It’s one of the best movies of the summer, a wild mix of thrilling and thoughtful, dark but sweet, featuring a rangy, charismatic performance by Austin Butler and a Siberian Forest cat named Bud (Tonic) whom filmmaker Darren Aronofsky describes as brilliant–from hitting his marks to acting injured! Tonic is in stellar company: Zoë Kravitz, Regina King, Bad Bunny, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Griffin Dunne, and Carol Kane co-star! TRAILER HERE!
“Caught Stealing” begins when Hank Thompson (Butler) aimless bartender and erstwhile HS baseball prodigy agrees to take care of his Mohawk-wearing British neighbor(a hilarious Matt Smith)’s cat. When assorted gangsters including Russian mobsters (Nikita Kukushkin, Yuri Kolokolnikov) then gun-toting Hasidic Jews (Schreiber and D’Onofrio) come knocking on Russ’s door looking for something they think he stole, Hank is suddenly swept up in a maelstrom of murder and mayhem against the gritty cityscape of late 90’s New York.
Hank spends the film getting pummeled and running for his life, trying to figure out what everyone wants from him: the gangsters (Bad Bunny is really good here as he aims a pistol at Hank’s crotch), the police (a fierce Regina King), his beautiful, no-nonsense girlfriend Yvonne (a spot on Kravitz) with whom he has great sex and who patiently tends his wounds as she rolls her eyes. Thank god she’s an EMT–this guy needs help while he figures out what he wants from himself and the world now that baseball is not in the cards and alcohol is his favorite energy drink.
Aronofsky and his frequent cinematographer Matthew Libatique (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan; also A Star Is Born with director Bradley Cooper) shoot for maximum impact in every frame, underscoring storytelling, emotional impact, and forward momentum. Aronofsky rides a tricky tone, by turns tender and terrifying, puckish and punishing, while pivoting around a propulsive plot based on Charlie Huston’s book turned screenplay. There’s an almost slapstick verve in the chase sequences. Butler’s Hank is slow on the uptake but up to the task as he scrambles Buster Keaton-like across traffic, down city streets, sliding under and over anything in his way, and redeploying his baseball skills as he heads for home. Despite his sweet good looks Butler is instantly believable as a muscular everyman who’s lost his way, but once jolted into action improvises on the fly– with his cat in tow. Adorable.
Though the movie is dark and plenty sad with corruption and violence at almost every turn, innocence and humor are laced throughout this tangled odyssey which notably takes place on the cusp of the last century: pre-9/11, pre-social media, pre-Columbine, pre-political chaos, when it was possible to imagine our hero would surely find his way out despite the darkness closing in. We seem to have caught Darren Aronofsky stealing some fun at the precipice of a decidedly different cultural moment and millenium; now at the conclusion of summer 2025, it feels harder than ever to find a way out.
