AUSTIN BUTLER FINDS RHYTHM AND PACE WITH DIRECTOR DARREN ARONOFSKY
by PETER THOMAS BUSCH
The American Dream always had the supplementary list of tragic failures and deadly misfortunes.
Director Darren Aronofsky continues with his series of psychological realism films with a story about a teenage phenom, baseball player whose promising career suddenly ends on the eve of the professional draft.
The trauma from the life changing accident recurs to knock the hero down over and over again, through the life of Henry “Hank” Thompson, after he moves from California to New York City.
Austin Butler finds rhythm and pace acting in the leading role as the bartender haunted by the missed opportunity at greatness. Zoe Kravitz is cast well as Yvonne, Hank’s girlfriend.
Aronofsky does well in casting several character roles, with Liev Schreiber playing a gangster hiding out as an Orthodox Jew, and Matt Smith as Hank’s neighbour, a London punk rocker working the New York clubs controlled by the Russian mob.
The narrative gradually builds anticipation with the camera following Butler around the New York City neighbourhood set in the 1990s.
The prop department rolled out all the Big 4 automaker vehicles from the decade that have not yet found an end in the scrapyard. And the sets are primarily the inside of the unrenovated outdated tenements or the one dimly lit bar and pool table.
Butler incrementally builds his character’s personality as that good natured All-American sports hero who feels bad for those around him who have been negatively impacted by the mistakes he has made.
Hank seems to be succeeding again with the responsibilities of a barkeep. And the well adjusted Yvonne is happy, and makes Hank happy when they are together.
Aronofsky, though, puts trouble in Hank’s way.
The director in The Whale (2022), has Brendan Fraser playing an obese father trying to reconnect with his daughter. In Mother! (2017) Jennifer Lawrence plays a pregnant mother whose uninvited house guests become more and more suspicious. And in Black Swan (2010), Natalie Portman plays a dancer trying to survive the fierce competition of the ballet.
Butler must put his character’s value system to the muster as the narrative leads Hank into one misfortune after another, as a type of innocent bystander continually reminded of a guilty past.
Butler and Kravitz can only compel the narrative so far though, before the other unique characters begin to drive the interest in the plot and Aronofsky begins to layer dark humor into the crime thriller.
The second unit camera takes the characters to different parts of New York City not usually captured in films, such as the car lanes on the Brooklyn Bridge, and the empty spaces of Flushing Meadows and Coney Island during the off seasons.
Good editing drives everything together, such as the characters and the aesthetics of 1990 New York, and a suspenseful storyline.