What’s It About

When his punk-rock neighbour asks him to take care of his cat for a few days, New York City bartender Hank Thompson suddenly finds himself caught in the middle of a motley crew of threatening gangsters who all want a piece of him.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

Darren Aronofsky is a filmmaker who has dedicated himself to films that tinker with our psyches. From the quirky math fascination in Pi to the skewed ballet nightmare of Black Swan, he knows how to upset someone watching. So excitement ran high when I discovered he was making a crime comedy, set in 1990s New York! Unfortunately, Caught Stealing shows us what happens when a filmmaker known for taking big risks decides to color inside the lines. The movie follows Hank Thompson, played by Austin Butler, a guy who had everything going for him until life knocked him down hard. Back in high school, Hank looked like he might make it to the major leagues as a baseball player. Then a drunk driving accident smashed up his legs and killed those dreams. Now he’s moved from California to New York City, spending his nights pouring drinks at a dive bar and trying to forget his past with alcohol. Hank’s got a thing going with Yvonne, a paramedic played by Zoë Kravitz. She’s smart, gorgeous, and actually cares about this mess of a man, but she can tell he’s carrying around some serious emotional baggage. Their relationship feels real in a way that makes you root for them, even when you know Hank probably doesn’t deserve her patience. Everything goes wrong when Hank’s neighbor, Russ, asks him to watch his cat while he’s out of town. Russ is this British punk rocker kind of dude with a mohawk, played by Matt Smith, and it turns out, he is in some danger from dangerous people. When some Russian mobsters show up looking for something Russ has stashed, Hank gets caught up in a situation he could never see coming. What follows is a supposed wild ride through the criminal underground in New York City. There’s a corrupt detective played by Regina King, two violent Jewish gangsters who seem almost too crazy to be real (Vincent D’Onofrio and Liev Schreiber), and even Bad Bunny shows up as a sadistic criminal. Everyone wants to get their hands on four million dollars in cash that’s supposedly hidden somewhere, and they all think Hank knows where it is. The cast brings serious talent to their roles. D’Onofrio and Schreiber have fun playing these unhinged brothers who somehow make violence seem almost comedic. Regina King makes her detective character feel tough and street-smart, even when the script doesn’t give her much to work with. Matt Smith brings energy to his punk rocker role, and even the cat steals scenes. But here’s where the movie starts falling apart. At least in my opinion, Austin Butler looks way too good for a bartender who is broken down and sitting at the bottom of a bottle for over a decade. Even as they beat up Butler and cover him in fake cuts and bruises, he looks like he would be on a magazine, rather than tending bar in some disgusting dive bar in the Lower East Side. It’s hard to believe this guy has been living rough when he looks like he just stepped out of a Hollywood photo shoot. The bigger problem is that Aronofsky seems confused about what kind of movie he wants to make. Sometimes it feels like a dark comedy in the style of those post-Pulp Fiction crime movies from the late ’90s. Other times, it gets deadly serious about trauma and violence. The tone jumps around so much that you never know if you’re supposed to laugh or feel disturbed. About a third of the way through, the movie makes a choice that completely destroys its fun energy. Without giving anything away, someone we’ve grown to like gets hurt in a way that feels unnecessary and cruel. It’s the kind of moment that might work in a book, but on screen, it kills the energy, and everything that comes after seems hollow. The pace drags horribly. At 107 minutes, this should feel like a brisk, fun ride, yet it instead feels like a chore, and it is at least two times longer. Scenes that should zip by take forever to develop, and the movie keeps stopping to flash back to Hank’s traumatic car accident from years ago. We get it, he’s damaged and needs to face his past. The constant reminders become annoying rather than meaningful. What works best in the movie is the setting. The filmmakers clearly dedicated a lot of energy to authentically recreating the texture of 1990s New York City, which is key to the film. The city feels alive and dirty and real, almost like a character in its own right. Their production design zeroed in on that exact moment where the Lower East Side was still grimy while simultaneously being had begun to change. If you were living in New York at this time, I’m sure that some of the details will bring back haunting memories. Also, let’s not forget the work of Matthew Libatique! Action sequences look great when they happen, and the whole movie has this authentic ’90s vibe that was more than just the clothing and the music. You could almost smell the cigarettes and hear the traffic. Zoë Kravitz was able to bring warmth to what could have been a thankless role, her chemistry with Butler feels real, and we understand why she would stay with someone who was obviously struggling. Regina King commands attention whenever she’s on screen, and the supporting cast generally does solid work with what they’re given. The Jewish gangster characters provide some of the movie’s funniest moments, especially when they invite Hank to dinner with their grandmother. These scenes succeed because they straddle the line of ridiculous comical hilarity as well as violence, something that the rest of the film tries and fails to do. At the end of the day, Caught Stealing feels like a wasted opportunity. Aronofsky has the talent to make a successful crime thriller, but seems hesitant to take the plunge. He also tries to shoehorn in his ever present ‘meaning’ around suffering and redemption, which feels so forced in the context of the film. The movie wants to pay homage to the clever crime comedies of the 90s, but lacks the wit and cleverness of those films. Finally, when the credits roll, they are animated, and you realize that this has all the energy and creativity that was completely missing from the whole film, which makes it sort of disappointing. Caught Stealing is not good….but for a director who has made some amazing films (Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler), it is very average. Sometimes artists that have massively adventurous work have a hard time working in a “normal” capacity, which is where Caught Stealing leaves us.

OUR RATING – A PLAYS IT SAFE 5

MEDIA

• Genre – Action
• Street date
• Digital – September 30, 2025
• Blu-Ray/DVD – November 11, 2025
• Video – 1080p
• Screen size – 1.85:1
• Sound – English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Future: Dolby Digital 5.1, Audio descriptive
• Subtitles – English, Spanish, French

Extras

• Aronofsky: The Real Deal – Director Darren Aronofsky and Screenwriter/Author Charlie Huston explore the genesis of the film, the process of adaptation, and how to keep audiences guessing.
• Casting Criminals, Chaos, and a Cat – Austin Butler leads an incredible ensemble of actors – hear from the cast & crew on their characters, filming on set, and more!
• New York Story – From nosy neighbors to Black & White cookies, Caught Stealing is a love letter to New York.
• I Don’t Drive – Whether he’s running through traffic or hanging from a sixth-story balcony, Austin Butler brought an intense physicality to his performance as washed-up baseball player Hank Thompson.