Darren Aronofsky swings and misses with “Caught Stealing,” his newest film starring Austin Butler. The film, framed as a classic crime thriller, loses all its charm due to messy, experimental choices and weak writing. “Caught Stealing” is tonally inconsistent and a major disappointment for its Labor Day weekend screening.
Austin Butler plays a washed-up high school baseball player, Hank Thompson, who gets mixed up in the interconnected crime syndicates of 1998 New York City. The movie follows Hank as he is chased around the city by three gangs, the Jews, Puerto Ricans and Russians, all after a briefcase and a cat entrusted to him by his British punk neighbor (Matt Smith). The premise is fun, but there is absolutely no depth.
Nothing seems to truly matter to the characters of the film. Hank’s girlfriend, Yvonne (Zoe Kravitz), expresses little to no care, interest, or worry in the situation Hank is in. Yvonne is posed as a nothing character whose purpose is only to die for Hank’s progression. Yet when she does, Hank hardly cares, expressing more concern for the life of a cat, and the safety of a briefcase, than his own dead girlfriend. In fact, the only thing anyone seems to care about in the film is the mysterious briefcase. The gangs are all surface level identities based around their nationality to comical degrees. From Jews named Schmully serving matzo ball soup, to erratic Russian mobsters wearing flashy clothes, satirical takes on culture can be funny, but these narrative choices fall short. The film’s tone is damaged by Aronofsky’s decision to pair scenes of matzo ball soup next to the gruesome killing of Hank’s girlfriend. These tonal inconsistencies leave the viewer scrambling to figure out whether they are supposed to feel sympathy for Hank or laugh at the caricatured gangs. There is no real commentary, no interesting dialogue. Things just happen in this movie, with no real purpose or place.
Aronofsky attempts to make this movie flashier than it should be. This movie is a new approach to filmmaking for him, as he usually focuses on rawer, slower-paced films, and his novice execution of the action thriller genre shows time and time again. The overuse of kitschy cinematography is annoying and hard to follow. Constant cuts and zooms make a movie which is meant to feel classic and thrilling feel trendy and modern and dull. The thrill is killed by editing choices that make it feel like the theater is my phone and the movie is a TikTok. In one scene between Hank and a crooked cop, the camera cuts from face to face over 15 times. It takes the audience completely out of the scene, as the two actors are clearly not acting at the same time. Strange editing and camera decisions are commonplace in “Caught Stealing.” Aronofsky’s goal is to capture “interestingly-shot sequences,” but in reality, it comes off as annoying and frustrating to watch. The overwhelming style makes the movie which is supposed to be based in 1998, feel like it’s in present times.
“Caught Stealing” felt like it misunderstood its own purpose. Like with many movies based on books, “Caught Stealing” tackles too much content to fit in its one hour and 47 minute run time. The film is about as much of a nothing-burger as one can get: no message, no characters, no real plot or conflict worth caring about. “Caught Stealing” feels like a foul ball. 2/5
