Based on the Charlie Huston novels.

Charlie Huston! I remember reading this book 20 years ago. A fun little crime thriller. What an interesting choice for Aronofsky! Looks like the vibe is right...

Looks like Aronofsky making a 90s/00s era Ritchie movie, looks fun.

I like the cast (sans Bad Bunny) and director, but the trailer did nothing for me. I'll probably check it out despite the trailer.

Saw this tonight. It was a straight to dvd crime thriller with an A list cast. The Hebrew gangstas were amusing but that’s about it. The rest was a boring mess. Aronofskys worst film. 2.5/5

Woah!! Worse than "Mother!"!!! (I actually didn't mind that one but it has the pleasure of an F cinemascore)

No one should make that conclusion before spending $100 to see his weird hour long film at the Sphere.

I’ve gotta see Mother again. I didn’t know what to think of it after I saw it and never bothered to revisit. All I know is that I preferred Bong Joon Ho and Albert Brooks adaptations better.

I want to see it but it seems like something another director would do and not Aronofksy who seems to do more offbeat and unusual films.

Mother actually made me angry after it was over because I hated it so much.
I guess “art” is supposed to elicit a reaction and in that aspect it succeeded.
One time some lady screamed at me in a parking lot right after our band got done playing. We really offended her and she wanted to have her say. Eventually our drummer took over as the sounding board while we loaded out.
Probably one of my greatest accomplishments.

Harkins Theaters actually emailed me and said they issued a free ticket to my account. I rarely go there so I have A-List. But it’s a nice theater and free is free. So I’ll probably try to check this out Friday. Honestly this wasn’t really something I planned to see, but hell why not?

After about the midpoint I just didn't have any fun with this anymore. The movie still wants to have fun, but it was a bridge too far for me.

I thought this was great but damn it was BRUTAL!! The trailer gives zero indication of how dark this gets. Austin is in every scene and he was fantastic and he gets put through the fucking ringer. The secondary cast also do very well in their roles. Loved the 90s music. This is a way better New York story than Highest to Lowest. Stay and watch the end credits because they put some cool effects on them.

I really enjoyed it too, the only misstep was kind of a lighter tone when his friend returned that didn't match the situation they were in. But the movie powered through to a satisfying ending, with a fun cameo from his mom at the end.

I really enjoyed it. Nothing at all how it was marketed. It’s a pretty freaking dark movie with a high body coun. The quirky and humorous elements were very minimal. Butler plays a guy who just ends up being at the wrong place at the wrong time and all kinds of shit happens.

This was definitely a pleasant surprise for me. Butler was great. And Hank’s background comes full circle at the end.

Caught this today and enjoyed it overall. It's clearly Aronofsky working as a director for hire, but when the time comes for him to go full on Aronofsky, he does so. It does get pretty dark at times, and that kind of contradicts the quirky nature of some of the other parts. Kind of like an MCU movie in that regard.

The only thing I really didn't like was

This is a cool article about filming the chase scene late in the movie.

Yeah the trailer I saw did not fit the movie. It was good with a good cast. I was kind of expecting something a little different/special from Aronofsky, though.

This is the very definition of "less than the sum of its parts". So much talent for so little return. Letting Darren Aronofsky make a Guy Ritchie/Elmore Leonard-ish crime movie might have seemed like a good idea to someone, but that someone was wrong.

Tonally it was a borderline catastrophe and when the movie went full-on goofball even after

, all I felt was resentment. And while it was bad enough that it was trying so hard to be funny from that point on, the fact that it was failing made it even worse.

There's a version of this story that could have worked. Sometimes with pulpy material like this the best course of action is to just groove one over the plate and not get too cute.

Totally agree. It's a shame, because with just a minor tweak to that character's fate, the whole third act would have changed in tone. There's a fun After Hours type lark in here somewhere, but a strangely out-of-place sadistic edge ruins it. The book had the same issue, IMO.

I'll also submit the alcoholism stuff that was played completely straight and then just forgotten about when the movie got silly. I wasn't looking for Leaving Las Vegas or anything, but that's kind of the story the movie set up. Next thing you know we're all having a good laugh at Carol Kane's matzo ball soup. Ugh.

So you're saying that in this case the best approach was to betray the source material and go in its own direction? I'm not saying you're wrong, in some cases that probably is the best one. But with the author writing the script, that was highly unlikely.

Absolutely. Even speaking as an author myself, I acknowledge that film is just a different medium. In this case, that character fate hit much harder on the screen and had a profound impact on how the rest of the story played out. I would've had NO BEEF with Aronofsky taking that script and making adjustments for the good of the movie. I imagine that kind of thing happens all the time.

I read the comments here last week saying the trailer misrepresented the movie, so I went in prepared for something "brutal" and "dark", and honestly, I found it to be the movie I was expecting based on the trailers. While not overly comedic, all the characters came across as "quirky movie characters", so while I was entertained, I wasn't involved emotionally enough to be shocked or hit hard by anything. I kept thinking the cat must get cruelly killed at some point.

I enjoyed this, a fun movie, even though it certainly will be the last thing to come to mind when thinking of Aronofsky's body of work.

*EDIT I did leave to use the rest room for a couple minutes, and came back at the part where

Show it...no. The immediate aftermath...yes.