Asked to guess who directed Caught Stealing, you might get through a long list before landing on Darren Aronofsky. The usually distinctive filmmaker – Black Swan, The Wrestler, Mother! – is in unflashy form for this solid, starry but not very memorable thriller about one man’s very bad night.
Based on a novel by Charlie Huston (also the film’s screenwriter), it follows Hank (Austin Butler), a New York barman drifting through life and into alcoholism. When he and his girlfriend, Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz), agree to cat-sit for their neighbour (Matt Smith), they get far more hassle than anticipated. Soon, violent thugs are crashing through their door. After Hank wakes up in the hospital, beaten severely and minus one kidney, he has to find out what the criminals want from him and how he can get rid of them before bullets start flying.
'It often feels more dated than nostalgic'
The story takes place in 1998, which has little bearing on the plot but seems appropriate because – surely deliberately – the whole endeavour has a ’90s throwback quality. It has the DNA of post-Tarantino films like Doug Liman’s Go or Guy Ritchie’s Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, where scrappy young things dash around town evading cartoonish criminals. Anora showed there’s a way to jump into that subgenre in a way that’s still modern, but Caught Stealing often feels more dated than nostalgic, as well as tonally awkward. Characters are broad, frequently leaning into caricature and stereotype. Russian goons are bald idiots and Smith’s mohawked punk is one piercing away from being Vyvyan from The Young Ones. And the plot hinges on a moment of such bleak violence that its whole crime-caper mood is irreparably soured.
Aronofsky gives the film a strong sense of authentic grubbiness and keeps the pace brisk, as well as attracting a weighty, eclectic cast that also includes Liev Schreiber, Regina King, Carol Kane and Bad Bunny, who all offer good value. It just doesn’t add up to as much as it should. It’s decently entertaining, but feels destined to be just a footnote in the careers of all involved.
In theatres worldwide Aug 29