Darren Aronofsky’s “Caught Stealing,” released Aug. 29, ventures into some disturbing territories. No person, nor animal, is safe from sudden, gut-wrenching acts of violence that, at times, legitimately made me wince. It might seem oxymoronic then to say that the film is deeply funny in just about the grimmest sense possible: as much as I cringed at the brutality, I laughed even more.
What we have here is a crime caper, in the truest sense of the phrase. And this is a bit of a rarity in the modern Hollywood landscape, especially considering the fact “Caught Stealing” is a standalone feature. It’s no wonder, then, I was reminded of the New Hollywood movement of the 1960s and ‘70s: in fact, Aronofsky’s films wear these influences on their sleeves, directly referencing films of the era — Martin Scorsese’s 1985 “After Hours” is particularly singled out — and emulating their visual and thematic styles.
What makes “Caught Stealing” more than a simple imitation of this filmmaking era, however, is the fact it understands the single most important quality of that era: it is superbly original and utterly bursting with personality. And it is, as a result, wildly entertaining.
The premise is decidedly simple. Hank (Austin Butler), an ex-high school baseball player and current burnt-out bartender, is haunted by his past and seeks refuge at the bottom of a bottle. His neighbor, Russ (Matt Smith), has to fly home to London to visit his dying father and entrusts Hank with his cat, Bud. One day, as Hank goes to grab food for Bud from Russ’ apartment, he runs into two Russian mobsters who beat him so badly he loses a kidney in the hospital. From here on out, Hank is a part of whatever it is Russ was involved in, and thus he must figure out how to uninvolve himself before the people he cares about are hurt.
At first glance, this doesn’t seem like the plot of your typical Aronofsky feature: he’s a director primarily interested in the psychological, probing the mind of both the characters he creates and, by extension, the audience as well. It’s certainly a massive departure from his last film, “The Whale.” But at the same time, the fascination with society’s underbelly is clear from the get-go here, and at its core “Caught Stealing” is a cerebral narrative deeply examining Hank’s psyche in a way that doesn’t feel too far removed from one of Aronofsky's earlier films, “The Wrestler.”
It helps then that Aronofsky tapped Butler, an immensely capable performer, to be his lead. Butler’s been on a bit of a roll recently, at least ever since his appearance in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” in 2019, and it’s clear he’s something of a generational talent. His performance here is subtler than, say, Elvis Presley or Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, but it's compelling precisely because of its mutedness. Hank’s eyes do a lot of the heavy lifting here; they tell us the story when his voice either can’t or won’t. Even by the end of the film, he’s a bit of a mystery: the audience always feels as if there’s something he’s not mentioning, something he’s hiding that would put the whole narrative into perspective.
Thankfully, Charlie Huston’s script, based on his 2004 novel of the same name, almost never takes the easy way out. There are clichés here, of course, and twists that aren’t quite as shocking or impressive as one might hope for, but I think what makes the writing so efficacious is its willingness to venture into (relatively) quiet asides. Each character has a developed personality and a moment, no matter how briefly, where they alone shine — a surprisingly rare quality for a standalone film like it to have, especially one under two hours.
Nell Minnow, in her review for RogerEbert.com, singles out another aspect of the film that makes it particularly personable. She points to the fact that “Caught Stealing,” which takes place in 1998, works with a communication gap that couldn’t have existed should it have occurred in the time of the smartphone. And this is, if not immediately noticeable, an important part of the movie’s pacing: every person whom Hank wants to talk to, needs to talk to, isn’t instantly available. If he has to get ahold of them, he either has to leave a message at a pay phone or, more often, physically travel to their location. It puts everything under an ever-shrinking time limit, only intensifying what is already a tense situation.
While its box office returns thus far have been less than ideal, “Caught Stealing” represents the exact sort of mid-budget, freestanding film that we absolutely need more of. What would have once been a standard, run-of-the-mill release now exists as a bit of an anomaly, something to take particular note of. And while it almost certainly will not land in very many “best films of the year” lists, it’s a solid, effective genre-outing that, with its impressive editing, cinematography and sound design, deserves a trip to the theater. If you were thinking of just checking this out once it hits streaming, I’d implore you to reconsider.
