Burned-out ex-baseball player Hank Thompson unexpectedly finds himself embroiled in a dangerous struggle for survival amidst the criminal underbelly of 1990s New York City, forced to navigate a treacherous underworld he never imagined.
After a career full of psychological horrors and dramas, Darren Aronofsky tries his hand at a hard-boiled crime thriller with “Caught Stealing.” This effort at more straightforward storytelling feels like a cross between Edgar Wright and Michael Mann; two styles of filmmaking that don’t exactly fit together neatly. Though plagued by tonal inconsistencies and one-dimensional characters, this movie largely succeeds in delivering an entertaining and stylish thriller, anchored by a stellar lead performance by Austin Butler.
Set in 1998, Butler plays Hank Thompson, a once-promising high school baseball star who now leads a humble life as a bartender after a career-ending auto accident. Zoe Kravitz plays his paramedic girlfriend, Yvonne. When Hank agrees to cat-sit for his eccentric British neighbor, Russ (played by the hilarious Matt Smith), he finds himself an unwitting part of a group of gangsters’ search for missing money, one that puts him and everyone he loves in danger.
Hot on his trail are Regina King as Detective Roman, Vincent D’Onofrio and Liev Schreiber as two Hasidic Jewish mobsters, Bad Bunny (credited as Benito A Martinez Ocasio) as Puerto Rican gangster “Colorado,” and two Russian thugs. If they threw in a few Irish guys, Hank would be chased by residents of every single neighborhood in New York.
Butler plays Hank with a sensitivity and vulnerability few leading men could pull off. After losing everything, other macho leads would simply take off their shirt, flex their muscles, and start pounding heads. But not Butler. He plays Hank as an everyman with heart, whose only hope for survival is to think his way out of the trouble he’s found himself in.
Although the culture clash between Hank’s gentile sensibilities and D’Onofrio and Schreiber’s Jewish lifestyle is entertaining, I did feel that the two characters veered into stereotypes (they’re murderous gangsters, but they won’t hurt anyone or even drive a car on Shabbos). Regina King is also woefully underutilized. Why have an Oscar-winner play a bit part like this?
Matt Smith’s Russ re-enters the story around two-thirds of the way through. Though Smith is hilarious as a British punk rocker (complete with a mohawk, studded leather jacket, and near-indecipherable accent), it highlights the film’s central struggle: balancing the commitment to being a black comedy with the intensity of a drama.
This relatively straightforward crime thriller is brought to life with beautiful camera work, entertaining (though one-dimensional) characters, plenty of twists, and a commendable lead performance from Austin Butler.
If it weren’t for the clashes in tone, “Caught Stealing” would be an instant crime thriller classic.
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