Movies directed by Darren Aronofsky have won 3 Oscars and been nominated for 11 more, but his latest movie Caught Stealing is a dramatic change of pace and genre. For people who enjoy action or thriller movies over awards-bait dramas, that’ll certainly be a well-received shift, but fans of Black Swan, The Whale or Mother! will have to temper their expectations.
Based on a 2004 novel by Charlie Huston, who also wrote the screenplay, Caught Stealing is a gritty crime drama set in New York City’s underbelly. It’s the kind of premise that many first-time directors turn to, but Aronofsky brings the expertise of a storied career (and the budget to match).
Elvis star Austin Butler leads the cast as Hank Thompson, a former high school baseball player, now a bartender, stuck in the past and unable to move on from one bad decision many years prior. When his neighbor skips town in a hurry, a motley crew of gangers and corrupt cops begin hunting for the figure, and as Hank is caught in the crossfire, he quickly gets in over his head.
Butler does great work as a tortured bartender and he’s not alone; along his journey he’s joined by Zoë Kravitz as his ‘fling who could be more’ Yvonne, Matt Smith as neighbor and British punk rocker Russ, Regina King as police detective Roman and Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio and Carol Kane as members of a crime family after Russ.
Sadly, the surprisingly large cast means that we don’t get that much time with any of the supporting cast, perhaps save for Roman. Scant time is spent exploring the motivations of Hank’s antagonists, or even his allies, and some characters are snuffed out surprisingly early (though I won’t say who for fear of spoilers).
Perhaps the standout role of the movie is Russ’ cat, which Hank has to look after throughout the movie; it veers between adorable, funny and nasty enough to easily promote it into the pantheon of best movie cats.
There’s no getting away from the fact that Caught Stealing is a fairly formulaic crime drama; we’ve probably all seen stories of young everymen dragged into dangerous plots and attempting to get out with their lives. Elevating Caught Stealing is not only the great performances across the board but also the higher budget than these movies normally get, which facilitates some fun action sequences including a visceral foot chase through a food market and a car chase through Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
A humorous undercurrent also helps the movie along the way; it’s not a laugh-out-loud action comedy by any means, but it’s not taking itself as seriously as some of the dry crime thrillers that overload streaming services.
Darren Aronofsky’s movies often deal with psychological themes, and although his exploration of Hank’s past traumas works neatly, there’s a hole in the movie where a more cohesive character drama or some meaningful depth should sit. Hank doesn’t seem to learn much through his adventures, and he’s not affected nearly as much as you’d expect from the plot he finds himself in (or a shocking death mid-way through the story). As previously mentioned, there isn’t enough exploration of the motivation of other characters, or much of a commentary of any kind, to point to any real meaning or message in the movie.
So don’t go into Caught Stealing expecting your standard Aronofsky drama, and it’s no insult to the film to say it isn’t angling for any Oscars. It’s simply a fun action-thriller movie elevated by its performances.
Caught Stealing is coming to theaters on Friday, August 29.