Darren Aronofsky directs with gleeful energy, flair and dark humour that straddles a mischief/malice borderline. Austin Butler plays Hank, a fallen baseball star turned booze-addicted bartender whose disastrous exit from the sport and bright future is revealed in nightmare flashbacks. Zoe Kravitz plays Yvonne, a smart, beautiful paramedic and Hank's only good thing. A favor for a dodgy British friend leads to a savage beating by Russian loan sharks and entanglements with two Hassidic enforcers. Matt Smith gives a broad, mohawk-sporting turn as the friend. Carol Kane's Bubbe provides sagely, cautionary advice. The film blends confrontational extravagance with dark comedy and violent thrills.
The non-batting runner, having only made it a certain way around the field, gets tagged out by a fielder trying to steal, or sneak up, on a base from the one behind. As far as the non-metaphorical meaning goes, no one in this movie is actually apprehended in the act of theft. But in a world where home runs are unavailable to most, the idea of cheekily trying for covert advantage
Charlie Huston's violent crime novel of the same name from 2004 has been adapted for the screen by the author, and Darren Aronofsky directs with gleeful energy, flair and a dark humour that straddles the mischief/malice borderline. Incredible to think that his last film was the solemn and inertly sententious body-image drama The Whale. This has more of the confrontational extravagance and energy of his earlier work;
Austin Butler plays Hank, a former baseball star and booze-addicted bartender in New York whose disastrous exit from the sport and from his own bright future is progressively disclosed in nightmare flashbacks. The only good thing in his life is his smart, beautiful girlfriend Yvonne, played by Zoe Kravitz, a paramedic whose professional skills come in useful. When Hank good-naturedly agrees to look after a
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