Caught Stealing *** (2025, Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Benito Martínez Ocasio, Griffin Dunne, Carol Kane) – Classic Movie Review 13,745

The 2025 American black comedy crime thriller film Caught Stealing stars Austin Butler as a young ex-baseball star turned bartender who runs foul of New York City’s criminals while cat sitting for his drug-dealing neighbour (Matt Smith).

Producer/ director Darren Aronofsky’s 2025 American black comedy crime thriller film Caught Stealing is written by Charlie Huston based on his 2004 novel, and stars Austin Butler as Hank Thompson, a young ex-star baseball player turned bartender who runs foul of New York City’s criminal underbelly while cat sitting for his London punk drug-dealing neighbour Russ Binder (Matt Smith).

It also stars Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Benito Martínez Ocasio, Griffin Dunne, and Carol Kane. 

The strain to entertain shows and there’s too much silly play acting from various cast members, but it gets by nice and well on Butler’s charisma and Aronofsky’s enthusiasm. Charlie Huston’s screenplay is amusing and inventive enough, but it doesn’t get the balance right. The black comedy totally takes over and the crime thriller completely disappears. As so often, there are some good bits and some weak bits, both in terms of scenes and dialogue, though the good bits considerably outnumber the weak bits. There’s some very snappy dialogue and some very snazzy scenes.

A bit more honing and finesse would be good. It’s a rough and ready experience, though that’s kind of attractive and engaging. There’s a general air of amateur keenness, a heartfelt wish, a strongly expressed need, to please. There’s a lot of cynicism and a lot of violence, and a lot of swearing, storming the iffy ground and taking it. The hero’s love for his mother and his neighbour’s cat is supposed to be the film’s heart, but actually it doesn’t have one. It kills off its characters without any hesitation or remorse. So it has the courage of its bad convictions, yes, taking no prisoners (ironically since the hero is a prisoner of his situation and his attackers throughout), but is that really a good thing?

Visually it’s very slick and smart, thanks to Matthew Libatique’s showy cinematography and the loving 1998 Lower East Side set designs. Rob Simonsen’s score is lively, maybe a little too lively, but at least no one is going to fall asleep. It is very much to taste, though. It is recorded by the British post-punk band Idles, who contribute five songs, including a cover of Junior Murvin’s ‘Police and Thieves’.

Good actors though they are, Regina King and Matt Smith are unconvincing as narcotics detective Elise Roman and Hank’s English punk drug dealer neighbour. It’s impossible to believe in these characters. Okay, we don’t have to believe, just enjoy. Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio are unrecognisable rent-a-heavies as the notorious Hasidic Drucker brothers. Bad Bunny, credited by his real name, Benito A Martínez Ocasio, is amusing enough as the Russian mobsters’ Puerto Rican associate Colorado.

That leaves it all down to Butler, for whom the movie is a showcase. It’s all about him, and he’s right in there for it, and 100 per cent up for it. Apart from Butler, the best performance comes from Tonic as Bud the cat, an outrageous little scene-stealer.

Principal photography began in New York City on 5 September 2024. Caught Stealing premiered on 7 August 2025 in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, at Caribbean Cinemas, and was released in the US on 29 August 2025. Costing $40 million, it grossed $19 million in the US and $12 million elsewhere, for a worldwide total of $31 million. Production wise it is very much the same kind of film as One Battle After Another, budgeted at around $130–175 million, and taking $62.8 million worldwide. Caught Stealing gets much better value for its dollars.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,745

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