Revisiting Steven Spielberg's Undersung Masterpiece, 'Catch Me If You Can'
In some ways, it is overlooked precisely because it was directed by a master like Spielberg: 'Catch Me If You Can' would be anyone else's undisputed greatest work.
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Catch Me If You Can is a well-loved but still underappreciated film: the kind of movie that, were it made by almost anyone else, would be rightfully thought of as their masterpiece. But it was made by Steven Spielberg, who has made so many masterpieces that Catch Me If You Can gets lost in the shuffle. But at almost two decades’ distance, it stands out as a shining bright spot of the latter part of Spielberg’s career.
It is one of the films that made me fall in love with cinema. It’s one of the films that I watched as a kid that really blew up what I thought films could be and do. I have watched it so many times, and I’m always taken off-guard by how extraordinarily well-made it is: impeccably structured, bursting with extraordinary performances, and so goddamn exciting. Just as thrilling as the first time, every time.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Frank Abagnale Jr., a teenager turned conman who over the course of the film successfully poses as a Pan Am …