What’s it about?
New York’s Lower East Side, 1998. Hank (Austin Butler) is a former baseball prospect who has carved out a nice little life for himself tending bar, drinking heavily, and making time with his sometimes-girlfriend Yvonne (Zoe Kravitz). When his British punk neighbour Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to look after his cat on short notice, it pulls him into the orbit of a bunch of dangerous criminals.
What’d we think?
My main man Darren Aronofsky (most recently having directed The Whale) seemed like an odd choice for this kind of movie when it was first announced, given that his repertoire leans towards the dark and moody, but boy oh boy was it a treat to learn how wrong that initial assessment was. Based on screenwriter Charlie Huston’s novel of the same name, Caught Stealing draws from Elmore-Leaonard style pulp and has the madcap energy of early Guy Ritchie or Tarantino movies, while benefiting from the steady controlled eye that Aronofsky brings to the table. It’s an efficiently told little story, just twisty enough to deliver some genuine shocks (both dramatic and comedic) but straightforward enough that it never stops barreling along at near-breakneck pace.
The cast is stacked with great turns in small roles; from veteran character actors like Griffin Dunne and Carol Kane, rapper(s)-turned-actor(s) Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio (Bad Bunny) and Action Bronson, to a nearly unrecognisable Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio. It’s Austin Butler’s movie though, and it’s the most I’ve enjoyed him in a role. He plays Hank with a vulnerability and earnestness that overrode any annoyance that his handsomeness usually provokes (note: I’m aware that this is a personal issue), and keeps the movie feeling grounded in reality when it starts getting into darker and whackier territory.
Caught Stealing is funny, tragic, exhausting, and exhilirating. Actions have consequences, loss feels tangible, and pain is really, really sold as something you want to avoid. On top of all of this there’s a unique kind of terror that comes with watching a movie where the protagonist makes (mostly) sensible decisions the whole time, and still runs headlong into calamity.
Special mention has to be given to the original score by Rob Simonsen and Idles which gives the whole movie a grungy, sparkling energy that nails the late-90s New York vibe, as well as the best performance I’ve ever see from a feline actor (shoutout to Tonic the cat).
