When I first heard about Caught Stealing, the new movie from eccentric filmmaker/auteur Darren Aronofsky, the first place my mind went was to “Been Caught Stealin’,” the Jane’s Addiction song that owned alternative radio in the early nineties. Then, after hearing that it was a crime thriller, I thought it might be more literal—about a guy who gets “caught stealing.” It was only after the first scene of the movie and the subsequent title card when I realized it was a baseball metaphor.
Or maybe, knowing Aronofsky’s work, it’s all three.
Caught Stealing stars Austin Butler (Elvis) as Hank Thompson, a washed-up baseball player-turned-bartender who, despite living in New York City, is a massive San Francisco Giants fan. One evening after work, he returns home to find his neighbor, a British punk rocker named Russ (Matt Smith from House of the Dragon), asking him to take care of his cat, Bud (played by Tonic the Cat). This simple favor tosses Hank headfirst into a war between the Russian Mafia and some violent Hasidic criminals.
You never know which Darren Aronofsky you’re going to get when you go into one of his movies. It could be the genius who crafted The Wrestler or it could be the hack who plopped out Noah. Caught Stealing is somewhere in between. The screenplay for the movie was adapted by Charlie Huston (who created the TV series Powers) from his own novel of the same name, and the tone feels odd for Aronofsky. It almost feels like Aronofsky is shooting a Quentin Tarantino script, except that DA doesn’t do ironic humor half as well as QT does.
And this awkward attempt at humor is what ultimately hinders Caught Stealing. Huston’s plot is engaging enough, full of twists and turns that are always one step ahead of the viewer. But the overall vibe is just…strange, especially for a filmmaker with a style as unique as Aronofsky. It’s a bit of a shoot-em-up in the same vein as Guy Ritchie, but with a storyline that could have come from Walter Hill. It’s almost as if the whole identity of the movie is that it is a mashup of other movies’ identities.
For his part, Austin Butler does well with the thin character that he is given. Hank’s backstory is revealed, but how it affects his current life is only hinted at. There’s a scene later in the film where he’s taking pitches in a batting cage, and it feels like this should be more impactful, but as is, it just seems tacked on. His baseball career ended before it even started, yet his connection to the sport that he loves and was taken from him is reduced to the simple “Go Giants!” that he and his mother say as they end their phone calls. Hank just seems like an undercooked character.
Now, Hank’s girlfriend, Yvonne, played by Zoë Kravitz (Big Little Lies), is another story. With her limited screentime and typical role as basically the “caring love interest,” Yvonne is essentially the main character that the audience cares about. It helps that Yvonne is a more relatable character than Hank, but Kravitz elicits the only real emotional response from the audience, a response that is amplified by the scorching chemistry between her and Butler. Yvonne is set up as a side character, but Kravitz steals the movie.
Also of note are the performances of Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio, both of whom are chameleonic in their portrayals of the Hebrew crime lords, characters who are themselves chameleonic as they hop the fence between the trappings of their orthodox faith and the brutality of their underworld misdeeds. And it’s not just the long beards and dark clothing—these guys become their characters, much more so than any of the guys who play the Russian mobsters, or even Regina King, who shows up as a detective. The performances in Caught Stealing are hit and miss, but Kravitz, Schreiber, and D’Onofrio are definitely the hits.
And then, there’s the cat. Tonic also steals every scene as Hank’s impromptu foster cat, Bud. I’ve been lobbying for a Best Animal Performance Oscar for years now, and this season’s frontrunner so far would have to be Tonic (but, to be fair, only because Krypto in Superman was mostly CGI).
On the Aronofsky scale, Caught Stealing falls below the average line, but that probably says more about the overall quality of the filmmaker’s catalog than it does this particular movie. As a standalone crime movie, it’s passably entertaining, if a bit forgettable. As an Aronofsky movie, it doesn’t compete. While it doesn’t quite strike out, it’s far from hitting a home run. Let’s just say it’s a swing and a miss.
GRADE: C+
Rating: R for strong violent content, brief drug use, some sexuality, nudity, and pervasive language
Release Date: August 29, 2025
Running Time: 1 hour 47 minutes
This post was last modified on January 2, 2026 2:12 pm