A bartender unwillingly ends up caught between various criminals in Darren Aronofsky’s wildly entertaining crime caper. Oh, there’s a cute cat, too!
On the surface, Caught Stealing would seem to be outside of director Darren Aronofsky’s wheelhouse. With serious, often horrific, dramas such as Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, Mother!, and The Wrestler, a violent crime caper from the director would not be on my bingo card. I appreciate his ninth narrative feature (plus a few documentaries) of working in a wholly new genre. It works. His keen sense of character, danger, and building tension and desperation to a breaking point mix incredibly well with a semi-comic crime caper. Caught Stealing is a beautifully fun, engaging, and energetic mix of Aronofsky’s sensibilities with those of Joe Carnahan, the Coens, the Safdies, Guy Richie, Joe Lansdale, and Elmore Leonard, with dashes of Scorsese.
I’ve referenced many other filmmakers and writers, but Charlie Huston has adapted his own novel. Having not read any of his work, I can’t speak to it, but after watching Caught Stealing, I’m adding him to my massive “To Read” pile. If Caught Stealing is emblematic, I’ll enjoy it. I can see why Aronofsky was pulled to the script; it’s a well-defined, sharply drafted, bopping script. As Aronofsky normally works from his own scripts, it must be something special.
The story follows everyman Hank as he is shoved into a situation out of his control, trying to dodge and weave through various violent groups looking for the same MacGuffin. Charged with taking care of his punk drug-dealer neighbor’s cat while the mohawked Cockney Russ heads home, it’s not long before the Russian mob insists Hank is part of Russ’s scheme and pulls him in for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Soon, all the attention is on him from the Russians, a pair of Hassidic brothers, a police detective is determined to prove he knows more than he lets on, and others. He’s left running around 1998 (thus wonderfully analog, mostly. Nice cameo by Kim’s Video!) New York’s underbelly, dodging violence, strange characters, weird situations, and frankly trying to survive along with his paramedic girlfriend and Buddy, the world’s coolest, calmest cat.
All this running around a wild and weird New York over a limited time frame might remind filmgoers of After Hours, a hilarious Wild Night film from Scorsese, often lost in the mix of his oeuvre, but just as strong as the rest, showing Scorsese’s underseen skill in comedy (watch his early shorts to see more of this). Shout out to After Hours’ star Griffin Dunne as one of the many amazing supporting players.
Characters, such as Dunne’s, elevate Caught Stealing from standard but entertaining genre fare. Aronofsky has always had a keen sense of character, building fully formed people in mere moments. No one with more than a single moment is merely an extra or an empty vessel to inflict or receive violence. He especially works well with characters in dire straits, often frantic and on the edge. In that way, Hank is a fantastic, absolutely Aronofsky character. He’s a great guy, the type who knows the name of everyone he meets, who really cares to know them, incorporating himself into every person and group he meets. He calls his mom every day. He’s kind and likable but not overly nice or a pushover. It’s this niceness and likability that get him into, and often out of, the various jams. He’s dealing with past trauma and is a functioning alcoholic, keeping him in a sort of holding pattern. Now with this whole pickle, he’s forced to confront everything head-on. He’s the central node, but whether it be Russian thugs, the Hassidic brothers, Russ the Punk, or others, each is memorable with their own ticks and traps with the cyclone of character chaos.
It helps to have a fantastic stable of performers to breathe life into all the criminals and those caught in between. Austin Butler as Hank has such an incredible, likable energy. You want to like Hank, you care for him, and want him to get out of it all. Same with Zoe Kravitz as Yvonne, who lovingly puts up with his crap until she can’t, but you know she’ll be back; they have the chemistry to match. But really, Butler has chemistry with everyone. The man is a charisma explosion. The supporting characters all threaten to make the movie theirs. Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio play off one another as the Hassidic brothers (love to see Carol Kane as their mom!). Matt Smith is never better, bringing a sneering punk energy, relishing in his studded jacket and massive mohawk. Bad Bunny steals scenes as he did in Bullet Train two years ago. Regina King plays it the straightest, but you can see so much in her eyes and sneer. Let’s not forget Tonic as Buddy the Cat. He stole the show in Pet Semetary in 2019, and threatens to bite his way as the lead here.
It’s a lot of pieces, and Caught Stealing is a lot of movie. I looked at my watch at 48 minutes, thinking we were approaching the end with how much had happened (though I knew so many story set-ups were not yet paid off), but I was elated to find it still had an hour left, as I didn’t want to leave this world. Huston’s script, Aronofsky’s direction, and Andrew Weisblum’s editing keep them all moving easily, never getting lost in the comings and goings. Each sequence moves with speed and bump, filled with surprises, shocks, and laughs among the violence. It’s funny, but comic in the way Fargo is comic. Not an outright comedy, but dark humor arises from just shy of over-the-top characters in increasingly large scenarios, in how it all flows in and out. Okay, there is some slapstick for direct laughs. It’s all fun, but not light fun. Bad things happen, people we like die; the lived-in darkness of this world has its consequences. Aronofsky keeps it all grounded, building a lived-in New York, grimy, real, and beautifully shot by Matthew Libatique; like After Hours, the city is a character.
I had such fun with Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing. Charlie Huston’s fun script is filled with great characters, wonderful moments, a wry sense of humor, and a real sense of entertainment. It’s a great addition to the (semi)comic caper genre. Elmore Leonard would be proud. A final note: set in 1998, it has a very 90s soundtrack of my high school bops. And you can’t go wrong with a film ending with a Magnetic Fields song over a very clever end credits.
Go Giants.