Caught Stealing takes a wild and murderous ride through late ’90s New York City as a former baseball player pays a steep price for cat-sitting. Acclaimed crime novelist Charlie Huston adapts his first “Henry Thompson” novel for the big screen, with Darren Aronofsky behind the camera and Austin Butler as the hapless protagonist. Butler’s role here is pretty much to serve as a human punching bag while a cast of Hollywood stalwarts chew up the screen in truly distinct supporting roles. There’s no shortage of bloody and entertaining twists, but the narrative fails the logic test with significant plot holes and completely implausible reactions to harrowing violence. That being said, Aronofsky does succeed in capturing a unique time period and setting before America’s greatest skyline was forever changed.
The Twin Towers loom majestically over Manhattan’s Alphabet City neighborhood circa 1998, as Hank (Butler), the bartender at Paul’s Bar, yells last call to the drunken revelers. Hank, a former high school baseball star who’s always wearing his San Francisco Giants baseball cap, pours a final round while chiding inebriated Mets fans; he never misses a game, and loves to trash talk the New York teams. Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz), Hank’s paramedic girlfriend, arrives just in time for a late-night hook-up. They race up his apartment’s staircase to get down to business, but are interrupted as Hank’s punk neighbor Russ (Matt Smith), resplendent with a Mohawk, tattoos and piercings, thrusts his cat towards Hank. His father’s sick in London, and he needs Hank to watch his not-so-friendly feline for a few days.
The Perils of Cat-Sitting
Caught Stealing
3
/5
- Release Date
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August 29, 2025
- Director
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Darren Aronofsky
- Writers
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charlie huston
- Producers
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Ari Handel, Jeremy Dawson
The next morning, Yvonne kisses Hank goodbye. He’s halfway through breakfast when he hears heavy pounding on Russ’ door. The towering Aleksei (Yuri Kolokolnikov) and diminutive psychopath Pavel (Nikita Kukushkin) don’t believe that Russ is gone; they’re looking for something important, and beat the tar out of Hank for good measure. He wakes up a few days later in the hospital with a worried Yvonne at his side. Detective Elise Roman (Regina King) finds it difficult to believe that Hank doesn’t know anything about Russ’ illegal activities. He still doesn’t have a clue what the Russians wanted, and Elise warns him to be vigilant — Aleksei and Pavel are teddy bears compared to what comes next. Orthodox Jewish gangsters Lipa (Liev Schreiber) and Shmully (Vincent D’Onofrio) are ruthless killers. Hank had better find this mysterious item, or his next trip will be to the morgue.
Caught Stealing establishes its primary characters and setting before shifting into a higher gear for nonstop action in the second act. By comparison, the setup is slow, giving the audience a peek into Hank’s psyche. He’s driven by a love for baseball, and the promising athletic career that could have been. Flashbacks illuminate Hank’s dark past, but he’s seemingly got a bright future with Yvonne. They’re madly in love and at an inflection point: Do they pull back on the romantic reins or plunge deeper into a steamy relationship? Hank has to make a choice, but that’s hard to do when unforgiving criminals have him on their radar. What were they looking for? Does he need leverage to protect himself?
Zoë Kravitz as Yvonne
This thorny question makes sense, but Hank’s reaction to the first butt-whooping doesn’t. Hank offers himself like a sacrificial lamb devoid of self-preservation, returning home with a slew of killers possibly waiting on his doorstep. Hank’s still clueless — Russ is who they really want. So why become a pawn in a deadly game, when simply vanishing would have sufficed? Caught Stealing purposely portrays Hank as inept to stir the black-humor pot, but it’s unrealistic for him not to take protective measures when dealing with such cold-blooded villains. Each shocking turn is prefaced by him acting foolishly, oblivious to the repercussions despite already having paid a heavy price.
Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, The Whale) remains true to form with excellent camerawork and slick action choreography. He employs steady cam rigs, cranes, drones and flawless visual effects to film long and frenetic chase scenes, and the city becomes a cinematic accomplice as Hank runs across rooftops, through dingy alleys and seedy establishments. This environment frames Hank’s decisions about where to hide or who to ask for help. We also get a shotgun tour of the city before the 9/11 terrorist attack and gentrification of the Lower East Side in its aftermath. It looks cool, and certainly inspires nostalgia for those of us who remember the old neighborhood. But Caught Stealing falls prey to style over substance under critical analysis.
Don’t Bring a Bat to a Gun Fight
Butler’s decent enough, running around and getting pummeled; a smarter, more aware Hank would have been more realistic. But it’s fun watching greats like Smith, Schreiber and D’Onofrio ham it up with wacky characterizations — it’s almost as if Aronofsky is channeling his inner Guy Ritchie, with a nod to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch and RocknRolla. The punk and Hasidim depictions are similar to those in Ritchie’s work, but the outcomes aren’t funny here: The plot gets downright bleak by the end, as tragedy deflates the comedy. Aronofsky doesn’t quite find an overall tonal balance, but Caught Stealing is interesting and well-acted by the supporting ensemble.
Caught Stealing is a production of Columbia Pictures and Protozoa Pictures. It will be released theatrically on August 29th by Sony Pictures.
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