’Caught Stealing’ review: Austin Butler stars in Darren Aronofsky’s uneven New York crime thriller

Dir: Darren Aronofsky. US. 2025. 107mins

Set in 1998 in New York City’s Lower East Side, the uneven crime thriller Caught Stealing is an admirable attempt by Darren Aronofsky to be friskier yet more conventional in a genre that often rewards a by-the-numbers approach. Adapted by Charlie Huston from his novel of the same name, the film follows Henry ’Hank’ Thompson (Austin Butler), a lean, dashing bartender embroiled in a gangland war that threatens to endanger his loved ones. Though copious bloodshed and plenty of backstabbing does ensue, this laborious film is best when the quirkier tone shakes viewer expectations.

The off-kilter humour suggests that Aronofsky wanted to make a less miserabilist film

With an international rollout beginning August 27, the Sony Pictures Releasing film hits cinemas in the US and UK August 29. While the Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman two-hander The Roses looks to be Caught Stealing’s biggest theatrical competition, Aronofsky’s casting of Butler, mixed with a punkish soundtrack featuring songs by the Idles, should see this film appealing to younger audiences. Those who have come to applaud Aronofsky for doing the unexpected might also be intrigued by a film that is quite different from, say, Mother! or The Whale. 

Hank’s problems begin at 4am. With his bar near closing, his paramedic girlfriend Yvonne (an underused Zoë Kravitz) appears to accompany him home. Hank is a small-town Californian who cares about two things: calling his mother every day and San Francisco Giants baseball. Both are remnants of Hank’s once promising baseball career, which was derailed by a tragic accident that continues to haunt his dreams. Nonetheless, Hank regales Yvonne about the Giants needing to pass the Mets and catch the Cubs for the final wild card spot (that interest will pay dividends later in the film). When Hank and Yvonne arrive at his apartment, his punkish English neighbor Russ (Matt Smith), who’s leaving for London to care for his ailing father, asks Hank to care for his cat. 

The comedic peculiarities take hold early on, and will come to be Caught Stealing’s saving grace. Hank’s other next door neighbor Duane (George Abud) becomes an enjoyable running bit that begins when two Russian mobsters searching for Russ take their displeasure out on Hank. The nerdy Duane often storms into the hallway demanding quiet, but is usually shouted down by stronger characters. An intimidating Detective Roman (Regina King) delivers an oddball bark that’s soon followed by increasingly effective bites. Murderous Jewish brothers Lipa (Liev Schreiber) and Shmully (Vincent D’Onofrio) also begin sniffing around.

The film’s off-kilter humour suggests that Aronofsky wanted to make a less miserabilist film. In fact, Caught Stealing is weakest when the director tries to reach for the kind of extreme emotion and trauma that marked works like The Whale and Black Swan. When the Russian mobsters beat Hank so badly he needs a kidney removed, thereby eliminating his ability to drink, the film barely acknowledges his alcoholism. His PTSD is similarly left unremarked upon. Even when Hank begins to lose those he loves, the losses feel hollow. Aronofsky treats their demise as mere facts of this world, but rarely something to be mourned or reflected upon. Instead, Butler sheds a few tears, and continues to navigate the many people hunting him. 

Cinematographer Matthew Libatique (Highest 2 Lowest) spends a great deal of time looking into Butler’s eyes, which are filled with immeasurable sorrow. Those genuinely human moments are roughly contrasted from the film’s dingy rendering of 1990s New York City, whose muted hues are a tad too self-serious for a borderline romp. When Schreiber and D’Onofrio fully emerge in the film’s final act, you come to see the outlandish brutality Caught Stealing could possess if Aronofsky allowed the action to be more cartoonish, and gave more space to the idiosyncratic characters played by Griffin Dunne and Carol Kane to add further texture.