Caught Stealing Review

Matthew McConaughey opened the Austin press screening of Caught Stealing with a stream of praise for director Darren Aronofsky. “I laughed, I cried, I covered my eyes,” said McConaughey with the rhythm of a Texan Dr. Seuss, terming the movie a “proper punk-rock thriller.” It was a high bar to set for Aronofsky’s latest, which marks his first foray into comedy after a three-decade career of harrowing dramas (and whatever Noah was). But with a nimble script from Charlie Huston, based on his book of the same name, and an ensemble cast spanning Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz, Regina King and Bad Bunny, Aronofsky has met and exceeded the hype, crafting a crime thriller with real emotional heft.

It’s 1998 in Alphabet City and Austin Butler is Hank, a bartender who keeps his traumatic past at bay while slinging beers at a dive. He likes his job, he likes his casual fling with the paramedic Yvonne (Kravitz) and he loves his Giants. But this humble life he’s built for himself starts going off the rails after his next-door neighbor Russ (Matt Smith, with a cockney accent and an astounding mohawk) asks him to cat sit while he’s visiting his dying father back in England. Soon after, a couple of Russian mobsters ransack Russ’s apartment searching for a key, and coming across Hank in the hallway, beat him to the point of an emergency kidney removal. 

There’s a lot happening in the first 20-odd minutes of the movie, but Aronofsky and Huston create a flow that takes the audience along for the ride, trusting viewers to keep up with the action even as the web of players gets more tangled. Because it’s not just Aleksei (Yuri Kolokolnikov) and Pavel (Nikita Kukushkin) who are after the key they think Russ left with Hank—there’s also their leader Colorado, played by Bad Bunny in a not-very-believable turn as a ruthless gang boss, and Hasidic Jewish mafioso brothers Lipa and Schmully, in career-best turns from Liev Schrieber and Vincent D’Onofrio. Thrown into the mix is hard-knocks NYPD detective Roman, played straight by King with a subtle edge of irreverence. That’s true for all the factions at war in the movie. Aside from Bad Bunny, the unfortunate weak link compared to the rest of the cast, and Kravitz, whose character could’ve used more fleshing out, each of the ensemble hit stereotypical beats for comedic effect without undercutting the stakes. 

It takes a minute for the group to fully mesh, but Butler’s performance serves as a linchpin. There’s a kind of everyman goodness to Hank, who calls his mother every day and ends up toting Russ’s cat along as a very cute partner-in-crime, as well as a willingness to do whatever it takes to protect those close to him. Butler makes each facet of his character visible. He’s haunted by a car accident from his youth, and Aronofsky never lets this backstory become heavy-handed, instead weaving Hank’s nightmares and flashbacks with the movie’s action while building up to a climactic reveal that makes the character’s motivations resonate all the more. 

Throughout the movie, Aronofsky straddles the genres at play, switching adeptly from scenes of violence to comedic quips. The melting pot of ‘90s New York is realized both through the diverse ensemble of characters and cinematography from frequent Aronofsky collaborator Matthew Libatique, who makes great use of everything from the Unisphere to midwinter Brighton Beach. The end result is a tightly contained thriller with a thought-out character arc—a rare treat these days. 

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