Schmear Hunter's Brainwash [93]
Unpacking the Hype, Elevating the Unknown: 'Caught Stealing,' 'The Roses,' 'A Little Prayer'
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Hunters,
This week on The SchmearCast and No Notes, Sena Adjei and I sat down with legendary documentarian Laurent Bouzereau to discuss Jaws and Laurent’s brilliant new documentary, Jaws at 50. Steven Spielberg’s 1975 masterpiece is back in IMAX this weekend for its 50th anniversary.
Laurent told us what his “No Notes” perfect movie is, discussed Spielberg’s PTSD from making the movie, what his favorite scene in the film is and so much more.
Listen here and watch the “Curtain Call” version too.
Next week, I’m heading to Toronto for TIFF 50!! Going to send a preview of what I’m most excited to see next week.
Let’s get into today’s edition:
The Hype
CAUGHT STEALING (Movie): Austin Butler tests his leading man mettle in Darren Aronofsky’s NYC crime caper
The Unknown
Seek out THE ROSES (Movie) if you want big laughs and beautiful houses in Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman’s anti rom-com
A LITTLE PRAYER (Movie) is FINALLY being released, and it’s a low-key melodrama you don’t want to miss
Caught Stealing (Theaters)
What is it: Burned-out ex-baseball player Hank Thompson unexpectedly finds himself embroiled in a dangerous struggle for survival amidst the criminal underbelly of 1990s New York City, forced to navigate a treacherous underworld he never imagined.
Watch if you like: Snatch, In Bruges, Uncut Gems, Bringing Out the Dead, The Warriors
News and Notes:
Released today
Schmear’s Verdict: Caught Stealing is a violent, messy, and tonally uneven caper, but it’s worth the ride just to watch Austin Butler swagger through late-’90s New York like a true movie star.
Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing is an extremely busy movie: sometimes grim, sometimes frantic, sometimes both at once. It’s overcooked, uneven, a little ridiculous—and yet never boring.
Austin Butler anchors the chaos. After Elvis turned him into an Oscar nominee, here he finally gets to just be himself. No accent or cosplay—just magnetic star power. He plays Hank Thompson, a washed-up baseball prodigy now drowning in booze and bad luck. (Apparently, beer bellies don’t exist in Aronofsky’s world, because Butler’s still chiseled despite guzzling nearly a case a day.)
He has the charisma of an ’80s or ’90s action lead—the Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt type who could elevate a middling movie with sheer presence. That’s what happens here: the movie isn’t great, but Butler makes it worth watching.
The film’s real co-star is New York. Production designer Mark Friedberg nails the late-’90s grime: trash piled on sidewalks, graffiti everywhere, and the kind of downtown that feels dangerous and alive.
Aronofsky and his crew treat the city like a playground. A Chinatown chase through a fish market is sweaty and exhilarating. Later, the action spills into Queens and Brooklyn, turning the film into a borough tour complete with a great Mets-related sequence and a quieter moment on Coney Island. All of it’s powered by a blistering Idles soundtrack that keeps the film’s pulse high and erratic.
But Aronofsky gonna Aronofsky. The movie is soaked in violence—so much blood and nastiness it can be numbing. The first act in particular is a slog: oppressive, miserable, and full of Aronofsky emotional terrorism for no discernible reason.
It loosens up, veering into slapstick absurdity that eventually clicks. A highlight: Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio as Hasidic gunmen, with Carol Kane as their bubbe, hosting a Shabbat dinner with a delicious-looking matzah ball soup. A lowlight: whatever Bad Bunny is doing here. When Caught Stealing is less punishment and more caper, it sings.
That delicate tone puts it somewhere between prime Guy Ritchie and old Quentin Tarantino: not as fun as the former, not as sharp as the latter, but messy enough to keep you watching. And for all its flaws, I walked out satisfied.
Caught Stealing won’t win Oscars, but it delivers the rare thrill of watching a movie star carry a messy, mid-budget crime flick on charisma alone—a phenomenon I kind of miss. It’s violent, loud, and over the top, yet oddly refreshing.
I won’t think about it again, but I’ll admit to grinning, a few times, at the audacity of it all.
The Roses (Theaters)
What is it: A tinderbox of competition and resentments underneath the façade of a picture-perfect couple is ignited when the husband's professional dreams come crashing down.
Watch if you like: War of the Roses, The Favourite, The Great, Marriage Story, Couples Retreat
News and Notes:
Released today
Schmear’s Verdict: The Roses is a sharp, adult-minded anti-rom-com that thrives on Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch’s chemistry, Tony McNamara’s wit, and the simple joy of laughing along with a crowd.
The Roses is exactly the kind of mid-budget, adult-minded studio comedy people say they miss—and, irony of ironies, it’s arriving the same week as Caught Stealing, another one likely to underperform while scratching that very itch.
Seeing it in a theater was amazing—the audience was cracking up at the hilarity between Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch. The secret to successful comedy isn’t a gimmick; it’s great actors performing it, and here you’ve got two of the best, making a meal out of Tony McNamara’s (The Great, The Favourite) bouncy, delicious dialogue.
I haven’t seen War of the Roses, and a lot of the negative reviews of this new film seem tied to comparing this with the original. I went in fresh and had a wonderful time. The houses are impossibly immaculate. Jay Roach doesn’t add much flash directorially, but he shoots the comedy well, especially a big dinner table scene midway that’s uproarious. The movie takes real life and just turns the volume up. It’s not Marriage Story, but what it loses in realism, it makes up for in absurdity.
The supporting cast is full of winning performers like Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon, who, goddamnit, still makes me laugh with her same schtick. At just over 100 minutes, the whole thing moves. It doesn’t ask much of you, but in return it gives you appealing performers chewing on great lines.
McNamara is perceptive about the tiny slights and missed moments that eat away at a marriage. The ending is bitter and darkly funny, but there’s a hopeful thread here too. So much of it comes down to communication—sometimes your partner’s literally on the other side of the door waiting for you to knock, and if you don’t, that’s another crack in the foundation. The Roses understands death by a thousand paper cuts.
Colman and Cumberbatch are two of the most underrated comedic actors we have. Their timing is sharp, their chemistry is great, and the whole cast feels light and alive in a way we don’t see enough of anymore aside from on TV.
Cumberbatch is a sad sack holding himself to impossible standards; Colman’s talented and kind but sometimes uncaring. McNamara balances the flaws and strengths so neither of them feels fraudulent. For a 100-minute comedy, our leads feel rounded.
It’s an anti-rom-com that’s still a good time. Watch it in a theater, laugh along with people, then go home and debate with your partner if you’re closer to Colman or Cumberbatch. I didn’t need The Roses to be darker; it did exactly what it set out to do
A Little Prayer (Theaters)
What is it: A man tries to protect his daughter-in-law when he finds out that his son is having an affair.
Watch if you like: Junebug, Ordinary People, The Station Agent, Manchester by the Sea, On Golden Pond
News and Notes:
Released today
Premiered at Sundance 2023
Schmear’s Verdict: A Little Prayer is a tender, novelistic Southern drama—melodrama done right—where quiet truths and luminous performances outweigh spectacle.
A Little Prayer, written and directed by Angus MacLachlan, playwright and screenwriter of Junebug, is a film that exudes an energy deeply reflective of its setting in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A loping Southern drawl is not only how the characters speak but also how the movie moves and communicates.
It centers around a family and their dynamics. Specifically, it focuses on the older patriarch of the family, “Bill,” played by David Strathairn, and his daughter-in-law, “Tammy,” portrayed by Jane Levy. There's nothing salacious going on between them; they share a deep friendship and connection, something Bill feels even more profoundly than with his own children.
His son (Will Pullen), who works with him at a sheet metal factory, is a philandering lush. His daughter, played with the force of a hurricane by Anna Camp, can't be relied upon.
This leaves Bill and Tammy. They are kindred spirits. Every morning, they wake to a gospel alarm clock: an unseen woman wandering the neighborhood singing hymns. While the others find it annoying, these two see beauty in it.
The camerawork is notably mellow, assuming the role of an omniscient narrator, drifting into the characters' most intimate moments and spaces—bedrooms, doctor's appointments, and workplaces.
Bill is a Vietnam veteran. He is respectful and polite but also reserved and distant. There's a hint of darkness in him, a history he has perhaps left behind but hasn't entirely confronted, subdued under the surface of Southern gentility.
The film’s characters have so much depth, akin to a well-crafted novel. MacLachlan’s script softly delves into the intricacies of men and women, generational differences, and the secrets they keep. The words speak loudly, even if the volume is turned down. Everything is truthful; it's melodrama done right.
A Little Prayer might seem lacking in visual stimulation, but the gentle filmmaking is intentional. The cinematography showcases the sun-dappled south. Speaking to DP Scott Miller, he mentioned that MacLachlan wanted him to convey the "emotionality of light"—both its natural presence and its existence within each character. It makes sense since the film itself addresses serious topics with the genuine levity found in real life.
When the film concludes, with Levy and Strathairn connecting on a bench, we are deeply connected to them, understanding their challenges, strengths, and weaknesses. It's akin to reading the final, beautifully emotional chapter of a book.
Thanks for reading!