‘Caught Stealing’ Review

With ‘Caught Stealing’, Darren Aronofsky has delivered the all-too-rare Summer movie that is neither trying to win Oscars nor launch a blockbuster franchise. Its ambitions are more modest, and the resulting film is an entertaining crime caper powered by a movie star turn from Austin Butler, stylish directing and the kind of no-holds-barred storytelling that leaves the viewer on uneven footing throughout, not sure who is going to live or die at any moment.

Austin Butler stars as Hank Thompson, a former baseball prodigy now working as a bartender in New York after a traumatizing accident destroyed his dreams of reaching the big leagues. After his neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to cat sit while he returns to London to care for his ailing father, Hank finds himself on the wrong side of all of the city’s diverse and terrifying gangs, all of whom are looking for Russ, looking for some stolen money, and willing to hurt anybody and everybody to get what they want.

Butler has proven himself as both a critical darling and a box office draw, and yet his role as Hank feels like the kind of performance that cements him inarguably as a bonafide Movie Star. Whether he’s drunkenly leaping onto a table while belting along to that ‘90s classic ‘Bitch’, sliding under obstacles while running away from murderous gangsters, or simply staring out at the ocean, his presence commands attention. His performance is athletic and physical, emotional even as the character tries to bury his feelings down, all while feeling effortless and, even in his lowest moments, cool. This performance, and the movie as a whole, hearkens back to a simpler time in Hollywood, where the goal is not just to make billions of dollars, but to tell street level stories with characters, even an everyman like Hank, more glamorous than the average person.

While Butler is the star, the cast throughout gives consistently strong performances. Zoë Kravitz plays the loving but frustrated girlfriend, tired of watching Hank’s self destructive patterns when she knows he’s capable of more. The cast of characters pursuing Hank throughout the movie includes Regina King’s Detective Roman, skeptical that Hank is as innocent as he proclaims; Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio as the Drucker brothers, violent yet observant Hasidic gangsters; Bad Bunny as a Puerto Rican club owner; and a couple of sadistic Russians played by Yuri Kolokolnikov and Nikita Kukushkin. Then there are the myriad other small performances given by the likes of legends Griffin Dunne and Carol Kane that further add color and texture to this bizarre and violent world.

If there are standouts from this ensemble, Matt Smith leads the way as the punk rock neighbor who is equal parts earnest and confused. Every time he appears on screen, Smith brings levity and humor to the action as one-man antidote to the darkest moments of the plot. And then of course there’s Tonic, as Bud the Cat. Film history is filled with memorable dog performances, and yet rarely has a cat been more photogenic and more entertaining on screen.

Throughout his directing career, Darren Aronofsky has proven himself capable of making great art, exploring human psychology at scales both small and epic. Yet here, he chooses instead to make a great entertainment first and foremost, lending a visual style and energy to the proceedings that elevates a mid budget crime drama into a non-stop thrill where the stakes feel real, even as the violence is punctuated with moments of oddball humor. While the tone can veer from comedy into dark action, the violence being visceral and shocking, Aronofsky never feels not in control.

It is a testament to Aronofsky’s direction, and to Charlie Huston’s script, that Hank can call his mother every day, including an emotional warning that he’s going to appear on the news as a suspect in a series of murders, and end every call with ‘Go Giants’; yet it never feels like a punchline, but as an honest depiction of real characters in a real world.

As somebody who enjoys crime movies and loves baseball, I feel uniquely targeted by ‘Caught Stealing’. I’m happy to say the film lived up to my hopes, playing as it does grounding high stakes action with offbeat characters, comical even as they’re capable of grievous violence. With a tight script, filled with deliberate set ups and payoffs, ‘Caught Stealing’ is an immensely gratifying and absorbing action drama, depicting a grittier New York and working class underworld elevated by the Hollywood star treatment.

Caught Stealing
Rated R for strong violent content, pervasive language, some sexuality/nudity and brief drug use.
Running Time: 1 hour and 47 minutes

Director Darren Aronofsky
Writers Charlie Huston
Stars Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Benito Martinez Ocasio, Griffin Dunne, Carol Kane
Rating R
Running Time 107 Minutes
Genres Comedy, Crime, Thriller