Chris Knipp
09-01-2025, 10:47 PM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/%20ctst.jpg
AUSTEN BUTLER IN CAUGHT STEALING
DARREN ARONOFSKY: CAUGHT STEALING (2025)
Cat-sitting for a neighbor turns out to be a violent game
Austin Butler still seems like a kind of golden boy, and he adds his luster to every scene of Darren Aronofsky’s complicated, boisterous Caught Stealing as Hank Thompson, an attractively disreputable would-be baseball star (a terrible car accident ruined his knees in high school) turned bartender at a late 1990's Lower East Side bar in a New York that is itself still attractively seedy. The premise is simple: Russ (Matt Smith), a Mohawk-wearing punk Brit neighbor, asks Hank to tend to his cat while he goes on a quick trip to London to see his dad, who's had a heart attack. The cat (a pretty one, glossy like Austin) bites, but not Hank. Russ turns out to be hiding something unsavory characters want, and Hank must bear the brunt, which takes us through this violent film full of brutality and death that somehow feels lighthearted. Blame it on Austin Butler, and the pen of Charlie Huston, working from his own book, and Aronofsky, who turns away from the seriousness if not from the intensity of his usual work. The action seems inspired by the Guy Ritchie of the era it's set in, for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatchare both vintage 1998. This is richer stuff than Ritchie's for the nuance of the characters and the detail of its period and place. It's a loving and precise homage to the New York of 1998. For all that, it's not a great film, more an extremely well-crafted amusement that contains some pretty heavy voolence.
Hank has a girlfriend, Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) and there are sexy scenes of the two, but they don't last after the dangerous thugs start showing up looking for the drug money Russ has stashed somewhere. Hank drinks, perhaps to soothe the trauma of that terrible accident. We revisit it repeatedly in frightening dreams from which he lurches awake bathed in sweat. Traumatic flashbacks vie with present-time violence and constant betrayals and murders. To start with, Hank winds up in the hospital and loses a kidney. The worst heavies are a pair of Hassidic Jewish gangsters who talk in Yiddish scrupulously memorized by Liev Schreiber (as Lipa) and Vincent D'Onofrio (as Shmully). Along the way they take Hank for a cut-short Shabbos dinner chez their Bubbe (Carol Kane).
Perhaps I should have studied Phillip Concannon's informative Sight and Sound (https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/caught-stealing-darren-aronofsky-takes-fresh-approach-with-thrilling-crime-caper) review before even watching this movie. Due to lack of preparation and the violent onrush of, well, sight and sound in Caught Stealing, as wall as shortcomings in the projection and sound at the chain movie house, much eluded me -- and everything about this movie seems richer and more droll in retrospect than it did in the watching.
Concannon points to dp matthew Libatique's many collaborations with Aronofsky and Spike Lee as informing a filming of the city that richly captures its "vibrancy and texture." This must be added to Lee's own Highest 2 Lowest as a film of this season that pays rich homage to the Big Apple. Here, in 1998, it's a city visibly in transition, being cleaned up by draconian fiat, as seen here, by then Mayor Giuliani, while there are still "threats on every corner" (Concannon) as Hank "races through the streets." The BFI writer like others, points out that Scorsese's 1984 AFter Hours was an inspiration for the city portrait, and this association is "strengthened" by casting Griffin Dunne as Hank's "dissolute boss."
The blend of humor, authenticity, and violence fits the era that gave us the likes of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, which in an interview No. 2 tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, bashfully revealed he recently watched, to help him with his English (which is improving), showing the era of the city still holds relevance for the young and the high-achieving.
I agree that the "magnetic" Butler carries this film effortlessly, acquiring a casual heroism as he faces his fears and his newfound enemies with the loose assurance of a practiced pro athlete. But yes, the whole ensemble bring "color and personality" to roles that could easily been "stock" ones.
All through, Hank constantly checks in by phone with his mom, who turns out to have been his coach, and they share faithful love and support of their favorite New York team, signaled as they sign off every call, "Go Giants." We only hear her voice till the very end, when a, shall we say richly rewarding, package arrives at her door and we see it is Laura Dern who opens it and says "F--k!"
Aronofsky's previous movies are known for being intense. Black Swan shows a ballet dancer who knows no restraint or self preservation. The Wrestler (https://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1150), the 2008 comeback for Mickey Rourke, is a has-been pro athlete performer who won't stop even when he has a heart attack. This time the director made a violent but lighthearted romp. It wasn't as much fun as it should have been for me had I followed it better, and it may suffer from not being a logical film for Aronofsky to make. But it is clearly another feather in Austin Butler's variegated cap I would not have wanted to miss, and I look forward to rewatching it in the peace and security of home. The film again confirms that Butler is a star. If he didn't show that in Elvis , he did so in Bikeriders. In Caught Stealing, he shows a kind of durability and offhand charm and sexiness that seem almost second nature.
Caught Stealing, 107 mins., opened the end of August 2025 theatrically in many countries, in the US August 29. Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/caught-stealing/) average: 65%.
AUSTEN BUTLER IN CAUGHT STEALING
DARREN ARONOFSKY: CAUGHT STEALING (2025)
Cat-sitting for a neighbor turns out to be a violent game
Austin Butler still seems like a kind of golden boy, and he adds his luster to every scene of Darren Aronofsky’s complicated, boisterous Caught Stealing as Hank Thompson, an attractively disreputable would-be baseball star (a terrible car accident ruined his knees in high school) turned bartender at a late 1990's Lower East Side bar in a New York that is itself still attractively seedy. The premise is simple: Russ (Matt Smith), a Mohawk-wearing punk Brit neighbor, asks Hank to tend to his cat while he goes on a quick trip to London to see his dad, who's had a heart attack. The cat (a pretty one, glossy like Austin) bites, but not Hank. Russ turns out to be hiding something unsavory characters want, and Hank must bear the brunt, which takes us through this violent film full of brutality and death that somehow feels lighthearted. Blame it on Austin Butler, and the pen of Charlie Huston, working from his own book, and Aronofsky, who turns away from the seriousness if not from the intensity of his usual work. The action seems inspired by the Guy Ritchie of the era it's set in, for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatchare both vintage 1998. This is richer stuff than Ritchie's for the nuance of the characters and the detail of its period and place. It's a loving and precise homage to the New York of 1998. For all that, it's not a great film, more an extremely well-crafted amusement that contains some pretty heavy voolence.
Hank has a girlfriend, Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) and there are sexy scenes of the two, but they don't last after the dangerous thugs start showing up looking for the drug money Russ has stashed somewhere. Hank drinks, perhaps to soothe the trauma of that terrible accident. We revisit it repeatedly in frightening dreams from which he lurches awake bathed in sweat. Traumatic flashbacks vie with present-time violence and constant betrayals and murders. To start with, Hank winds up in the hospital and loses a kidney. The worst heavies are a pair of Hassidic Jewish gangsters who talk in Yiddish scrupulously memorized by Liev Schreiber (as Lipa) and Vincent D'Onofrio (as Shmully). Along the way they take Hank for a cut-short Shabbos dinner chez their Bubbe (Carol Kane).
Perhaps I should have studied Phillip Concannon's informative Sight and Sound (https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/caught-stealing-darren-aronofsky-takes-fresh-approach-with-thrilling-crime-caper) review before even watching this movie. Due to lack of preparation and the violent onrush of, well, sight and sound in Caught Stealing, as wall as shortcomings in the projection and sound at the chain movie house, much eluded me -- and everything about this movie seems richer and more droll in retrospect than it did in the watching.
Concannon points to dp matthew Libatique's many collaborations with Aronofsky and Spike Lee as informing a filming of the city that richly captures its "vibrancy and texture." This must be added to Lee's own Highest 2 Lowest as a film of this season that pays rich homage to the Big Apple. Here, in 1998, it's a city visibly in transition, being cleaned up by draconian fiat, as seen here, by then Mayor Giuliani, while there are still "threats on every corner" (Concannon) as Hank "races through the streets." The BFI writer like others, points out that Scorsese's 1984 AFter Hours was an inspiration for the city portrait, and this association is "strengthened" by casting Griffin Dunne as Hank's "dissolute boss."
The blend of humor, authenticity, and violence fits the era that gave us the likes of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, which in an interview No. 2 tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, bashfully revealed he recently watched, to help him with his English (which is improving), showing the era of the city still holds relevance for the young and the high-achieving.
I agree that the "magnetic" Butler carries this film effortlessly, acquiring a casual heroism as he faces his fears and his newfound enemies with the loose assurance of a practiced pro athlete. But yes, the whole ensemble bring "color and personality" to roles that could easily been "stock" ones.
All through, Hank constantly checks in by phone with his mom, who turns out to have been his coach, and they share faithful love and support of their favorite New York team, signaled as they sign off every call, "Go Giants." We only hear her voice till the very end, when a, shall we say richly rewarding, package arrives at her door and we see it is Laura Dern who opens it and says "F--k!"
Aronofsky's previous movies are known for being intense. Black Swan shows a ballet dancer who knows no restraint or self preservation. The Wrestler (https://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1150), the 2008 comeback for Mickey Rourke, is a has-been pro athlete performer who won't stop even when he has a heart attack. This time the director made a violent but lighthearted romp. It wasn't as much fun as it should have been for me had I followed it better, and it may suffer from not being a logical film for Aronofsky to make. But it is clearly another feather in Austin Butler's variegated cap I would not have wanted to miss, and I look forward to rewatching it in the peace and security of home. The film again confirms that Butler is a star. If he didn't show that in Elvis , he did so in Bikeriders. In Caught Stealing, he shows a kind of durability and offhand charm and sexiness that seem almost second nature.
Caught Stealing, 107 mins., opened the end of August 2025 theatrically in many countries, in the US August 29. Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/caught-stealing/) average: 65%.