Darren Aronofsky | 1hr 47min
Years have passed since a devastating car crash ended New York bartender Hank’s baseball dreams, but just as life seems to have settled, the curveballs come back hard and fast in Caught Stealing. What initially seems to be a simple request to cat-sit for his neighbour rapidly escalates into a bloody scramble through alleyways, bars, and apartments, locking him in the crosshairs of rival gangs seeking a mysterious key hidden in the litterbox. If Hank knew its significance when he first uncovered it, perhaps he would have turned it over and walk away unscathed – so it’s poor luck indeed that he should carelessly lose it on a drunken night out.
Caught Stealing isn’t exactly a return to form for Darren Aronofsky after the overwrought theatrics of The Whale, but its eccentric crime caper is nonetheless a refreshing shift in style and genre. It’s less a subtle nod to Guy Ritchie’s sardonic urban thrillers than a full-volume homage, basking in a 90s rock soundtrack dominated by post-punk band IDLES and throttling forward with the desperate momentum of a base runner rounding third. Austin Butler’s savvy performance certainly helps too, toning down his brooding intensity and leaning more into his natural charm, thereby giving us a hero whose street-smart ingenuity keeps him afloat – but not quite enough to shield loved ones from the fallout.
Aronofsky may be eschewing his trademark psychological intensity, but he can’t stray too far from the body horror that often comes with it, rendered here in creatively grotesque violence. His camera doesn’t shy away from stitches cut open mid-interrogation, stab wounds to the feet, nor the recurring, slow-motion nightmare of that life-shattering car collision. It is especially through the latter that Hank’s trauma continues to surface, replaying the loss of both his friend and baseball career, yet constantly drowned out by the sedative haze of alcohol. The frequent close-ups we get of Butler’s panicked expression waking up in unfamiliar locations only underscores the relentless grip of his past, exposing a man on the run from his guilt, yet driven more by reflex than reason.
Despite Hank’s Californian upbringing, he is undoubtedly a man of New York, modelled here after the dingy lighting, trash-strewn sidewalks, and feverish nightlife of Taxi Driver. Graffiti smothers the derelict apartment building where he resides, while the city itself is a vast, multicultural ecosystem, churning with Jewish gangsters, Russian mafioso, and British punks who all stake their claim in its underworld. The extraordinary ensemble casting certainly plays a part here too, drawing on the talents of character actors such as Carol Kane, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Liev Schreiber, while Matt Smith and Regina King fill in morally grey characters with disarming nuance.
Zoë Kravitz is commendable as Hank’s girlfriend Yvonne too, doing what she can in an underwritten role that functions more as a narrative device than anything else. Charlie Huston’s screenplay often gets caught up in predictable plot conventions such as this, quite literally giving Hank a ‘save the cat’ moment as the film’s inciting incident, though at least executing them with enough flair to barrel past its more formulaic beats.
Besides, along with the baseball motif, the introduction of this animal companion anchors Hank to an enduring sense of purpose amid kinetic disarray. “You have the same eyes,” a stranger remarks late in the film, by which point the two have indeed become mirrors of each other, bound by shared trauma and resilience. Loyalties flicker with slippery inconsistency in Aronofsky’s chaotic world, but through the blur of violence and loss, Caught Stealing settles on a redemptive union of man and feline that feels much less like triumph than weary, hard-won survival.
Caught Stealing is currently playing in cinemas.
