by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $12.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D'Onofrio, Griffin Dunne, Benito A Martínez Ocasio, Carol Kane
Intro:
… never quite nails the right tone, and it leaves the film feeling either unnecessarily cruel or weirdly glib.
It’s always good to see directors trying genres not typically in their wheelhouse. John Carpenter proved that he could make oddly poetic, thoughtful films in 1984 with the underrated Starman. Quentin Tarantino showcased his ability to adapt classic crime novels with unusual (and unexpected) sensitivity with 1997’s Jackie Brown. And now, in 2025, director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Whale) is trying his hand at a quirky comedic crime caper with Caught Stealing. And while there are certainly laudable elements here, sadly it’s an experiment that doesn’t entirely work.
Caught Stealing is the story of Hank Thompson (Austin Butler), a barman who once had dreams of being a pro baseball player but due to a tragic injury was forced to give it all up. Still, life ain’t so bad. He likes his boss Paul (Griffin Dunne), loves his girlfriend Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) and while he’s haunted by dreams of the accident that left him on the bench, he can usually drink enough to tamp the trauma down. Things go tits up for Hank when his Pommy punk mate Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to mind his cat, Bud. Almost immediately, Hank finds himself copping a serious beating from a pair of Russian thugs, being grilled by the zealous Detective Roman (Regina King) and somehow in the crosshairs of Hassidic assassins Lipa (Liev Schreiber) and Shmully (Vincent D’Onofrio). Poor old Hank must figure out what the hell is going on and how to get out of it before he loses internal organs and everyone he’s ever loved.
On paper, Caught Stealing seems like a quirky, whimsical crime caper. And the fantastic trailer certainly is trying to sell audiences on that, however, the actual experience of watching the film is very different. Caught Stealing is at its core a brutal little story. It’s a yarn about a pretty idiot who wanders into trouble through no real fault of his own and is beaten so badly that he loses a kidney. From there, things get worse, much worse, as the cast are whittled down in unpleasant ways and Hank has to scramble just to stay alive. That’s not to say that this kind of material couldn’t be played for black comedy, but it seems that Aronofsky – a director who handled darker tones masterfully with films like Black Swan and The Wrestler – lacks the light touch and deft hand required to make the comedic beats work. The result is a film that stumbles from tragedy to comedy without much rhyme or reason and the tonal whiplash speaks to a lack of overall cohesion.
There are good elements, mind you. Butler and Kravitz are both absurdly good looking and have great chemistry together. Matt Smith seems born to play an obnoxious, sweary punk and has a great time with the role. Griffin Dunne playing against type is always welcome, but the highlight absolutely has to be the double team of Schreiber and D’Onofrio who are cold blooded killers but make sure to be nice to their Bubbe (a delightful Carol Kane). The problem is that these elements never quite fit together, offering moments of weirdly timed brevity in a morass of nihilism. Perhaps a more assured comedy director could have found the chuckles here, the Coen Brothers would likely have done great work with similar material, but Aronofsky never quite nails the right tone, and it leaves the film feeling either unnecessarily cruel or weirdly glib.
Caught Stealing isn’t a bad film. It’s well shot and acted, and has a handful of decent moments (many of which were spoiled in the trailers, mind you). However, as an overall piece it just doesn’t hang together and while Aronofsky should be applauded for stepping outside of his comfort zone, Caught Stealing stumbles more than it walks tall.
