The Reel Review
A washed-up baseball player turned bartender finds himself mixed up with Russian and Jewish mobsters in 1998 New York City after a neighbor in his apartment building asks him to feed his cat while he’s out of the country. Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith and Oscar-winner Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk) star in this crime thriller from director Darren Aronofsky (The Whale, Mother!, Black Swan).
Aronofsky’s pulpy 1990s throwback is filled with all the predictable tropes, frenetic Guy Ritchie-esque pacing, and an all-star supporting cast that includes Bad Bunny, Lieb Schreiber, Carol Kane and Oscar-winner Laura Dern (Marriage Story). While entertaining in a check-your-brain-at-the-door sort of way, the predictable story gets increasingly silly and implausible, except for one shocking twist early on in the film. Although billed as a dark comedy, there really isn’t much here to make you laugh.
Butler (Dune: Part Two, Elvis), who looks great shirtless, does a great job carrying the film, which does have some nice homages to the city’s 1990s-era landmarks. Smith (House of the Dragon, The Crown) also chalks up another example of his remarkable acting range, this time as the mohawk-wearing English neighbor. If you are looking to pass a couple of hours, the slightly above average Caught Stealing will fit the bill, although Aronofsky has done way better work.
REEL FACTS
• Bud the cat is played by Tonic, who screenwriter Charlie Huston described as “a rock star on Day 1.” Darren Aronofsky says he would work with Tonic again in a second over many human actors.
• In one scene Hank (Austin Butler) walks past Kim’s Video, a once-thriving downtown Manhattan movie rental business that was the subject of the 2023 documentary Kim’s Video.
• Austin Butler’s next film will be the crime thriller Enemies, about a detective in pursuit of a fugitive contract killer, co-starring Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) and Anna Sawai (Shōgun).
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