Freeze Frame: "Caught Stealing" (R), "The Roses" (R), "The Thursday Murder Club" (PG-13)

29/08/2025 2 min

Listen "Freeze Frame: "Caught Stealing" (R), "The Roses" (R), "The Thursday Murder Club" (PG-13)"

Episode Synopsis


Can Austin Butler carry a movie outside of "Elvis?" If the comic thriller "Caught Stealing" is any indication, the answer is 'Yes.' Butler is fine as a baseball washout who unwittingly becomes the target of rival gangsters when his next door neighbor disappears after asking him to cat-sit. It's essentially a 70s-style drive-in movie with wannabe Hitchcock vibes. It's got a great cast that also includes Oscar winner Regina King, Zoe Kravitz and Bad Bunny, and was made by a first-rate director -Darren Aronofsky- who's gone slumming in a new genre. "Caught Stealing" is finely crafted sleaze.

When is a movie smart, witty, well-acted AND very unpleasant? When it's "The Roses," a re-imagining of the snarky 80s Michael Douglas-Kathleen Turner black comedy “The War of the Roses,” an adaptation of Warren Adler’s novel. Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Coleman are excellent as a married couple whose petty bickering and jealousy ultimately lead to an eruption. Kate McKinnon and Andy Samberg add some cynical comic touches in support. The mood swings are pretty wild with this one, and whether the bitter exchanges are funny or exhausting is in the ear of the beholder. “The Roses” is one nasty middle finger salute to marriage.

Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley star in the Netflix mystery, "The Thursday Murder Club," based on the bestselling novel. They play residents of an upscale retirement home who work on solving cold cases for fun...but things get dicey when homicide hits close to home. Under the direction of "Home Alone" vet Chris Colombus, it's an easygoing whodunit that plays a bit like an old episode of "Murder She Wrote."

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