictating speed and concern. In the free association of images, the body language says more than the words.
At 2:17 a.m., every child in a third-grade class wakes up, leaves their home, and disappears into the darkness—except one. The next day, teacher Justine Gandy discovers that Alex Lily is the only student left, while the rest have vanished without a trace. Did Justine have something to do with it, or is a far more sinister force stalking the town, targeting not just children, but anyone in its path?
Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing is a gritty, darkly funny thrill ride through 1998 New York, with Austin Butler delivering a raw, magnetic turn as Hank Thompson—a washed-up ex-ballplayer turned bartender whose life implodes after cat-sitting for his punk neighbor drags him into a violent underworld of gangsters, crooked cops, and chaos. Brutal yet unexpectedly hilarious, the film blends noir grit with midnight-movie absurdity, proving Aronofsky can reinvent himself while Butler cements his status as a true movie star.
It's sexy, regardless of what else is going on.
I can say without question, that this is the first movie I’ve ever seen where art imitates life so much that I could 100% identify with it on a personal level. The predominately Black cast of characters are people with hopes, dreams, fears, and ambitions.
If you identify as part of the queer community, or if you love old school slasher flicks, you will love this movie.
There’s been a longstanding criticism of sci-fi films about its lack of Black characters. For the past few years, Anthony Mackie has been successfully representing Black masculinity in the otherwise homogenous genre and I am here for it.
