Caught Stealing

With Caught Stealing, director Darren Aronofsky takes one of the most unexpected turns of his career, moving away from the suffocating intensity of his previous films such as Requiem for a Dream and Mother! to embrace something freer, wilder, and joyfully chaotic. Based on Charlie Huston's cult novel, the film is a frenetic dive into late-1990s New York nightlife, where every bad choice seems to condemn the protagonist to sink further into an absurd spiral. What's remarkable is not only that Darren Aronofsky directs this film with such verve, but that he approaches the energy and pulp comedy with an almost mischievous smile, as if deliberately challenging the expectations of audiences accustomed to his existential and heavy films. You sense a filmmaker recharging his creative batteries, stripping away all moral grandstanding to revel in a story about a man, a cat, and a city conspiring against him.

At the center of it all is actor Austin Butler as Hank Thompson, a former baseball prospect desperate for success who now spends his nights serving drinks in a bar and running from the regrets of wasted talent. Butler, fresh off memorable performances in Elvis and Dune: Part Two, surprises with a more offbeat and humorous role. He imbues Hank with a weary weariness that makes his sudden descent into mob shootouts, misunderstandings, and neon paranoia both believable and perversely funny. Darren Aronofsky even asked Austin Butler to rewatch Martin Scorsese's After Hours, a film that shares the same DNA of escalating absurdity set against the backdrop of nocturnal New York. The influence is noticeable, but Austin Butler completely makes Hank his own, as he stumbles, swears, and improvises his way out of disastrous situations, like a bruised noir antihero who has wandered into a zany comedy.

Actress Zoë Kravitz provides essential counterbalance in the role of Yvonne, Hank's girlfriend, who happens to be a paramedic. In a film swirling with betrayal, shifting alliances, and lunatic gangsters, she becomes a stabilizing force, tough, pragmatic, and caring, but never sentimental. Her presence is essential to humanizing Hank; we believe there is something worth saving in him because she sees it. For her part, Regina King, as Detective Roman, brings an extra touch of gravitas. She plays Roman as a sharp-eyed cop who knows the city's criminals too well to be caught off guard, and every time she appears on screen, it feels like the film grounds itself briefly before another storm of madness erupts.  It's a performance that could have been trite in less skilled hands, but Regina King brings a quiet authority that elevates the story. The gallery of shady characters surrounding Hank is equally entertaining. Liev Schreiber and Vincent D'Onofrio play two of the film's most eccentric criminals, Lipa and Shmully, whose unpredictable violence adds both danger and absurd humor.

Matt Smith, who plays Russ, Hank's punk rock neighbor whose request to look after his cat sets off the whole chain of events, strikes the right balance between comedy and real menace, reminding us how, in Darren Aronofsky's films, chaos often arises from seemingly insignificant details. And then there's Bad Bunny, whose cameo as a vengeful gangster is short but explosive and memorable, reminding us that his on-screen charisma is growing as fast as his music career. The supporting cast transforms what could have been a generic crime film into a surreal carnival of archetypes.

Stylistically, Caught Stealing is much less symbolic than Darren Aronofsky's previous films, but it has its own language. The neon-drenched streets of 1999 New York are filmed with a kinetic joy, as if the city itself were intoxicated. Darren Aronofsky draws on a time when gentrification had not yet stripped Manhattan of its grime, offering us a setting where bars, alleys, and subway stations become the scene of shootouts that turn into farce. The soundtrack by Idles, a furious deluge of post-punk rhythms, fuels the action sequences, often pushing them to an almost absurd pace where music and chaos intertwine. This creative choice sets the tone for the film: it's less about suspense than momentum, a kind of cinematic pinball where Hank is the unlucky ball bouncing between gangsters, cops, and a cat. Caught Stealing isn't without its flaws.

 The tone shifts can feel jarring, and the narrative itself, while fast-paced at 107 minutes, can leave viewers feeling like there isn't much emotional depth to hold onto beneath the adrenaline rush. It's hard to argue that this film is destined to join Darren Aronofsky's must-see films alongside The Wrestler or Black Swan. But perhaps that's not the point. Darren Aronofsky himself described Caught Stealing as a kind of interlude, an opportunity to make a crime movie with bad boys rather than another descent into existential despair. Seen in this light, the film's flaws are part of its identity: it's meant to be a wild ride, not a haunting meditation.

The film is a real success. There's an undeniable pleasure in watching Austin Butler navigate from one disaster to the next, in seeing Zoë Kravitz infuse empathy into madness, in savoring the pure bravado of Liev Schreiber and Vincent D'Onofrio as larger-than-life criminals. It may not be deep, but it's alive, and that vitality is something rarely found in today's overly calibrated thrillers. Caught Stealing reminds us that cinema can sometimes be reduced to a simple adventure: sweat, laughter, shock, and the total unpredictability of a bad night in New York. It's not the film that defines Darren Aronofsky's remarkable body of work, but it's the one that shows a filmmaker willing to take risks, and sometimes that willingness is the most exciting thing there is.

Caught Stealing
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Written by Charlie Huston
Based on Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston
Produced by Jeremy Dawson, Dylan Goldeno, Ari Handel, Darren Aronofsky
Starring Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D'Onofrio, Griffin Dunne, Benito A Martínez Ocasio, Carol Kane
Cinematography: Matthew Libatique
Edited by Andrew Weisblum
Music by Idles
Production companies: Columbia Pictures, Protozoa Pictures
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date: August 29, 2025 (United States)
Running time: 107 minutes

Seen on August 21, 2025 at Max Linder Panorama

Mulder's Mark: