When you want something: Aronofsky and Butler are “Caught Stealing”

Cinema | September 15th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

As a follow-up to “The Whale,” a raucous adaptation of the first novel in Charlie Huston’s Henry Thompson series was a good choice for eclectic auteur Darren Aronofksy, whose bold visions have attracted a devoted following. Since the mentaculus mania and stark monochrome of “Pi” announced the arrival of an ambitious artistic voice in 1998, Aronofsky has frequently interwoven themes of mysticism and questions of meaning and existence into the lives of obsessive, self-destructive protagonists. Comfortable directing A-list stars at the peak of the Hollywood Olympus, Aronofsky has been equally effective resurrecting stalled careers and lighting fuses for up-and-coming talent.

As the kind of comic crime thriller launched into the stratosphere by Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction,” not to mention the work of the Coen brothers, “Caught Stealing” uses a playbook very familiar to Guy Ritchie, David Leitch and others to walk the tightrope suspended between gritty movie-toughness and arch, exaggerated character types always ready for action. Huston, who adapted his own 2004 book of the same name for Aronofsky, makes several key alterations that generally enhance and improve the story as a cinematic experience. The filmmaker has often incorporated grim, dark humor into his worlds, but “Caught Stealing” is surely his most intentionally funny movie to date.

Austin Butler’s Henry, a once promising baseball player whose drinking and driving resulted in the death of a fellow athlete, now tends bar on the Lower East Side. With his ever-present San Francisco Giants cap and regular telephone contact with his devoted mother (an uncredited Laura Dern), the affable alcoholic radiates enough charm and devastating good looks for us to understand why paramedic Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) is willing to put in the time and effort to develop a relationship. Any minor contretemps over Henry’s boozing takes a backseat to the physical release of their erotic spark, which Aronofksy details in a sexy interlude prior to fireworks of a more violent nature.

Apartment neighbor Russ, a classic British punk played with panache by Matt Smith, sets the plot wheels in motion when he asks Henry to watch his cat while on a visit to London to see his ailing father. Smith’s mohawk-adorned hooligan heralds the parade of colorful goons, toughs and thugs that will soon join a search for the movie’s MacGuffin: a small storage-unit key that might unlock access to a massive amount of cash. In short order, Henry runs afoul of Russian gangsters, a corrupt cop and ultra-Orthodox Jewish siblings whose grandmother expects some attention and respect at the dinner table. “Caught Stealing” features one of the most absurdly comic Shabbos observations since Walter Sobchak refused to roll in “The Big Lebowski.”

The casting of a beautifully unrecognizable Griffin Dunne as Henry’s boss Paul is Aronofsky’s most blatant nod to Martin Scorsese’s brilliant nocturnal odyssey “After Hours,” but other aspects of Henry’s borderline surreal adventure draw plenty of inspiration from the 1985 cult classic. Butler holds the screen like he was born to do it, finding chemistry with the entire supporting cast (and especially Kravitz, who should have been in more of the movie). In many respects, it is nice to see Aronofsky working with material that isn’t as serious — or self-serious — as we have come to expect. That he manages to escalate tension and keep us on alert for flashes of brutal violence amidst the laughs suggests good things to come.

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