Culture
‘Caught Stealing’ is a crime film worth catching
By: Gordon Briggs
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Hank Thompson is having a terrible week. He’s got a screwed-up liver, the cops are on his case, a pair of oddball hitmen are on his tail, and worst of all, he still has to feed his cat. That’s some of the manic energy bouncing around the oddball crime flick Caught Stealing, a movie that starts messy but largely works because of its charismatic star, Austin Butler.
Set in New York in 1998, we follow the story of Hank, a former baseball player turned bartender whose life gets turned upside down when his punk-rock neighbor asks him to take care of his cat for a few days only to suddenly find himself caught in the middle of a motley crew of cops, crooks, and offbeat gangsters who all want a piece of him.
Now, after blood is drawn and bullets are flying at his head, Hank grabs his neighbor’s cat and spends the next hour and 49 minutes trying to survive.
The movie is directed by Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, Mother!), whose previous films delve into much more surreal territory. If you walk into Caught Stealing expecting that type of film, you may be disappointed. If there are inspirations for this film, it is clearly gritty race-against-the-clock crime flicks set in the Big Apple, like Good Time (Safdie Brothers 2017) and After Hours (Martin Scorsese 1985).
If there’s a gripe, it’s that the first hour of the film can feel a little messy. We are getting a dozen different eccentric characters followed by flashbacks, exposition drops, and lots of violence. Much of which comes at such a fast clip that tone can give you whiplash. I wasn’t sure if one of the deaths was supposed to be darkly comic or genuinely sad. It all comes across a little messy until the arrival of Matt Smith’s profane punk rock character, who adds plenty of offbeat energy.
In fact, it’s during the third act that the various story threads start to come together, and finally, the movie began to pay off for me. Most of the credit should go to Austin Butler. I was lukewarm about him as an actor because I didn’t understand what made him unique. However, I enjoyed how relatable he was in this role.
Specifically, as the bodies pile up around him, I enjoy how the film focuses on Butler’s growing sense of guilt. The violence in its third act has the most impact because it accentuates Hank’s guilt over a trauma from his past. In the end, the movie is a solid crime thriller with enough nuance to recommend.
Rating: ★ ★★