A onetime baseball prodigy (an excellent Austin Butler) now struggling along as a bartender in 1998 NYC agrees to cat-sit for his dodgy British neighbor (Matt Smith) and, no surprise, ends up in the middle of a monstrous criminal enterprise involving several lethally unpleasant people. Auteur Darren Aronofsky enhances this Hitchcockian innocent-man setup and adds a definite Coen Brothers vibe. But don’t be calling this darkly comic, grimly charming thrill ride derivative just yet.

As the story unfolded, I was having a hard time imagining Aronofsky, who has given us such cerebral epics as Pi, The Wrestler and Black Swan (but, alas, also Noah and The Whale) making a fast-paced dramedy. By the end, though, I realized that it had been a while since I had been this entertained.

The film serves up myriad surprises (warning: some terrible violence as well), a tight and twisty script and great depictions of late-90s NYC poseurs and creeps. But ultimately, it works due to the terrific cast, which includes Zoe Kravitz and Regina King (both underused) and cameos by Carol Kane, Bad Bunny and Griffin Dunne. And it shifts into overdrive toward the explosive ending when Leiv Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio show up as kosher-observant Hasidic hit men. Classic! Stay for the closing credits. (107 min)