Caught Stealing info:
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Writer: Charlie Huston
Starring: Austin Butler, Regina King, and Zoë Kravitz
Hello and welcome to another week here at 1guysmindlessmoviereviews.com. Well, as you are reading this, it’s officially September, so that means it’s time to get out the Halloween decorations, right? Hey, if you can get out the Christmas stuff on November 1st, then September 1st is fair game for Halloween. Regardless of your choice, I hope everyone has had a great Labor Day weekend, which marks the end of summer, although it’s a sad occasion.
So, this week’s choice was a surprise to me and not something that I planned on seeing quite this early. However, since “Toxic Avenger” is apparently a limited-release film and wasn’t available in my area, my son and I went to one of our favorite movie theaters and watched “Caught Stealing”. Excited to talk about it, but before I do, I don’t want to steal away your enjoyment, so I you haven’t seen it yet, there will be spoilers ahead. Go to my site to check out my other reviews first, then come back again later to read the rest of this one.
“Caught Stealing” was directed by Darren Aronofsky, who has quite the track record for really intense films. If you want to see what I mean, check out either “Requiem for a Dream” or “Black Swan”. This one isn’t quite as bad, but it’s still much of an edge-of-your-seat type of film. In my opinion, this might be Austin Butler’s best acting outside of playing Elvis. However, it was the supporting cast that made this enjoyable.
Butler plays Hank Thompson, a man whose life just isn’t quite what he wanted it to be ever since he had a wreck that killed his friend and ended his baseball career. Now it’s the 1990s, and he’s a bartender in New York. Most of the film takes place in the city’s darker corners, like dive bars, cramped apartments, and alleys. It really tries to capture its more dangerous and wild parts. But things for Hank will start to spiral once he agrees to watch his neighbor’s cat.
“Caught Stealing” can’t easily be summed up, but I will do my best not to draw it out too long. When Russ (Matt Smith) has to leave town, he asks his neighbor Hank to keep an eye on his cat, Bud, for him. For a fun fact about the cat… keep reading. When Russ leaves, Hank gets pulled into a battle for a missing key that involves Russian mobsters, Hasidic gangsters, and a corrupt cop (Regina King). Right out of the gate, he gets beaten by the Russians and loses a kidney because of it.
When he tries to pursue things, his girlfriend, Yvonne (Kravitz), gets murdered. When he finally goes to the police, this is when he finds out that Detective Roman (King), who appeared to try and help him, was the crooked cop who was in bed with the Russians. He finally gets answers when Russ comes back, explains what the key is, and shows Hank all of the money that he is hiding.
This is when my favorite part of “Caught Stealing” takes place. Hank decides to meet up with the Hebrew gangsters, and they couldn’t have picked two greater actors to play those roles. Liev Schreiber as Lipa and Vincent D’Onofrio as Shmully were amazing, and the whole part where they meet Bubbe (Carol Kane) and she feeds them was great.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie where damn near every single character except the main one dies. But “Caught Stealing” did it. Every person who was involved in trying to get the key, as well as Russ, ended up dead, with only Hank and Bud surviving to an island getaway at the end.
Overall, this is a very fun ride with lots of surprises. Like I mentioned before, Butler did a great job playing Hank, but the cast around him might have been even better. It’s a high-stakes descent into madness with just enough heart to keep you rooting for Hank along the way. This isn’t a 10/10 movie, but it’s very fun, and I don’t have a lot of bad to say about it other than the story moved a little too fast at times, and some of the murders really shocked me. But I still give this a solid 7 out of 10.
Ok, now onto a quick cat fun fact. The cat that played Bud is named Tonic in real life and has played in two other movies so far. “Pet Sematary” in 2019 and “Thanksgiving” in 2023. I now want to do some research to see how many other animals have this sort of lifestyle in Hollywood’s history.
Alright, that’s it for me this week. But I want to hear from you. Have you seen “Caught Stealing” yet? If so, what are your thoughts? Did you enjoy it as much as I did, or was it too brutal for you? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and I will be back next week for another mindless movie review of some sort.
