Sony PicturesCaught Stealing is a Darren Aronofsky movie unlike any the director has made before, being a shot of adrenaline fueled fun that doesn’t have a huge amount on its mind beyond entertaining the audience.
In 1985, Martin Scorsese had critics scratching their heads when, after more than a decade of acclaimed dramas and gangster movies, he made low-budget screwball comedy After Hours.
Darren Aronosky is doing something similar with Caught Stealing, a blackly comic crime caper that’s quite unlike the similarly heavy dramas that made his name. The film even features a fantastic role for After Hours star Griffin Dunne.
And while it doesn’t go to the weird places that made Scorsese’s movie so memorable – and helped it’s reappraisal over the intervening years – Caught Stealing is nevertheless an unpredictable watch, anchored by a likeable Austin Butler turn.
What is Caught Stealing about?
Sony PicturesButler plays Hank, a slacker who relies on his good looks and easygoing charm to get by in 1998 New York. Hank drinks too much, but loves dogs, baseball, and his mom, and is really just a good small-town boy trying to survive in the big city.
But then Hank agrees to do a favor for his neighbor Russ (Matt Smith, clearly having a good time), a punk whose license plate reads ‘RSS HOLE,’ (which tells you pretty much all you need to know about him).
Russ is rushing back to England for family reasons, and asks Hank to feed his beloved pet cat. Which should be a simple enough task, but instead starts a chain of events that puts Hank at odds with gangsters, drug dealers, corrupt cops, and Bad Bunny. All of which mean this small-town boy might not be surviving for all that much longer.
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There’s also a love story, the film’s early scenes concerned with Hank’s burgeoning relationship with Yvonne (Zoe Kravitz), who wants him to quit “acting stupid,” and start taking responsibility for his actions.
That in turn is connected to the PTSD from which Hank is suffering, due to a terrible accident for which he still feels guilt. Issues that give Caught Stealing some thematic resonance, about broken dreams, and dealing with the ghosts from your past, to be present in the present.
Walking a tonal tightrope
Sony PicturesWhich probably makes it sound like one of those aforementioned heavy dramas. But in reality, Caught Stealing is just as concerned with wacky characters having foot chases, car chases, and shoot outs.
All of which makes it more akin to early Guy Ritchie and more recent Safdie brothers, or movies like Big Lebowski and Pineapple Express, where unlikely characters suddenly find themselves in dangerous waters, where they either sink or swim.
It’s based on Charlie Huston’s entertaining 2004 novel of the same name, and in adapting the material himself, Huston has maintained the wild shifts in tone and genre that ensure you’re never quite sure where Caught Stealing is headed next.
Though because the movie careers from one fun set-piece to the next, there isn’t time for Hank – and by proxy the audience – to process a key character’s death midway through proceedings, and that sadness hangs over the movie in a way that really should have been addressed.
Is Caught Stealing good?
Sony PicturesNone of this works if Hank isn’t cast correctly, and Austin Butler nails it, bringing a tough masculinity to the role – particularly when wielding a baseball bat – but also imbuing Hank with just the right amount of vulnerability.
You can see why Yvonne loves him, and also why she’s constantly annoyed by Hank’s inability to get out of his own way, which helps their relationship to ring true.
Elsewhere Regina King and Liev Schreiber deliver surprising turns which we won’t spoil here, while Russian actor Nikita Kukushkin steals every scene he’s in as a psychotic gangster who seems more animal than man.
It looks great, thanks to the work of Aranofsky’s longtime cinematographer Matthew Libatique, and impressive recreations of 1990s New York, including a cameo from Kim’s Video. While it sounds superb, thanks to unexpected song choices from the era, as well as a bunch of rocking Idles tunes.
Caught Stealing score: 3/5
Darren Aronofsky, Austin Butler, and everyone involved in Caught Stealing is clearly having a blast, and that fun factor bleeds through the screen, in a movie that delivers twists and turns and tonal shifts that’ll make your head spin.
Caught Stealing hits cinemas on August 29, 2025.
Review of Caught Stealing
OK
Darren Aronofsky, Austin Butler, and everyone involved in Caught Stealing is clearly having a blast, and that fun factor bleeds through the screen, in a movie that delivers twists and turns and tonal shifts that'll make your head spin.