Caught Stealing

by Mike McGranaghan

Austin Butler and director Darren Aronofsky need to do a lot of films together, just like Robert DeNiro/Martin Scorsese and Denzel Washington/Spike Lee. Butler’s fully-committed performance style meshes nicely with Aronofsky’s hard-edged approach. Their initial collaboration, Caught Stealing, isn’t a masterpiece, but it definitely displays the kind of frenetic energy that makes you want to see more.

Based on Charlie Huston’s novel, the movie casts Butler as Hank Thompson, a bartender on Manhattan’s Lower East Side during the late 1990s. He’s got an alcohol problem, a past trauma that haunts him, and a girlfriend named Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) who wants him to prove he’s willing to take the relationship seriously. When next-door neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) asks Hank to take care of his cat while he goes out of town, trouble begins. It turns out Russ has a pile of money belonging to some very bad people, and all of them think Hank knows where it’s stashed.

Thus begins a wild adventure through the seediest streets of New York, as Hank is chased by a couple of Russian goons, a Latino criminal (Benito Martinez Ocasio, a.k.a. rapper Bad Bunny), and two Hassidic gangsters, Lipa (Liev Schreiber) and Shmully (Vincent D’Onofrio). The only person who might potentially be able to help him is sarcastic police detective Roman (Regina King).

Caught Stealing is intentionally a little messy. At times, the story is very comical, then it becomes dark a minute later. Scenes of heavy emotional weight bump up against instances of light humor. The movie is alternately a comedy, a drama, and an action picture, often veering between those genres within a single sequence. Not everyone could pull that off, but Aronofsky does. Frequent tone-switching makes Hank’s adventure feel as off-the-rails for us as it does for him. There’s a freewheeling quality that’s exhilarating to watch, especially since you can’t easily predict where the ride will take you next.

Added to that is the incredible cinematography from three-time Oscar nominee Matthew Libatique. He visually takes us back in time, making the worst sections of the Lower East Side circa 1998 come alive. Because the setting looks and feels so vivid, the dangers Hank faces seem to be oozing from every corner. Like The Deer Hunter or The Brutalist, this is one of those cases where the photography perfectly sets the stage, enveloping the audience in a specific atmosphere. Rarely has the scuzzy side of NYC been so gloriously rendered onscreen.

As for Butler, I’d argue that he does some of the best work of his career. Many of the actor’s roles – like those in Elvis and Dune Part Two - cast him as larger-than-life figures. Here, he plays an ordinary guy with very relatable feelings, from wanting to be a good boyfriend to struggling with an incident from his past. Butler makes the guy real, even in the film’s most untamed moments. Everyone else in the cast provides strong support, the standout being Kravitz. She avoids the “girlfriend” cliches, turning Yvonne into a smart, capable figure in her own right.

The tonal shifts of Caught Stealing don’t quite work in a few spots, and it would have been nice to get a little more development of the Bad Bunny character. Butler and Aronofsky prove to be an exciting combo, though. Together with an ace supporting cast, they deliver a movie that’s funny, thrilling, and energizing.

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