October 24–31, 1996

movie shorts

Caught

Caught lays a beguiling lo-fi look on top of noirish themes, and gives Maria Conchita Alonso at last a terrifically dense and intricate part. Narrator-protagonist Arie Verveen begins the movie as a homeless man who, running from the cops, stumbles into a fish store owned by Edward James Olmos (who gives a beautifully nuanced performance) and his wife (Alonso). The couple takes Verveen on as worker and boarder; soon he and Alonso are having heavy-breathing sex at any opportunity (when Olmos is out or asleep). What's quirky here is the tension of Verveen's roles: he's a substitute son, not only for Olmos, but for Alonso as well. Her relationship with their real son (Steven Schub), a stand-up comic living in L.A. who sends his doting mom videos rehearsing his macabre material (a knife-effect in the chest, some sulky attempts at jokes) is definitely weird. When Schub makes a surprise visit (with wife and baby in tow), the already-charged situation goes over the edge. Directed by Robert M. Young, the movie is deep into metaphors (fish, Oedipus, heart attacks), sometimes disturbing, and often engrossing.

—Cindy Fuchs