Caught Stealing: A third base hit

Caught Stealing (2025) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Rated R, for strong violence, pervasive profanity, sexuality, nudity and drug use

Available via: Netflix

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.7.25

You’ll never see a better cautionary tale, concerning the wisdom of seat belts.

 

Charlie Huston’s 2004 crime novel is a slight change of pace for director Darren Aronofsky, whose best-known films — Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, Black Swan and The Whale — haven’t the slightest trace of humor. But Huston’s scripted adaptation of his book is laden with moments of dark-dark-dark gallows humor, of the sort that makes one feel guilty for each chuckle (not that it’ll suppress the next unexpected giggle).

 

The enemy of my enemy is my friend? When Hank (Austin Butler, center) becomes
sufficiently desperate, he forms an uneasy alliance with Lipa (Liev Schreiber, left)
and Shmully (Vincent D'Onofrio).

That said, this saga involves one Awful Event so beyond the pale, so needlessly mean-spirited, that viewers will be hard-pressed to forgive Huston and Aronofsky.

 

The year is 1998, the setting New York City’s Lower East Side: a time when this neighborhood is at low ebb, with sidewalks and streets strewn with uncollected garbage. Henry “Hank” Thompson (Austin Butler) tends bar at a sorta-kinda dive run by Paul (Griffin Dunne). Amtrak (Action Bronson), a steady customer, constantly ribs Hank about his devotion to the San Francisco Giants. Indeed, Hank calls his mother every day — she lives in Patterson, California — to commiserate or cheer about their mutual passion for the baseball team.

 

Hank has a steady girlfriend, Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz), who works at a nearby hospital.

 

But Hank is damaged goods. He suffers nightmare flashbacks of the vehicular accident, at the tail end of high school, which wrecked his knee, blew his chance at a promising baseball career, and killed his best friend. Hank was entirely at fault, driving drunk. He wore a seat belt; his friend did not.

 

Hank now is a full-blown alcoholic, much to Yvonne’s distress. She wants them to “move to the next level,” but only if Hank can get a handle on his drinking problem.

 

On an otherwise average day, Hank’s rowdy punk neighbor, Russ (Matt Smith, most famously of Doctor Who and The Crown), is summoned to London to see his dying father one last time. He abruptly places his cat, Bud, in Hank’s reluctant care.

 

“He’s a biter,” Russ warns, as he sprints away.

 

Yvonne thinks caring for Bud is a marvelous idea; she even moves the cat’s litter box into Hank’s bathroom … much to his disgust. But it’s obvious, even in these early moments, that Hank and Bud will bond.

 

Yvonne heads to work. Moments later, two thugs show up, searching for Russ. Hank unwisely displays attitude, and gets beaten so badly that he wakens in a hospital, two days later, having lost a kidney. Yvonne warns that now — with only one kidney — he really, truly must stop drinking. 

 

That will be a challenge.

 

Dune Part 2: Moral ambiguity clouds this second chapter

Dune Part 2 (2024) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five). Rated PG-13, for strong violence, dramatic intensity and fleeting profanity

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang

As Dune Part 1 concluded, back in October 2021, Chani (Zendaya) glanced at Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), newly accepted among her Fremen clan, and said — to him, and to us — “This is only the beginning.”

 

As Paul (Timothée Chalamet) begins to suffer increasingly distressing visions and
nightmares, Chani (Zendaya) finds it harder to comfort him.

In hindsight, I almost wish that hadn’t been true.

The first film encompassed only (roughly) half of Frank Herbert’s famed 1965 novel, and Paul’s saga was far from over. Unfortunately, the book’s less satisfying second half takes a distinct ethical turn. Characters we had grown to like become less admirable; the story’s broader palette shifts, turning less heroic and more disturbing.

 

Although Herbert’s messianic subplot may have seemed benign (even worthy?) six decades ago, our world has changed. While director/co-scripter Denis Villeneuve — with fellow scribe Jon Spaihts — are once again commended for so faithfully adapting the key plot points of Herbert’s book, this second installment’s rising call for jihad strikes an entirely different note in our tempestuous times.

 

To put it another way, the story’s first half — with its clash between House Atreides and House Harkonnen, provoked behind the scenes by an unseen emperor and the mysterious women of the Bene Gesserit — felt very much like Game of Thrones, with all manner of similar subterfuge, betrayals and dashed hopes. (One wonders if Herbert’s book was on young George R.R. Martin’s reading list.)

 

The second half, alas, focuses more on Paul’s struggle to avoid a horrific destiny that he fears is preordained. To be sure, the promise of revenge also is on the table ... but it feels less important, given the gravity of the bigger picture.

 

All this said, there’s no denying — once again — the epic magnificence of Villeneuve’s vision, and the jaw-dropping scale of his world-building. Herbert’s fans will be gob-smacked anew.

 

To recap:

 

Paul’s father, the honorable Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) of House Atreides, ruler of the ocean world Caladan, is sent by the Emperor to replace House Harkonnen as the fief overlords of the inhospitable planet Arrakis. This desert world is the galaxy’s sole source of “spice,” which enables safe interstellar travel. But mining operations are extremely dangerous due to the ginormous sandworms that move beneath desert sands, like whales swimming through water, and have teeth-laden maws immense enough to swallow a huge spice-mining platform whole.

 

Leto knows this mission a trap, and that he has been set up to fail; he and his people nonetheless occupy the Arrakian capital of Arrakeen, and attempt to make allies of the planet’s indigenous Fremen people. He gains the grudging respect of Fremen representative Stilgar (Javier Bardem).