‘Caught Stealing’ REVIEW: Fun and Exciting Action Under Aronofsky’s Eye
‘Caught Stealing’ REVIEW: Fun and Exciting Action Under Aronofsky’s Eye
Austin Butler as Hank in Caught Stealing | Still courtesy of Columbia Pictures
There’s the occasional mourning over the impending extinction of the mid-budget movie, a film with smoldering leads in a film that a big studio spent just enough money on for the big-screen pizzazz, but not enough to fuss over its profitability. Sometimes, they’re the projects you put the next big stars in to show off their skills without hawking it as an awards contender. They may also be “one for them” projects directors use as a calling card to get their true passion off the ground or stake their lives on to get out of director jail. But, ask yourselves, has Darren Aronofsky really made a “one for them?” If you think about his three big-studio films, The Fountain, Noah, and mother! — only the biblical epic Noah seems primed toward mass-market appeal. However, all three are suffused with Darren Aronofsky’s trademark seriousness meant to leave you contemplative, if not stirred into annoyance, by what you’ve seen.
So, when you sit down for Caught Stealing, trust me when I say that outside of the bursts of violence he likes to wring out of his films, this is Aronofsky at his most fun. Even when its protagonist loses a kidney and then becomes constantly in danger of losing his life, the film moves faster before you can call it stressful.
Hank likes his life in New York the way it is — tending bar with benefits (of free drinks) and a sort-of relationship with the paramedic Yvonne (which handily becomes useful later). Hank always checks in on his mother in California by phone as they mull over the prospects of the San Francisco Giants during the 1998 baseball season. When his neighbor asks him to cat sit while he goes off to London, that’s when Hank gets the daylights (and his kidney) knocked out of him by two Russians.
As you might guess, Hank will fall down a rabbit hole conspiracy and figure out what he got himself into. Along the way, he will make enemies and friends, and lose some blood, too. And then he will figure it out. It’s easy to give a play-by-play of what direction the film will go, but its easiest and most inviting appeal is simply having the camera on its lead, Austin Butler.
Followers of Butler’s career already know him from his Oscar-nominated turn in Elvis — and Oscar campaign around how he worked to have and lose the Elvis voice. But for many others, like myself, this may be their first introduction to the man who carries an endearing world-weariness so appealingly you’d forgive yourself for wanting to give him all the love in the world. And of course, having chemistry with the equally smoldering Zoë Kravitz helps too. Why the film chooses to use it sparingly is one of its more glaring detractions, but the film is still worth enjoying overall.
Hank is running from a lot of people here, and even from his memories of his baseball prospects getting dashed at the same time he lost his best friend. The film visualizes this by putting Butler in many setpieces that require a degree of running but linger more on his expressive face as he winces and pants believably, so that you almost forget he’s a whole movie star with a gym routine. It helps that Aronofsky uses his reliable collaborators Matthew Libatique and Andrew Weisblum to frame and cut around these pieces smoothly. Perhaps it’s a little too smooth and modern to almost make 1998 seem like 2025, but it’s not distracting overall.
Everyone involved will make more high-profile, more critically attractive films than Caught Stealing. What this film does is prove that even in films better made for casual hangouts, casual viewers will be rewarded with a look at what talented people are cooking up when they’re not chasing awards or profits. It could be a cinephile’s gateway into their works, or the perfect movie to really catch everyone’s attention at a sleepover, or even the next “dad movie” to make passerby stand longer than they realize. Hank may be running, but Caught Stealing should see many seated audiences along for the ride.
