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TWINLESS
In a Portland-shot and -set movie where nothing is quite what you think it is, filmmaker James Sweeney’s Twinless is the dark dramedy for our present moment. Starring Sweeney and Dylan O’Brien as two guys who meet at a support group for twins who have lost their siblings, it starts out down what seems a familiar path before swerving into a totally new one that’s as wholly unexpected as it is sharply written. What this entails must be kept under wraps, but let it suffice to say that this well-crafted film got the crowd talking at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for good reason. With each new development in what very nearly becomes a psychological thriller, Sweeney ratchets up the tension just as he dials up the emotional stakes, getting more than his fair share of laughs before pushing us to reflect more deeply on the isolation and loneliness that comes from loss. If that weren’t enough, it also features a scene-stealing performance by the great Aisling Franciosi of The Nightingale who breaks the whole film wide open and embodies the central thematic throughline of people being more than we realize. Best see it before people give away what has all the makings for a modern Portland classic. R. CHASE HUTCHINSON. Hollywood, Living Room Theaters.
CAUGHT STEALING
Caught Stealing’s title references baseball, not Jane’s Addiction. Hank (Austin Butler) is a former batting phenom-turned-alcoholic bartender after a car accident derails his major league dreams. In between drinks, he watches San Francisco Giants games and has extremely photogenic sex with Zoë Kravitz, but when his punk neighbor (a be-Mohawked Matt Smith) leaves town and asks Hank to watch the cat, he’s soon an unwitting participant in a criminal conspiracy involving $4 million, the Russian mob and two Hasidic hit men (Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio). With director Darren Aronofsky revisiting the seedy New York City milieu of his earliest and best films, Caught Stealing is mostly a jolly, hyperviolent romp that’s like Guy Ritchie’s Snatch set in a pre-Strokes Lower East Side. However, Charlie Huston’s script, based on his own novel, teases out Hank’s tragic backstory a bit too much, and the film’s body count is brutal enough to suck out a bit of the fun. Still, the charming cast includes Regina King, Bad Bunny, and—in an apt hat tip to After Hours—Griffin Dunne. Butler is more or less up to the challenge of playing an improbably handsome fuck-up who’s forced to bash some skulls with his baseball bat. R. NED LANNAMANN. Academy, Bagdad, Cinema 21, Hollywood, Laurelhurst, Living Room Theaters, St. Johns Twin Cinemas, Studio One Theaters, AMC, Cinemark and Regal locations.
SPLITSVILLE
Splitsville arrives at a time when it seems few original comedies, and fewer rom-coms, make it to the big screen. Though imperfect, it feels like a breath of fresh air from the same force that brought director and co-writer Michael Angelo Covino’s underrated 2022 look at lifelong bromances, The Climb. Here, Portland-born co-writer Kyle Marvin stars as Carey who, after his wife (Adria Arjona) asks for a divorce, discovers the idea of open marriages through his best friend (Covino) and his wife (co-producer Dakota Johnson). This ends up spelling disaster for all involved, and while that doesn’t sound like the funniest premise for this genre on paper, it reaches hysterical limits you wouldn’t think possible. Corvino’s long takes are not just impressively choreographed, they allow the characters’ emotions to emerge in awkwardly funny moments. These people’s struggles for calm, their impulsiveness, their need for boundaries in a lifestyle with none—all of this comes naturally rather than seeming forced from the performances. Maybe some people want a serious drama to unpack an open marriage’s complexities, but they really ought to lighten up. R. MAX FAINARU-WADA. Cinema 21.
HIGHEST 2 LOWEST
True to its title, Highest 2 Lowest showcases both the best and worst instincts of director Spike Lee, leaving what should have been a slam-dunk project to flounder somewhere in the middle. Based on Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low (itself based on the novel King’s Ransom by Ed McBain), the film stars Denzel Washington as David King, a once-legendary hip-hop mogul who’s staking his fortune to ensure the future of his label. When his son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) is abducted, David immediately agrees to pay the hefty ransom—until he learns the kidnappers mistakenly grabbed Trey’s best friend (Elijah Wright), the son of David’s longtime chauffeur (Jeffrey Wright). Some of Highest 2 Lowest’s best moments are when Washington and Wright, two masters of the craft, extract tremendous drama and heartbreak from scenes of subtle tension over David’s moral dilemmas. It’s a pity that these scenes are undercut by Howard Drossin’s score: bombastic orchestrations whose melodramatic nature is at odds with the tender, naturalistic performances onscreen. The music works in the back half, when the hunt for the villain takes precedence, and when it employs needle drops that celebrate New York’s diverse musical history—not just rap, but also funk, jazz and even showtunes. There’s enough to recommend in Highest 2 Lowest that it’s worth it for fans of Spike Lee’s previous joints, but after turning in modern hits like BlacKkKlansman and Da 5 Bloods, we know Da Man From Brooklyn is capable of better. Ya dig? Sho nuff. R. MORGAN SHAUNETTE. AppleTV+ starting Sept. 5.
