“Caught Stealing” and the Argument that More Filmmakers Should Make Movies
I watched a movie this week and I was very much entertained.
Because the movie industry is broken, we have entered the time of the year when movie studios and distributors release their “films.” I use those quotes very deliberately; in a year-long deluge of four-quadrant, highly-sanitized, focus-grouped fare, studios—in their bid for shiny awards and critical clout—all tend to release their artistic, important films over the next four weeks. It’s Oscar season, baby!
For the average film fan, though, this flooding of the zone with “art” means that too much gets released all at once, and inevitably, great films fall through the cracks. In Hollywood, there are two film release windows: blockbuster season and awards season, and never the twain shall meet
It didn’t always used to be this way. Film writers much smarter than myself have opined about the death of the mid-budget movie—Hollywood’s adoption of massive IP-driven blockbusters instead of quality $10 - $50 million original stories. But, there was a time when the blockbusters were the award-winners—where directors and studios managed to intertwine art with profitability. It is the movie business after all.
I think back to when Gladiator and Titanic were not only monetary juggernauts but also swept the Academy Awards. Granted, there have been outliers in recent years that have managed to capture this old model (e.g. Barbenheimer), but for the most part, the release calendar feels bifurcated between mass-market slop and depressing small budget indie dramas that few people actually watch. I quite liked Anora and think it was a deserving best picture winner, but—by its very nature—it’s not the kind of film that I’m super keen to revisit again. Sorry to come off like Pete Hammond, but remember, guys, when movies used to be fun?
This, of course, is the very longwinded setup to the fact that I watched Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing this week—a movie whose 90s period setting also seems to harken back to a 90s-era release model. To put it bluntly, this is an entertaining-ass movie. It’s got thrills…danger…sex appeal! It’s not dumb nor does it talk down to its audience. And, despite its visceral violence, it feels mainstream enough in its content and delivery that it would appeal to your average filmgoing adult. It’s not slowly paced. It’s not avante-garde in aesthetic. It’s entertaining but not “turn off your brain” entertaining. Unlike the typical “movies for adults” that hit during the award-season glut, I don’t feel like I need to recommend Caught Stealing with some sort of apologetic disclaimer: “It’s an amazing work of art, but… “
Yes, Caught Stealing is very much a “movie”—not a film—and I think it’s very interesting that Darren Aronofsky—a very notorious “filmmaker”—decided to make a movie. Regardless of your opinions of his oeuvre, Aronofsky is incontrovertibly an auteur, so it’s cool that he has used his powers to craft something that isn’t meant to be particularly deep or nuanced. Rather, he just gave us a good time at the movies. Coming from the man who brought us both Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan, that’s a surprise. And, the fact that a studio actually gave him $40 million to make a movie like this…well…that feels like a miracle. Darren Aronofsky has a sense of humor? It’s true…people really do contain multitudes.
All this to say, I wish more auteur filmmakers would do this. I want Ari Aster to make a studio thriller. I want Noah Baumbuch to give us a straight-up romantic comedy. I want Kathryn Bigelow to make something Point Break-esque again (instead of whatever House of Dynamite was supposed to be).
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that arthouse fare shouldn’t exist nor do I want all filmmakers to compromise their art in order to produce something that is marketable, but, at the very least, maybe we could get one or two less “super-depressing-you-are-only-going-to-watch-this-once” indie dramas (*coughs* Hamnet) in a calendar year and a few more well-crafted action movies that don’t star Mark Wahlberg or Jason Statham wearing flannel shirts and punching faceless goons.
After all, us cinephiles deserve our popcorn fare too.
That's a cool analysis. I haven't watched "Caught Stealing" yet, but mostly because I wasn't interested enough to get over my antipathy towards Austin Butler.