Caught Stealing Review - Aronofsky's funniest effort still provides plenty of thrilling drama

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“Don’t fear the enemy that attacks you but the fake friend that hugs you.” 

- Obameso Sunkanmi

We are in a new era of the “one-man army” in cinema. John Wick, Nobody, Atomic Blonde, Fight or Flight, The Equalizer just to name a few. I love this subgenre but being inundated with so many you forget a story can be equally as exciting with a main character that isn’t a one-man killing machine. Sometimes the man that’s in over his head can be just as thrilling. I’d argue it could be even more enthralling because with a character like John Wick, you have a pretty good understanding of how he’s going to solve his impending problems. With a character like Dwight from Blue Ruin, his intentions are violent but his capabilities are amateur at best and that’s being generous. Still he pushes forward creating a total nightmare he must now navigate if he hopes to survive. 

Of course that film is a very dark, brutally visceral drama. It creates a rather somber atmosphere. The violence is unflinching and oftentimes difficult to witness relying not on embellishment but unyielding authenticity. A more comedic approach to this “over their head” character driven plot is 2010’s Date Night. A married couple takes the reservation of a stranger at a fancy restaurant and unknowingly inserts themselves into a crime caper involving dirty cops, crooked politicians and mobsters. Watching them try to survive a metaphorical minefield on the streets of New York is quite funny. And this brings us to Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing. 

While the story features funny moments, it’s far more precarious, intense, and serious than its trailer let on. The first clue should have been the director. Aronofsky isn’t known for delicate themes and gentle plotlines. This is the creator of Requiem for a Dream, Mother!, and 2022’s heart-wrenching drama, The Whale. He introduces heavy themes and complex, often greatly flawed characters and while Caught Stealing is certainly one of his lighter efforts in comparison, it still deals with murder and corruption. It features moments of sad and merciless actions by its characters. But in true Coen Brothers style or in the vein of Bong Joon Ho and Martin McDonagh, Aronofsky takes these macabre themes and concepts and instills a dangerous kind of comedy that can either embolden an audience to partake in the darker side of humor or it can turn them against the film’s creator and its characters. 

It’s a risk to attempt making authentically graphic violence somehow funny and maybe even laughably satisfying. I think Caught Stealing finds a wonderfully balanced approach to such darker themes while still maintaining a sense of humor about the whole thing. While it’s nowhere near as aggressively pessimistic or angry about the world as some of his previous films, it still finds the line often pushing the boundaries. I think this is a sign of a brilliant filmmaker which Aronofsky most certainly is. 

Some of the best stories feature a character going on a journey whether that’s literal or from a more metaphorical standpoint. Whether they go across the globe or stay in their neighborhood, it can be a journey of mental fortitude, physical survival, or a journey of self-discovery. It’s about the idea of coming away from something different from when you began. Of the mind, body or both, it’s often a taxing experience. In the case of Hank Thompson, Austin Butler’s character in Caught Stealing, we are introduced to him already in the midst of a moral dilemma causing him to live with actions he committed as a younger man that resulted in tragedy. In a rut, a promising future now in the gutter, he drinks away his days and finds his only solace in the girl he calls Yvonne. 

Now take this man, dead-ended and insert him into an impossible situation that genuinely has nothing to do with him. It begins as a result of his so-called friend and obtuse neighbor, the walking, shit-talking embodiment of Anarchy in the UK, Russ. Russ crosses some serious individuals and then unexpectedly leaves the country tasking Hank to watch his cat. Through no fault of Hank’s, he visits the cat at the most inopportune time creating a whirlwind of beatings, running for his life, great personal loss, but on occasion, moments of heroic uprising. 

Throughout New York, Hank navigates a treacherous collection of decisions and the horribly evil people posing these dilemmas with a lot of impatience and too much animosity. Seriously, some of these characters really should seek the help of a professional. Butler is wonderfully out of his depth, scared but undeniably strong in the face of immeasurable adversity. 

But it’s the side characters of Caught Stealing that make this story shine. Nikita Kukushkin plays Pavel, more vicious dog than man, he’s funny in the way he commits violence. An oddity for sure. Regina King is Detective Roman, a stern and determined authority who proves more diabolical than she initially lets on. She is a great monkey-wrench in an already twisted situation. 

My favorite characters though are a Jewish brother duo named Lipa and Shmully, Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio respectively. They are deliriously evil and yet somehow still devout. They’ll assassinate a man on a Thursday but refuse to drive that Friday, their Sabbath. They are known as monsters, quick to kill, but still visit their mother regularly. And the way they communicate to one another is a wonderful kind of shorthand between them and while seemingly playful in their banter, their topic of choice is usually something along the lines of deciding if they should shoot someone or not. They’re complicated and hilariously so. Their interactions with Hank are a mixed bag of pure fear from reputation and a weird sense of safety when he finds himself on their good side of course. Still, they have secrets like anyone else and when they let slip a colossal bit of information in Hank’s direction, things change dramatically and not exactly for the better. 

Caught Stealing is fast-paced criminality tinged in personal tragedy that somehow still sees the funnier side of life. The characters are oddballs, often violent but always intriguing. Matt Smith as Russ is a chaotic nuisance that provides both frustration and a smile, even if that smile is immediately preceding something terrible. A thriller about a fish plucked from a bowl and dropped in the ocean with bloodthirsty predators, Caught Stealing provides moments of shock and awe like only Aronofsky can deliver in such a palatable format. It’s darkly funny, violent and unrelenting. In a sea of unoriginality, this is a welcome breath of fresh air. 

Rated R For: strong violent content, pervasive language, some sexuality/nudity and brief drug use

Runtime: 107 minutes

After Credits Scene: Mid-credits, yes.

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Thriller

Starring: Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Regina King

Directed By: Darren Aronofsky

Out of 10

Story: 9/ Acting: 9/ Directing: 9/ Visuals: 9

OVERALL: 9/10

Buy to Own: Yes.

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Check out the trailer below: