Caught Stealing (2025)
Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, Black Swan) shifts gears with a throwback to '90s Tarantino-esque crime films with the entertaining Caught Stealing.
Austin Butler (Elvis) plays
Hank, a former baseball phenom whose career was cut short due to injury and is
now tending bar in Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1998. When Hank's neighbor
Russ (Matt Smith) abruptly leaves to visit his ailing father in England and
asks Hank to watch his cat, a variety of scary criminal types start showing up
at the apartment looking for Russ. Specifically, they are looking for something
very valuable that Russ has hidden.
Caught Stealing has a mean,
nasty edge to it (the beatings in this film all seem like they hurt), as well
as the sense of humor that characterized the '90s crime boom in cinema that
started with Tarantino. Butler makes a strong lead, and he's ably supported by
the collection of rogues the film surrounds him with (Liev Schreiber and
Vincent D'Onofrio as homicidal Hasidic brothers are a highlight). Aronofsky
also proves to be impressively adept at action scenes. There's a great chase
scene in the film's first hour with outstanding practical stunt work as Butler
hurdles, slides, dodges, and sprints away from Schreiber and D'Onofrio.
Caught Stealing may not quite
soar to the heights of something like Pulp Fiction, but it's a
consistently entertaining film and is a type of film that people complain never
gets made anymore. If you're the type who makes that complaint, go see Caught
Stealing in theaters or don't complain about Hollywood continuing to feed
everyone a steady diet of superhero movies.
