’Caught Stealing’ review: Austin Butler stars in Darren Aronofsky’s uneven New York crime thriller

Dir: Darren Aronofsky. US. 2025. 107mins

Set in 1998 in New York Metropolis’s Decrease East Facet, the uneven crime thriller Caught Stealing is an admirable try by Darren Aronofsky to be friskier but extra typical in a style that usually rewards a by-the-numbers strategy. Tailored by Charlie Huston from his novel of the identical identify, the movie follows Henry ’Hank’ Thompson (Austin Butler), a lean, dashing bartender embroiled in a gangland conflict that threatens to hazard his family members. Although copious bloodshed and loads of backstabbing does ensue, this laborious movie is finest when the quirkier tone shakes viewer expectations.

The off-kilter humour means that Aronofsky needed to make a much less miserabilist movie

With a world rollout starting August 27, the Sony Photos Releasing movie hits cinemas within the US and UK August 29. Whereas the Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman two-hander The Roses seems to be to be Caught Stealing’s largest theatrical competitors, Aronofsky’s casting of Butler, blended with a punkish soundtrack that includes songs by the Idles, ought to see this movie interesting to youthful audiences. Those that have come to applaud Aronofsky for doing the sudden may additionally be intrigued by a movie that’s fairly completely different from, say, Mom! or The Whale. 

Hank’s issues start at 4am. Along with his bar close to closing, his paramedic girlfriend Yvonne (an underused Zoë Kravitz) seems to accompany him residence. Hank is a small-town Californian who cares about two issues: calling his mom on daily basis and San Francisco Giants baseball. Each are remnants of Hank’s as soon as promising baseball profession, which was derailed by a tragic accident that continues to hang-out his desires. Nonetheless, Hank regales Yvonne in regards to the Giants needing to cross the Mets and catch the Cubs for the ultimate wild card spot (that curiosity pays dividends later within the movie). When Hank and Yvonne arrive at his house, his punkish English neighbor Russ (Matt Smith), who’s leaving for London to take care of his ailing father, asks Hank to take care of his cat. 

The comedic peculiarities take maintain early on, and can come to be Caught Stealing’s saving grace. Hank’s different subsequent door neighbor Duane (George Abud) turns into an pleasurable working bit that begins when two Russian mobsters looking for Russ take their displeasure out on Hank. The nerdy Duane usually storms into the hallway demanding quiet, however is normally shouted down by stronger characters. An intimidating Detective Roman (Regina King) delivers an oddball bark that’s quickly adopted by more and more efficient bites. Murderous Jewish brothers Lipa (Liev Schreiber) and Shmully (Vincent D’Onofrio) additionally start sniffing round.

The movie’s off-kilter humour means that Aronofsky needed to make a much less miserabilist movie. Actually, Caught Stealing is weakest when the director tries to achieve for the type of excessive emotion and trauma that marked works like The Whale and Black Swan. When the Russian mobsters beat Hank so badly he wants a kidney eliminated, thereby eliminating his potential to drink, the movie barely acknowledges his alcoholism. His PTSD is equally left unremarked upon. Even when Hank begins to lose these he loves, the losses really feel hole. Aronofsky treats their demise as mere information of this world, however hardly ever one thing to be mourned or mirrored upon. As a substitute, Butler sheds a number of tears, and continues to navigate the many individuals looking him. 

Cinematographer Matthew Libatique (Highest 2 Lowest) spends quite a lot of time trying into Butler’s eyes, that are stuffed with immeasurable sorrow. These genuinely human moments are roughly contrasted from the movie’s dingy rendering of Nineteen Nineties New York Metropolis, whose muted hues are a tad too self-serious for a borderline romp. When Schreiber and D’Onofrio absolutely emerge within the movie’s closing act, you come to see the outlandish brutality Caught Stealing may possess if Aronofsky allowed the motion to be extra cartoonish, and gave extra space to the idiosyncratic characters performed by Griffin Dunne and Carol Kane so as to add additional texture.